WALKIN’!

Glyph 39 Comments

This is a guest post from The League’s own Chris!

Hello everybody, Chris again. When last we spoke, I was telling you about bus ridin’ and bus readin’, and my crazy money-savin’ schemes (read War and Peace and SAVE!). Today I’m back to tell you about another thing I do when I’m not avoiding work by spamming the League’s comment sections: walkin’. What could be more exciting than a post about a guy you don’t know riding the bus? A post about a guy you don’t know going for a walk, that’s what.

It turns out that, when you get rid of your car, you have to walk a lot. I mean, a lot. I went through four pairs of shoes last year. I don’t think I bought four pairs of shoes between the ages of 20 and 30. At first my feet hurt and my calves were sore, but then I got used to it, and started to kinda enjoy it. The only problem was that I lived in a pretty densely populated area with lots of sounds of the city that my country boy ears tended to find loud and discordant. So I got an iPod (later replaced by a smart phone), and drowned out the world with music.

As I was walkin’ and listenin’, listenin’ and walkin’, I began to realize that certain songs work better with walking than others. Such songs seem to merge with my mood and my pace to create a seamless fusion of mind, movement, and music. So I created a playlist of “walkin’ songs,” and while I don’t listen to it exclusively on a walk, I do listen to it a lot, especially when I feel like having an extra jump in my step (whatever the hell that means).

So if you don’t mind, I thought I’d share a few of my walkin’ songs with ya’ll (or y’all). I hope you find something you like and haven’t heard before, maybe even something you can take for a walk with you. I also hope it will inspire you to share with me the music you listen to while you do things during your day.

Now, this blog has had some excellent music writing from Jaybird, Glyph, that Schilling character, and James Hanley (dude, when do we get more alt country?), and I can’t really compete with them, so I’m not even going to try. I’ll just give you the music, and let that be my commentary. Enjoy.

Phantogram, “Running from the Cops”

I love that video, but I don’t recommend watching it while walking.

Mexico 70, “Peace and Love”

As only 6200 people have viewed this one, I’m guessing some of you may not have heard it before.

Old Canes, “Early Morning Hymns”

I got nothin’. All I know is that if I hear this song, I’m going to pick up my pace and walk with my head high.

Destroyer, “English Music”

For the New Pornographers fans out there.

Guided By Voices, “Everywhere With Helicopter”

OK, that song might make you want to run. (You’re welcome, Glyph.)

Santigold, “I’m a Lady”

Man do I dig Santigold. I know it’s just pop, but if you don’t like this song or “Disparate Youth,” we need to have a conversation. If nothing else, all her songs are very walkable. Though I do feel a bit weird walking through the Austin streets singing, “I’m a lady! Got my mind made up, got my mind made up.”

Devotchka, “How it Ends”

That song gets embedded in my head. Maybe now it’s embedded in yours!

Glyph

Glyph is worse than some and better than others. He believes that life is just one damned thing after another, that only pop music can save us now, and that mercy is the mark of a great man (but he's just all right). Nothing he writes here should be taken as an indication that he knows anything about anything.

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39 Comments

  1. IN BOB WE TRUST

    That Phantogram video is ridonkulous. I don’t think that cop is wearing regulation shoes.

    Love me some Destroyer. I recently told the story of how I got reverse-trolled by their inappropriate moniker. The joke was on me.

    That Santigold kinda nicks the bassline from Pixies’ “I Bleed” for its verses. I like the chorus though I imagine it *would* be awkward to sing in public.

    Dammit Chris, you are costing me money. I just ordered that Devotchka. Very intrigued by the song and the album descriptions I just read.

    • I don’t know what it is about that Phantogram video, but I find it mesmerizing. So, apparently, did that dude on the phone in the background.

      Destroyer is awesome.

      Santigold kinda nicks a lot of late-80s/early-90s stuff, but she’s fun, and there’s something to be said for fun.

      And Devotchka is definitely interesting. I hope you enjoy them. They are generally put into the least accurately labeled musical genre ever, “gypsy punk,” despite the fact that they don’t seem particularly punk in any sense, or all that gypsy-like either (maybe it’s the Russian name?). I mean, if you can tell me what Devotchka and Gogol Bordello have in common, I’d be happy to hear it, but I can’t think of much myself.

