For pod #2 I rap with running addict Wade Zamechek on how he’s using songs he loves to crush the Philly marathon.
Hit play above to check out the pod and if you know Wade, let’s all wish him the best in Philly tomorrow. You a runner yourself? Add Wade’s Philly Marathon playlist to your rotation. After our pod convo, Wade and I each gave each other short playlists of songs to test out as running jams: the test results are transcribed below.
Charles Mingus - Haitian Fight Song
WZ: It’s church music. It just grows and grows up until an epiphany, with Mingus just yelling in the background. Probably also the first jazz song I fell in love with, so it ticks that box for being a recognizable song. Should be added to every running playlist.
Origin Unknown - Valley of the Shadows
WZ: This was just repetitive, with that deep club vibe, for that part of the run where you’re just like, in the swampy part of the run, the part you don’t remember much, but you somehow got through it.
Maurice Ravel - Bolero
WZ: I stopped to make sure my headphones worked because it starts out so quiet. I thought this is the goofiest funniest trick you just played on me. Then it’s literally like a 10-minute crescendo. At the end I was smiling from ear to ear, just marching to victory, like Napoleon headed into Russia.
WR: I’ve always enjoyed running to this one first thing in the morning. It’s sublime.
Run the Jewels - Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck)
WZ: This was serious blind spot that I didn’t have this on my playlist to begin with. Those lyrics are so good—just brutal.
WR: Again it’s that Pavlovian trick where just hearing run! over and over again seems to drive you.
Parquet Courts - Application / Apparatus
WZ: Dope. Good Krautrocky jam. I know you shared this album with me before but I didn’t get a chance to listen to it, and running is sometimes a good way to focus on music more deeply.
The Modern Lovers - Roadrunner
WR: If that song doesn’t get you fucking running, you don’t have a pulse, you know? If you start off a run with “Roadrunner” and you’re not feeling it, just go home. It’s just an out-the-gate burner. I also heard a lyric I’d never heard before, where Jonathan Richman says that Massachusetts is his girlfriend, which was a little weird.
WZ: He does love Massachusetts, probably almost as much he loves the Velvet Underground and lesbian bars.
Darkthrone - Transilvanian Hunger
WR: This one was hard to get into, because of the double drum beat. It’s super repetitive but I’m missing the low end—I’m used to running to a grove. It was an interesting challenge.
WZ: I love that black metal has this kind of tinny quality that makes it sound more evil, like it was recorded in a shitty box. Maybe this one is for advanced runners.
Pop Smoke - Dior
WR: Banger. And lyrics about moving, which is cool. It was cool to run in Prospect and listen to a New York rapper.
Sweet - Fox on the Run
WR: I was a little thrown off by this one until he starts singing about fox on the run.
WZ: Yeah, someone else had this on a running playlist. And for some reason I always got excited when this song came on. The recording quality is excellent. It's just like a great song to hear in your head. It was a good discovery, like a sort of Kiss-style, glam rock tune.
15-60-75 (The Numbers Band) - Jimmy Bell
WR: I’d never heard this before! It has this CCR meets Can feel and it’s ten minutes long, and could easily be like five times that. It takes you on a journey.
WZ: It’s a pretty golden-age sweet spot…like if VU married the 1971 Stones. The whole album is wild.
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Playlist Therapy featuring Wade