Playlist Thursday-Top 10

I can't believe it's Thursday already!  Where has this week gone?  If every week flies by like this one 2013 will be over before I know it!  I missed out on last week's Playlist Thursday due to a lack of organization on my part but I'm back this week.  Pavement Runner decided to have some fun with numbers this week and base this weeks theme on the number 10 since it's the 10th.  So, our mission this week is to pick the best of the best; the top 3 songs that would make our top 10 list.  That means you're probably going to see at least one Rush tune from me.  Sorry Rush haters. 

The "Rules" of Playlist Thursday:

Something Old: Songs that are at least 5 years old.
Something Current: Songs that have been released within the past year.
Something to Consider: This is the wild card category. Feel free to list any song: old, current, guilty pleasure, underground, whatever floats yer boat.

And whatever you do, don't forget to head over to Pavement Runner's blog to check out the Playlist Thursday catalog for more musical inspiration.

Something Old
Artist:Rush
Title:  Driven
Notable:  This song will always make a top 10 running songs list for me.  Especially a race day playlist.  That opening guitar riff signals all systems go for me.  Boogity boogity boogity let's go racin'. 
Quotable: "The road unwinds towards me, what was there is gone, the road unwinds before me
and I go riding on"

Something New
Artist: Serena Ryder
Title:  Stompa
Notable:  So this technically isn't a 2013 release but it was late enough in 2012 that I think it counts.  I just discovered this song a few weeks ago while perusing iTunes and it went straight into my running playlist.  Love it.  Her vocal style kind of reminds me of Adele, plus she's a Canadian.  woohoo!
Quotable: "Slow down; open up your big brown eyes, Feel the rhythm in your heart, you don’t even need to try"

Something To Consider
Artist: Mumford and Sons
Title:  Below My Feet
Notable:  Seriously, the title says it all. 
Quotable:  "Keep the earth below my feet, from my sweat, my blood runs weak, let me learn from where I have been."

What do you think?  Would you put any of these on your playlist?  Does Serena Ryder remind you of Adele or am I hearing things?

Playlist Thursday - Best Songs of 2012

It's getting close to the yearly re-cap time so at the suggestion of Charlotte over at Wild Things Run Free, Pavement Runner has made this weeks theme The Best Songs of 2012.  I like it, even though I don't listen to popular radio much, there have been a few songs this year that I've heard, that have really captured my attention. 

The "Rules" of Playlist Thursday:

Something Old: Songs that are at least 5 years old.
Something Current: Songs that have been released within the past year.
Something to Consider: This is the wild card category. Feel free to list any song: old, current, guilty pleasure, underground, whatever.

Don't forget to check out the Playlist Thursday Catalog for this weeks submissions!

For the “something old,” Brian suggested naming a song (or in his case) a band that made a comeback this year.   I'm taking a cue from him and being a little more liberal with my "Something Old".  I wouldn't say that this band made a comeback, it just took them 5 bloody years to put out another album.

Something Old
Artist: Rush
Title:  The Wreckers
Notable:  This was the second single off of Clockwork Angels and on my first couple of listens, it was one of my favourites.  It now takes the cake as my absolute favourite off that album.  Definitely a bit more of a "poppy" & melodic effort from the boys.
Quotable:  "All I know is that sometimes you have to be wary, of a miracle too good to be true
All I know is that sometimes the truth is contrary, everything in life you thought you knew.."

 
Something New
Artist: Mumford & Sons
Title:  I Will Wait
Notable:  Another song from this album made the cut on a previous Playlist Thursday post.  This was the first single and is probably up there as one of my faves from their new album.
Quotable:  "And I came home, like a stone, and I fell heavy into your arms, these days of darkness
which we've known, will blow away with this new sun."

Something to Consider
Artist: Atlas Genius
Title:  Symptoms
Notable:  This song was featured as one of my selections a couple of weeks ago.  Still flipping LOVE this song.  I can't wait till these guys put out a full length album! 
Quotable:  "So, sweet little lover won’t you let me know? Like a circle round and round we go."

 What were your favourite songs of 2012?  Did any of these make your list?

What was your LEAST favourite song of 2012?

Playlist Thursday: Most Appearances a.k.a: The Ultimate Rush Playlist

Another Thursday is here and that means two things:  We're one day closer to the weekend and it's Playlist Thursday!

This week's theme is "Most Appearances" but I might as well call it The Ultimate Rush playlist.  My playlist has at least 8 Rush songs on it.  I haven't actually counted them, I'm just going by memory.  It's no secret that I think these guys are a-ma-zing.  I'll be the first to admit that I'm a proud Geddy-corn.  Sure I was late to the party but better to be late than to never have arrived in the first place.  Right?   Rush is one of those bands that you either love or you hate.  I don't think there's really any in between.  If you like running to a beat, then chances are you probably won't like running to this music.  These guys are known for interesting time changes in their music which can make it challenging to run to.   Personally that's one of the things I love about it.  It's like music for people with A.D.D.  Oooohhh look at that flower! Ok, what was I talking about again?