      It’s the drums that get me in that song, by the way.

  2. David Sanborn when I’m on my bike – Time Again, Closer

    • Do you ride as a form of transportation, or just for fun?

      Back when I played sax (instead of just looking at it when I go in the closet), I used to listen to Sanborn a lot. He has great sound, and he manages to keep light jazz interesting. I probably still have a couple of his albums, but this would have been before Time Again. I’ll have to check it out.

  3. fela kuti.

    as someone who likes walking but hates humidity, fela manages to make it more bearable. unknown soldier is my favorite of his despite the incredibly depressing circumstances it details.

    • Has anybody made a Bauhaus/Fela mashup yet? They should.

      OH FELA

        • Hehe… I only know Fela Kuti because I saw him on ACL late one night. But listening to it now, it does make for some smooth walking music. I’ll have to test it out this weekend.

        • I’m thinkin’ “Zombie” seems like a natural candidate.

          • unknown soldier + zombie + coffin for head of state + original suffer head is about two hours of walking music.

          • I went back Nigeria and bought a tape of Fela’s Army Arrangement. One side had the vocals, the other was just instrumental. See, if the soldiers came by, you could just flip the tape over and keep listening to the same piece, just without the vocals. When they were gone, you could flip it back over.

          • No, I meant for the “Fela Lugosi’s Dead” mashup 😉

            You know, I am not the hugest Bauhaus fan in the world, but there should be more goth dub out there.

          • By which I mean, much Bauhaus IS goth dub, and I wish there were more of it.

          • Glyph, I think you mean, “Fela Lugosi’s in my head, in my head…”

          • dhex, i have been listening to “Unknown Soldier” for about 20 minutes, and this is pretty much perfect.

          • Fela’s really good. Like, James Brown good.

            Maybe better, though it pains me to say it, because I love the JB’s.

          • I said it pains me, zic. 🙂

            If I’m being honest, I probably have to give the edge to Fela. But that it’s even a brief debate shows how mighty JB was too (and for many similar reasons, though JB didn’t have to face the levels of abuse that Fela did; one more reminder, as if it were needed, that for all this country’s flaws, it wasn’t the worst in the world – not even in 1960. If we didn’t quite produce our own Fela in JB, maybe that’s because we weren’t quite bad enough here to NEED a Fela).

            (No politics).

          • Hanley, if that’s an attempt to get the freaking Cranberries stuck in my head, I don’t have banning authority at MD, but I swear to god I will seek it until the day I die.

            There will be no further warnings. I love my skullspace too much to see it smeared with Cranberries sauce.

          • James Brown came to see Fela in Lagos in 1970. Fela was really excited to meet The Godfather. But it was James Brown who was really excited.

          • @Glyph: if you’ve got a tune stuck in your head, all you need to do is think of the Ricola Song. Those six notes will stay in your head for the rest of the month.

          • YouTube comments are usually terrible but occasionally someone gets off a good one. This is under “Zombie”, by user “tarantism”:

            he makes me proud to be african and i’m white and not even from africa

          • Glyph,

            Sorry. I’d hate for that song to linger in your heard.

          • This is the Cranberries song that will get stuck in my head, or linger in it if you will, if I even hear a little of it. I’m pretty sure they consulted neuroscientists when writing their songs.

          • “May a gateway be where you take your pleasure, may a crossroad be your home, may both the drunk and the dry slap you on the cheek.”

          • What, Chris, gotta explain my joke? Don’t think Glyph is sharp enough to get it? Boy, if I was Glyph, I think I’d be a bit insulted.

      • I would think Fela/Beck would be more your thing…

        • Actually Bela Fleck might be even more appropriate.

        • Beck is a very talented artist who leaves me a little cold. I like him just fine, I have three of his albums, but I have trouble understanding how anyone could ever fall in love with him.

          • Same here. I kinda like him but recognize his talent.

            I love Fleck, though.

  4. This should be a front-page jukebox post. It’s the day before a holiday for a lot of us, so it would at least feel like a Friday Jukebox.

    • Works for me. Today really does feel like Friday, if for no other reason that I really want to take a nap, as I always do after 4 days of sleep deprivation on Fridays.

    • Burt, I only have posting powers here at MD, so if you want it FP’d, you or one of the other guys would need to take care of that…

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