Motivation Station: Rock While You Sweat
With the Olympics in full swing—and my eyes glued to the tube every night—I've been thinking a lot about the intersection of sports and music. What is Michael Phelps listening to on his earbuds before his races? What would an emotional montage about the trial and tribulations of my athletic journey be set to? And are the athletes as dismayed as I am that David Cook's American Idol victory song "The Time of My Life" plays over NBC's closing highlights each day?
My Olympic fever also makes my evening runs a bit easier. Relative to top-flight athletes, I don't know pain, I don't know heat and I don't know stress, so I should stop spending every step wishing it was over. And I can't run without music, so when it comes to the soundtrack for my jogs I tend to take it pretty seriously. A couple of my favorite bands work well—Drive-By Truckers and The Hold Steady both write upbeat songs that tell interesting stories, stymieing a bit of the boredom. I also tend to like songs about running, or escape—Menomena's aptly titled "Running," Kyle Andrews' "Tennessee Torture Dream," which opens with the always-inspirational line: "Just wait till I start running / Your feet will seem so slow," and pretty much everything on The Thermals' The Body, The Blood and The Machine or Tokyo Police Club's A Lesson In Crime—nothing like escape from a post-apocalyptic wasteland to make you move a smidge faster. Oh, and a little Kelly Clarkson never hurt anyone.
When it comes to local music, I love The Features' "Guillotine," insanely amazing Ghostfinger classic "Aminal Eye"—that ominous beat is delicious—and Thad Cockrell's melancholy but effective "Second Option."
I know you Cream readers fear the sun and work up a sweat just thinking about how much you hate the Pink Spiders, but anyone else got any local tunes they pump when they're feeling the burn?
Comments
Anything by C & C Music Factory, Europe or Asia.
In all honesty, Ratatat, Aesop Rock and Black Moth Super Rainbow are all pretty cool to ball to.
Posted 08/13/2008 at 04:19:14 PMTotal Fucking Destruction is the ultimate in jogging jams. Trust me on this.
Posted 08/13/2008 at 04:28:48 PMI run like a fiend to J. Dilla, Battles, Daft Punk, Bad Brains, and any/all dub I can get my hands on.
Posted 08/13/2008 at 04:29:30 PMwith me, it's the Vision Quest soundtrack or nothing at all. but then i guess The Protomen could serve as a reasonable facsimile.
Posted 08/13/2008 at 04:45:19 PMi don't actually do this, but if i were to spend time in a meat locker punching dangling beef carcasses, i'd probably listen to the mattoid while i did.
Posted 08/13/2008 at 04:46:30 PMBattles. Good call, burrito.
Posted 08/13/2008 at 04:47:10 PMI hear that Asschapel is highly motivational jogging music...
Posted 08/13/2008 at 04:54:39 PMLCD Soundsystem is also great.
Posted 08/13/2008 at 05:00:09 PMPhelps listens to the same song before every race: "Party Up" by DMZ. He was listening to it before he broke his first-ever world record, and it's been his pre-race song ever since.
Posted 08/13/2008 at 05:17:11 PMC&C Music Factory, Patrick? Seriously? I'll bet you also listen to "2 Legit 2 Quit." I kidd I kidd.
Posted 08/13/2008 at 05:46:09 PMI'm sure an American Idol victory song wouldn't be anyone's first choice for Olympics coverage, but if you read this blog by the songwriter, you'll see just how appropriate that song is for these 2008 Beijing Olympics.
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=54139274&blogID=423067994
Posted 08/13/2008 at 10:57:29 PMhot chip "boy from school"
Posted 08/14/2008 at 08:31:03 AMspoon "don't you evah"
Posted 08/14/2008 at 08:34:47 AMI don't really exercize, but if I did it'd be Megadeth - Killing is My Business & Rust in Peace.
Battles would probably work too... or The Field... or Burning Airlines.
Posted 08/14/2008 at 09:07:21 AMI've run and worked out to Slack on a few occassions. Are we allowed to mention Slack again yet?
Posted 08/14/2008 at 09:56:25 AMi haven't listened to any music while running for several months now, even on the treadmill. i've yet to take along an ipod on an outdoor run. it's quite nice, actually.
Posted 08/14/2008 at 10:25:38 AMThe Rapture "Pieces of the People We Love" is great exercise music, and New Pornographers too.
Posted 08/14/2008 at 10:58:36 AMwas anyone dismayed? I was thrilled. David Cook has taken what in the past might have been a somewhat sappy song and turned it into an emotional piece about appreciating the important things in your life. If you read the link that Heidi provided above, you will see why Regie Hamm's song is EXACTLY what should be played at the Olympics.
Posted 08/14/2008 at 12:37:34 PMdo your research. Just because David Cook has American Idol attached to him right now doesn't mean what he sings is useless.
I was neither thrilled nor dismayed, but I think the choice of that song, regardless of the interpretation, is a little too obvious. It's like playing Take Me Out to the Ballgame after every MLB telecast or Sweet Georgia Brown after B-ball. They really couldn't think of something a little more creative?
Posted 08/14/2008 at 12:58:51 PMrunning music of my choice:
Posted 08/14/2008 at 04:18:48 PMmesshuggah
miles davis - tribute to jack johnson
propagandhi
kerosene 454
burning airlines
fugazi
rage against the machine
That Miles record is killer.
Posted 08/14/2008 at 04:27:27 PMDitto on the Miles disc. Live Evil too.
Posted 08/14/2008 at 05:05:46 PMoh god, i adore david cook.
not local in any way, shape or form, but CSS is my current favorite workout music.
Posted 08/14/2008 at 05:26:06 PMPlaying that David Cook song is straight up corny and cheesy. Especially with all of his fans taking all of the credit for that happening and emailing NBC the songwriter's story. It's ridiculous.
Posted 08/15/2008 at 02:03:34 AMdavid cook's silly little fans are only watching the olympics waiting for the song to show up. they don't care about the olympics. they just care about the exposure the song is getting.
Posted 08/15/2008 at 02:34:22 AMI love to run to JayZ 99 problems. I have issues.
The Cook song is obvious but its the Olympics, they are not trying to make artistic statements. The situation kinda calls for obvious to me.
Posted 08/15/2008 at 09:52:04 AMRunnerFolk, The Black Album pretty much owns me. Jigga=Genius
Posted 08/20/2008 at 02:39:52 AMI was surprised how much easier it was for me to run to talk radio than to music. I've been going through a lot of This American Life and while it might seem like the worst thing to listen to, it actually does a good job of taking my mind off the run.
Posted 08/20/2008 at 07:28:04 AMPaul, This American Life pretty much owns me. Ira Glass=Genius
Posted 08/20/2008 at 08:16:49 AM