What makes my running playlist so great is that it’s Ke$ha free. Or as Joel McHale calls her: “keh dollar sign hah.”
If your running playlist has Ke%ha (or whatever) on it, I can only assume you are 15 years old. So good luck with puberty and getting asked to the prom and all that.
Another great thing about my playlist is that most of these songs likely will never be ruined by the cast of Glee. (I know, I never pass up an opportunity to mock Glee. And you for watching it.)
Anyway, I recommend the following to get you through your next run:
Dwight Yoakum – A Thousand Miles From Nowhere
Hank Williams Sr. – I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive
Drive-by Truckers – Hell No, I Ain’t Happy
Steve Earle – Mr. Mudd and Mr. Gold (Townes cover)
Billy Joel – The Downeaster “Alexa”
Neil Young – This Old Guitar
The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
Tool – Parabol/Parabola
Bleeding Through – Kill to Believe
Bad Religion – Better Off Dead
Devin Townsend – Universe in a Ball
Flogging Molly – Salty Dog
Metallica – Battery (this is on my LIFE’s playlist)
Danger Mouse & Jemini – Ghetto Pop Life
He Is Legend – Fancy (metal cover of the song REBA made famous.)
Dinosaur Jr. and Del The Funky Homosapien – Missing Link
Biohazard and Onyx – Slam (really, if you haven’t heard the Judgment Night soundtrack, you need to get on that.)
Killswitch Engage – Holy Diver (Dio cover)
Circus of Dead Squirrels – Losing Touch
Polkadot Cadaver – A Wolf in Jesus Skin
Nonpoint – Tribute
MGMT – Electric Feel
Sage Francis – Dance Monkey
Ratatat – Party and Bullshit (Biggie remix)
NIN – Wish
Maetrik – They Love Terror
And, unlike the universe, there was some intelligent design involved in the making of this playlist. I like to start out nice and mellow, then work into the real heavy stuff in the middle when my energy is starting to flag, and then I get into the weirder fun stuff toward the end when I’m starting to get all giggly and delirious, and —
You don’t care, do you?
Sigh.
What’s on your (probably awful) running playlist?
Cheaper Than Therapy 
I approve of this playlist. I probably have something similar, but I have a shitty shuffle so I can’t even make a playlist.
Oops?
MAH HUBBZ has the shuffle and he loves it for that reason – he doesn’t want to bother with playlists, he just wants to turn it on and hear music.
My old shuffle was awesome…then I dropped it in a mug of coffee and it drowned. I currently have the generation where the controls are on the headphone and I HATE IT. I may have to invest in a new one…like YER HUBBY
hahaha. I read a ton of negative reviews online about that model crapping out at the slightest hint of moisture. That sucks…but then the previous generation of Shuffle was like 2x the price. Screw Apple and their monopoly on colorful yet poorly designed mp3 devices…
I had to get new hedphone for that dumbass shuffle so many times! I got them for free each time since they were just clearly broken. Finally sucked it up and got the newest shuffle with the controls on the device…you know wehere they make sense.
I have a shuffle too, I love it with the fire of a thousand suns. Tiny, light, and that thing is a champion; it’s endured several years of abundant sweat and extreme temperatures from living in my car during my gymrat days. Fuck running with a fancy iPod, I’ll keep my shuffle til it dies then I’ll buy another one.
Anyway, I have a variety of running tunes as well. I just skip forward if something comes on that I’m not in the mood for. My absolute top favorite running songs include:
Moby – Extreme Ways
Metric – Gold Guns Girls
Wiz Khalifa – Black and Yellow (don’t judge me, it’s awesome to run to)
Props on the Killswitch Engage remake of Holy Diver, that song is bangin’. Five Finger Death Punch’s cover of Bad Company is another I like greatly.
I LOVE FFDP! Saw them last year at Mayhem! Moby makes me happy too.
You would block me from ever reading your blog again if you saw what is on my iPod.
Good thing you have other admirable qualities or WE’D BE FUCKING DONE, PROFESSIONALLY.
I SO MADE THAT JOKE LAST WEEKEND WHEN I WORKED WITH HER.
And I will again next friday when I work with her again.
Actually, I said Keh-money-ha!
I dare you to touch her boobths.
I use a shuffle for running and switch it up periodically based on my mood. Sometimes I just listen to NPR podcasts. Yeah, I’m one of those people.
I still have the same massive playlist I made for marathon training long runs and also used for the LA Marathon (in google docs, if you’re curious). It’s devoid of most top 40 radio hits and is a mix of some of my LA-centric songs, some traditional Mexican music (mariachi music makes me want to move), lots of “Latin alternative”, indie stuff and maybe a song or two that has been ruined by the cast of Glee.
Brilliant! I’ve got XM Caliente on autotune…but I am clueless on where to go to find what all the hip latinos are listening to! I will definitely check that out.
I have all the songs you’d HATE on my running playlist. If it can be heard in a club or on a 14 year old’s ipod I have it. Only because I need high-paced, catchy music as opposed to other kinds. When I’m not running I listen to good music. LOL
I’m so clueless, you could probably pass it off as some really hip, indie stuff and I wouldn’t be any the wiser.
At least your running playlist makes sense. I have a bunch of Tenacious D (granted they do have some kick ass, pump-you-up songs), M.I.A. (makes the most sense), The Darkness and The Lonely Island (that’s where it falls apart). Why I enjoy running to comedic songs? We may never know.
Oh Flogging Molly… I got really into them when I was talking to an Irish kid… go figure
“talking to…” is that what the kids are calling sex these days? 😉
I adore irish punk…we saw them last year in Indy and they kicked ass. I also need to see the Dropkick Murphys before I die.
haha- what of it? 😉
I don’t know Dropkick Murphys as well but I’ve heard from an old roommate that they put on a good show!
well, it starts out with ke$ha, heads into lady gaga, and finishes up all fergilicious!
well, not really.
only kind of.
i love running to whole albums actually (decemberists, broken bells, old radiohead, etc) and podcasts!
I love running to songs that you would expect a montage in a movie to be set to. The only problem is that I then run at movie montage pace….slowly raising my arms, imagining myself crossing the finsihing…everytime the song hits a crescendo. This may explain my struggles to run at a faster pace.
I use a shuffle too, but the kind you can put a playlist on. it’s like the bisexuals of the ipod family.
Someone ten years older than me would love my playlist. If the song was recorded in the 80s by skinny men with shaggy hair it is probably on my shuffle.
Fantastic! Throw in a little Allman Bros and some Grateful Dead and you’re my husband.
I have skinny metrosexuals in puffy vests with guitars and drum machines. On my playlist, that is.
My playlists are on a unique plane of awful, but we are kindred spirits in our shunning of Kesha. Bitch doesn’t even merit being sheepishly classified as a guilty pleasure. Hate that mess.
Nice list! My favorite running song of all time, in the universe, hands down, dislike it and I’ll pop a cap, is: Idioteque by Radiohead.
Never – I adore Radiohead! Uptempo but somehow mellow at the same time.
Lately I have just been listening to a Girl Talk station on Pandora when I run.
*packs bags*
I don’t like you anymore.
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You’d hate mine. Haha for my last race it include Britney Spears, Glee, Katy Perry, and some random Mumford and Sons, haha.
I need randomness on my playlist…or so I thought. When “Everybody Hurts” came on, I almost jumped off a bridge.
Great running playlist!