For this weeks theme I'm going to dedicate the entire three categories to Rush.  Given that they've been around for almost 40 years, I've got plenty of stuff to choose from.   The only thing that sucks is that they don't always put out videos for their stuff.  Most of what is out there is live footage from concerts.  I'm also tossing in a couple of non Rush related Honorable Mentions. 

The "rules" of Playlist Thursday:
  
Something Old:  Songs that are at least 5 years old.  
Something Current:  Songs that have been released in the past year.
Something to Consider:  This is the wild card category.  Any song goes:  old, current, guilty pleasure, whatever floats yer boat.

Don't forget to head over to Brian's blog to check out all the other participant playlists!

Something Old:
Artist:  Rush
Title: Driven
Notable:   This song always helps me find that extra gear.  The opening guitar riff totally fires me up. 
Quotable:  "The road unwinds toward me, what was there is gone, the road unwinds before me and I go riding on."

Something New:
Artist:  Rush
Title:  Headlong Flight
Notable:  From their newest release Clockwork Angels, this was the first song released as a single on iTunes. Given that it's a whopping 7 minutes long, it wasn't fit for radio play unfortunately but it does make for a great running song.
Quotable: "I learned to fight, I learned to love, I learned to feel, oh I wish I could live it all again."

Something to Consider:
Artist:  Rush
Title:  YYZ
Notable:  YYZ is the code for Pearson International Airport in Toronto.  To quote Wikipedia:  The song's introduction, played in a time signature of 5/4 repeatedly renders the letters "Y-Y-Z" in Morse Code using various musical arrangements.  For me this song paints a vivid picture of people coming and going, with its various time changes and the stopping and starting of the beat.  It's also an instrumental which is a nice change of pace.  Although in this video, the crowd in Rio somehow manages to "sing" along to this.  Gotta love those crazy Brazilians!

Honorable Mentions:
There are a couple of other bands that also makes multiple appearances on my playlist.  Not as many as Rush but pretty close.  Say hello to The Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand.  I've always had a soft spot for British alternative music. Here are two of my favourites.

Artist:  The Arctic Monkeys
Title:  I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor
Notable:  Yet another song that helps me kick it in to overdrive.
Quotable: "I bet that you look good on the dance floor, dancing to electro-pop like a robot from 1984."

Artist:  Franz Ferdinand
Title:  Take Me Out
Notable:  This song will also get me out on the dance floor, no question.  I am patiently awaiting their new album.  Gotta be honest, the wait is killing me.
Quotable:  "Im just a crosshair, I'm just a shot away from you"

Who makes the most appearances on your playlist?

Let The Irrational Freak Out Commence

Yup.  It's started.  The good old irrational freak out. 

What am I freaking out about you ask?

My first triathlon in almost 3 years is what.  Mainly the swim portion.

But don't you swim 2-3 times a week already you ask?

Yes.  But that's in the safety of a pool.   This is the wide open space of a lake.  There are no lane lines to follow.  The water is not clear.  The bottom (if I can see it) is not smooth.  It's dark, murky and generally creepy.  I don't do myself any sort of favours by imagining all the potential scariness at the bottom of a lake.  Dead animals.  Huge old dead trees.  Maybe even dead bodies.  There is a  scene from Jaws always comes to mind.  You know, the one where Richard Dreyfuss is scuba diving at night by an abandoned boat and he finds a big hole in the hull of the boat.  In the big hole, he finds a huge shark's tooth.  He goes to pull the tooth out and the decaying, chewed up head of the boat owner pops out and Dreyfuss proceeds to scream like a girl all the way back to the surface.  THAT scene.

Yes, you could say I have a bit of an overactive imagination. 

How do I deal with this? 

Other than mentally telling myself to stop being a scaredy cat, I find that distraction is the best way.  Fear of open water swimming is not uncommon so there is plenty of useful info online, especially geared towards newbie triathletes.   This article is quite helpful.  Both techniques mentioned in it are essentially a form of distraction.  It's all about taking your mind off the "unpleasantness" of the activity by either focusing on internal factors (i.e how do I feel, is my technique good etc) or external factors (i.e what is going on around them).  I usually prefer to focus internally because for me, external focus still reminds me that I'm in a lake, surrounded by a bunch of other people.  Basically, I'll pick something I'm doing and focus on it for the entire swim.  During an Ironman swim (3.8km) Ive been known to count my strokes.  That is a mind numbing activity and usually keeps me occupied for a fair amount of the swim.   One two three, breathe, one, two, three, breathe.  It's kind of meditative actually.  In an Olympic distance swim (1.5km) I remember humming Rush's YYZ for the entire 30 minutes it took me to swim that distance.   Very motivating and I actually managed to get a really good rhythm going.

Hey whatever it takes to soothe the screaming child inside my head. 

The swim this weekend is only 500m.  Realistically it shouldn't take me more than 10 minutes to do that so I'm sure I'll survive. And maybe, just maybe, it will help me take those first few steps towards keeping The Irrational Freak Outs at bay.

