The Indie Jogger - A Place To Discover Indie Music For Your Jog

I was on a jog today and was thinking about how listening to music affects your run. It's amazing how the right music makes your run (even on a cold, rainy Northwest day like today) more enjoyable.

I run a small indie label that focuses on surf & garage rock called Double Crown Records, and also have a blog site that covers that kinda music along with odd bits of pop culture. However, I am a fan of all types of music - indie, dance, electronic, Brit Pop, New Wave, etc. This blog site allows me to cover this kind of music that really wouldn't fit in with my record label site or my other blog site, but it will also tie in with jogging, running races and a little bit of soccer (my favorite sport, and of course, running is a vital part of soccer).

I use an iPod Nano with a Nike/Apple running kit. On average I run about 5-10 miles per week. I also play on 3 soccer teams, so that's another 90-270 minutes of running per week.

Each week I will cover an album, plus a few additional tunes, that worked well on my jog. If any of you reading this have personal faves please leave a commment - I'll check out your selection and possibly write about it in the future.

CSS - Cansei de Ser Sexy

CSS - Cansei de Ser Sexy

This was one of my favorite releases of 2007...whoops, it was actually released in 2006, but the band didn't really make an impact until 2007. They quietly released their debut album on Sub Pop, and started to gain a following in the UK. Once papers like the NME began to rave about them, they finally caught on in the US. They did a big tour and played a few big festivals, then landed in an Apple iTouch commercial with their song "Music Is My Hot Hot Sex".

Their music is well suited for jogging, although be warned, a lot of it has a high tempo, so you might subconsciously find yourself running faster and faster as you listen. However, there are one or two slow songs that'll allow you to catch your breath. You can buy this through Amazon.com or via iTunes.

The Sounds - Dying To Say This To You

The Sounds - Dying To Say This To You CD (Warner Sweden)

I read about The Sounds in a recent issue of NME, and thought they'd be worth checking out. They have a fun, energetic sound that, to my ears, mixes the vocals and attitude of Missing Persons with the faux New Wave sounds of The Bravery and The Killers (no surprise, since it was produced by the same person who produced The Killers' Hot Fuss CD). Although there is a ballad, "Night After Night", on the CD, which didn't work (for me) very well on a jog, all of the other tunes had a consistant rhythm that helped me keep a good pace this weekend (I jogged about 4 miles on Saturday, taking it easy due to a leg injury from a soccer game a few weeks ago).

The big hit from this, their second CD, is "Tony The Beat", a catchy dance tune tailor-made for the dance floor. The song has gotten 1.3 million plays on their mySpace page, and they have a disc of mixes available. I predict that their next hit will be "Running Out Of Turbo", a tune with a "Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey" chorus that has the same impact as Blur's "Whoo-Hoo" on "Song 2".





Purchase Through iTunes:

Primal Scream - Burning Wheel (Chemical Brothers Mix)

Primal Scream - Burning Wheel (Chemical Brothers Mix)

During my last jog I made an on-the-go playlist with the new album by The Sounds, but I included this as well. It starts off all moody, quiet and atmospheric, like the album version, but then it kicks into a killer groove and continues for about 5 1/2 minutes or so (about a 1/2 mile at the pace I was going - har! har!). Primal Scream is a great band, although not all of their music will work on a run - you really have to pick n' choose with their stuff. However, I highly recommend this cut!

The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible Live From An Elevator In Paris

This is an amazing performance from Arcade Fire from a French video/music/blog site called La Blogothèque. They perform "Neon" Bible" in a freight elevator at the l'Olympia concert hall - with 8 members in the band it's a little cramped. Then the band walks out into the crowd and performs "Wake Up" from the middle of the crown, using a megaphone as a microphone. I can't say that Arcade Fire is the best music for jogging, but I can say that their new album is so amazing that you'll want to listen to it at home, in your car, at your office and during your jog!