Playlist for the Y

For a lazy hypothyroidic slob like me, the key to a good workout is music. Preferably loud and fast.

It has its pitfalls. One is the risk of singing. This would not be a good look. Another pitfall i discovered is that if i close my eyes for too long on the treadmill, something unfortunate happens to the space time continuinuinum and i fall off the end. i think i either go through a worm hole or stop running, whichever is most likely.

Here is a rough playlist. With commentary.

MC5: Kick out the Jams. Gosh, it was easy to shock people back then.

Bailter Space: Grader Spader. Lovely cacophony.

Led Zeppelin: Rock and Roll. Partly because of remembering when i first heard it. You may know i come from a small town that boasted only one heavy metal band, called Sacred Morgue. When i was 15 i stayed in a sort of commune. My parents would have been horrified. The guys there were hip beyond belief. They were so hip they made their own guitars and never washed. i was way out of my depth. Of course i got totally sick, shat in the bath because the long drop was beyond contemplation, sat outside in the dark on the lawn gazing up at stars the size of dinner plates, listened to Led Zep 4.

Cairo Knife Fight: Big Face. Yeah i know, latest kiwi indie band, but whatever, fun.

The Black Keys: Gold on the Ceiling. Just nice loping rhythms, bringing me nicely to:

The Dead Weather: I Cut Like a Buffalo. Deceptively fast. Good for cycling.

Mariam and Amadou: Unissons from their Welcome to Mali album.  Warm and charming music from the Sahel, and i imagine people dancing and happy and united.

My Chemical Romance:  Poison Party, Planetary (Go) and Vampire Money from their Danger Days album. Gerard Way can do no wrong, for a start. Gerard Way can sing 1234 and make it sound significant. Once you hear me on that, you realise this is not just teenage trash of the first water. This is a very bitter and sophisticated album and great to move to. Vampire Money for example is their not so loving tribute to glam rock, channelling in the process The Sweet, Beck and (shudder) Twilight all in one verse. You probably have to be my age to appreciate it all. They also do Desolation Row better than Dylan, but then so do lots of people. Do Dylan better than Dylan.

Flux of Pink Indians: Sick Butcher. Thrashy little vegan number.

The Village People: YMCA. Oh the irony.

Tool: The Pot, and Rosetta Stoned. i do like Tool partly because of Danny Carey's preturnaturally fucking fast drumming. There is nothing like going fast as on the cross trainer, listening to Rosetta Stoned thunderously probing the arse of some poor guy's psychotic break, while on the silent TV screen in front of me there is some cooking show, and a viscous crimson liquid is being poured with precision onto a white plate, like some sort of visceral yet post modern and oddly sterile blood sacrifice.....

Time for warm downs. And jumping around in the locker room if there's no one to see me, and shower, and home.