The Soundtrack to My Sunday Run

So my last post prompted a couple of people to ask about my running playlist. I only run with music on my Sunday long run as the 2 other days I run with a group. I have an older ipod shuffle, the one that clips onto something. Very handy from a runners standpoint. I'm amazed that something that small can hold so many songs. I have about 9 days worth of music in my itunes library and that's not even half of my CD collection at home. I love music. I always have. Thus my choice of running tunes is somewhat diverse. There are bands that I LOVE and my playlist is heavily peppered with those as you will note. This is what moves me these days:

Shuffle Playlist

1. Good Morning-The Beatles
2. Revolution- The Beatles
3. Tom Sawyer-Rush
4. Spirit of Radio-Rush
5. Freewill-Rush
6. New World Man-Rush
7. YYZ-Rush
8. The Big Money-Rush
9. Roll the Bones-Rush
10. Crossroads –Rush
11. Ying & Yang & The Flowerpot Man-Love & Rockets
12. Hard Road-Sam Roberts
13. Brother Down-Sam Roberts
14. Higher Learning-Sam Roberts
15. Dead End-Sam Roberts
16. Don’t Walk Away Eileen-Sam Roberts
17. Rarified – Sam Roberts
18. Taxman – The Beatles
19. Within You& Without You/ Tomorrow Never Knows-The Beatles
20. Two Hearts Beat as One – U2
21. The Larger Bowl – Rush
22. The Main Monkey Business– Rush
23. The Bottom Line- Big Audio Dynamite
24. Opem Up Baby – Big Sugar
25. Beautiful Day- U2
26. I Feel Fine – The Beatles
27. Day Tripper – The Beatles
28. Paperback Writer – The Beatles
29. Hello Goodbye – The Beatles
30. Get Back – The Beatles
31. The Entire Vapour trails album – Rush (13 songs)
32. I’m a Loser – The Beatles
33. She’s a Woman – The Beatles
34. Late Night Radio – David Gray
35. Babylon 2 – David Gray
36. Come on Home – Franz Ferdinand
37. Go! - Tones on Tail
38. Glory Days – Bruce Springsteen
39. Rosalita – Bruce Springsteen
40. The Rising – Bruce Springsteen
41. Lonesome Day-Bruce Springsteen
42. Radio Nowhere – Bruce Springsteen
43. Ruby – The Kaiser Chiefs
44. Livin’ in the Future – Bruce Springsteen
45. Part of Me – Chris Cornell
46. Enemy – Chris Cornell
47. Time – Chris Cornell
48. You Wreck Me – Tom Petty
49. No You Girls – Franz Ferdinand
50. Ulysses – Franz Ferdinand
51. Take Me Out – Franz Ferdinand
52. Lucid Dreams – Franz Ferdinand
53. Can’t Stop Feeling – Franz Ferdinand
54. Bite Hard – Franz Ferdinand
55. The Resistance – Sam Roberts
56. Bridge To Nowhere – Sam Roberts
57. Do you Want to – Franz Ferdinand
58. Full Moon – The Black Ghosts
59. Where the Rose Is Sown – Big Country
60. Ramalama (Bang Bang) – Roisin Murphy
61. When the World Is Running Down – The Police
62. Driven To Tears – The Police
63. One World (not Three) – The Police
64. If it Happens Again – UB40
65. What You Meant – Franz Ferdinand
66. Felipe Blanco – Sierra Maestra
67. Tenderness – General Public
68. Two Swords – The English Beat
69. Join in the Chant – Nitzer Ebb
70. White Riot – The Clash
71. The Beat(en) Generation – The The
72. Scatterlings of Africa – Johnny Clegg & Juluka
73. In God’s Country – U2
74. No Speak No Slave – The Black Crowes
75. Black Moon Creeping – The Black Crowes
76. Help I’m Alive – Metric
77. Gimme Sympathy – Metric
78. The Saints Are Coming – U2 & Green Day
79. All Out to Get You – The English Beat
80. Jackpot – The English Beat
81. Over & Over – The English Beat
82. Mr. Roboto – Styx
83. Seven Nation Army – The White Stripes
84. Heaven (Must Be There) Eurogliders
85. Radio Free Europe – R.E.M
86. Spanish Bombs – The Clash
87. Generals & Majors – XTC
88. Caravan – Rush
89. Hey Soul Sister – Train
90. Native Love – Divine
91. Stadium Love – Metric
92. Satellite Mind – Metric
93. At or With Me – Jack Johnson
94. Juniors Farm – Wings
95. Silly Love Songs – Wings
96. Got My Mojo Workin’ – Junior Wells
97. Strength – The Alarm
98. 1901 – Phoenix
99. Lisztomania – Phoenix
100. White Knuckle Ride – Jamiroquai
101. Dog Days are Over – Florence and the Machine
102. Nobody Told Me – John Lennon
103. Two Hearts – Chris Isaak
104. I’m Not Sleepy – Chris Isaak
105. Walk Slow – Chris Isaak
106. Wonderlust King – Gogol Bordello
107. Heavyweight Champion of the World – Reverend and the Makers
108. Start Wearing Purple – Gogol Bordello
109. Henrietta – The Fratellis
110. Outsiders – Franz Ferdinand