best running music

I NEVER wear headphones while running. 2 reasons:

1. It is unsafe as it removes the heard warning signs of cars, dogs, muggers, ect.

2. It makes you look like a gallowalker.

Never wear them either. I don't want to be distracted from the running, I want to be paying full attention to it, how I feel, etc. Or to let my mind wander.

Long ago when I first started running I tried wearing headphones for a run (back in the first days of Walkman radios). I found that when I was tired, the music felt like torture. And if the beat didn't match my stride (it never did) it screwed me up.

Never understood how people can wear them.

I run on dirt track or trails never on concrete like the Kenyans, unless close to the race. So the headphones thing works out. If I look like a Gallowalker sure don't move like one, not with Axl Rose screaming into my ears. Like anything it's an aquired skill, also I like running established paths rather than brave the concrete jungle. So what jingles are you other guys and gals listening too:)

Want some GREAT amateur music?

Go to

www.audiogalaxy.com

.

Search for SUPAGROUP.

One you get to the Supagroup page, download "Rock and Roll Star" by right clicking on the "AG" symbol and choosing save link as or save target as (depending on your browser).

Other great amateur (meaning not signed by anyone) music can be had on this site. There's a lot of crap there, but great stuff too. I've spent a lot of time looking here, and these are the best (Jason won't like them though). Here are some other great bands on that site - different styles from blues to funk to hardrock to pop:

Barely Pink

Blue Room

Dragster Barbie - (He's a Vegetarian is a great song)

Dressy Bessy - (California)

Flap House Vag

Enon

Glen Phillips (from Toad the Wet Sproket)

Lemon Jelly - this song of their's was used in a Volkswagen Commercial

Morphine Jack

Mustard Plug

Passion Seeds - serious pop, so if you don't like pop, stay away. Even I can only handle a little bit of this

Placebo Effect

Red Delicious - (Want Me) Don't like the others

Search For George

Shazam

Dignus

Curious Few

Brassy

Emer Kenny

Four Tet

Headboard

Leaving Nazareth - bad singing, but good musicianship

Love Dogs

Mescalitos

Urban Suburbs

I love to know if you like any of this stuff. I get so tired hearing the same stuff on the radio all the time.

thax f-willy I'll line this selection up for my not long run. Let you know what I think.

Generic poster I've seen Jaws too scary.

Jason and hatebreed were mentioned so I'm therefore obligated to post the following:

www.Jasonmayeroff.com

I rather look at your site. Good job on Jason's site though. The inverted cross with a devil on top good gothic effect. Corporate Jason is a classic, who would have thought he could grind out 2:18. Tell us when it is complete.

Hornet,

I really hope you do. Some of those songs are great, and many are WAY better than what you hear on any radio station. unfortunately it is image in the music world that wins over good musicianship - the people from the bands I mentioned can flat out play.

To anyone else who is sick of the music they always hear, glean those from my list - I've done the work for you - I've separated the wheat from the chaff. Now, all you have to do is go download them to your heart's content.

Average_Joe wrote:

Never wear them either. I don't want to be distracted from the running, I want to be paying full attention to it, how I feel, etc. Or to let my mind wander.

Long ago when I first started running I tried wearing headphones for a run (back in the first days of Walkman radios). I found that when I was tired, the music felt like torture. And if the beat didn't match my stride (it never did) it screwed me up.

Never understood how people can wear them.

Avg Joe I understand where you are coming from. Actually you can "rewire" you brain's response to stimulai. NLP stuff when you run you are involved with you pain. I respond in another way. It is called disassociating strategy. Where I become immersed in what I'm doing in the moment where I just ignore the pain. Music can help in a way you go into a trance like state. Have you every talked with a buddy on a training run and time passed quickly and less painfully, were else it would have been a lot harder without. That is the benefit of the music. Also there's also the "flow" were you are so immersed in your running that time becomes distorted. This is called one mind of Japanese Samurai, aka Satori of Zen Buddahism. Ever go skydiving? You could have had the shittest day in the world, but once you jump you forget it all and focus in on the moment. Music seems to do this for me. Where you just tune everything else out, you are on autopilot and before you know it your're done. Man isn't distance running fun?

Different strokes......

I don't want to be on autopilot, dissasociate, ect. I enjoy running and don't need some artificial stimulant to make it more tollerable.

You could though use a dictionary to spell "tolerable".

you are on tough customer. Ok give me your e-mail address I'll give you a free report on disassociative studies and how all distance runners use them to some degree. P.S. you have you pay money ordinarily for this stuff, but I'm in a good mood. By the way Jaws was scary wasn't it.

I don't run with headphones, don't run on a treadmill and don't listen to country music.....but this was a unique winter in the Midwest, 50 inches of snow and frigid temps so I.....

used the treadmill at the fitness center an excessive number of times bought a no-skip jogger disc player and cruised through the winter with the Dixie Chicks. Big thanks to Natalie and that bluegrass twang got me through some nice workouts.

For me:

Magma

Univers Zero

Present

Eider Stellaire

Wiedorje

Honeyelk

Daniel Denis

Eskaton

Ad Vitam

Offering

Alien Trio

Jean-Paul Pratt

Bi Kyo Ran

After Dinner

Mongol

Happy Family

Il Berlione

Zheul lives... Great for running and not anything like the crap you get on corporate radio. Not even in the US.

Zebehn Strain de Gustaah,

Where do I find the bands you list?

I don't listen while I run either, but for lifting or eliptical trainer, I like Good Charlotte.

I've said this before and I'll say it again: You really haven't lived until you've cruised down a soft forested trail with the sun filtering through and some good hot live Grateful Dead (a vintage Scarlet Begonias, for example) on the headphones.

I like the sound of the birds and the bees, and the wind and the trees. Nature my friend is what it's all about.

Magma's music (and all the bands I listed were influenced by Magma) is available through their website:

www.seventhrecords.com

, or from Wayside Music here in the states. Wayside carries much of the rest of these bands, most of which are French, but a few are Japanese. They all play what has come to be known as Zheul music, a mix of progressive music, Carl Orff and Stravinsky, mystic chanting, lots of John Coltrane and some fusion- way way heavy duty. Especially Magma, now 30 years old and still going strong. Just listen to the 45-minute Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh. You ain't never heard such stuff.

Wayside is part of Cuneiform Records, and can be found via the web- I just don't have their address handy right now.

Long runs and epic compositions work for me, especially when they build like Magma does.