On Saturday morning, around 9:30am, I went for a very lovely stroll to the grocery store (which is not close by the way). The sun was shining, it was relatively cool still, and the streets were quiet. As usual, I was listening to my iPod. The song
My Moon, My Man by
Feist, from her album "The Reminder," (
iTunes) came on. Turns out, this is the perfect "going for a walk" song. The tempo is just right so that I walk briskly but without too much effort. I listened to the song a few times over to keep my perfect pace going. If there was no one else on the street I was on, I even sang along. Then I decided to look for other good walking songs. Here are 10 songs (in no particular order) that I think are great walking songs.
Consider This, by
Anna Nalick, from her album "Wreck of the Day" (
iTunes). Not quite as perfect as the Feist song, but still good. Plus it's beat is kind of funky/jazzy so it puts a little dance in my step.
Le Disko by
Shiny Toy Guns, from the album "We Are Pilots" (
iTunes) makes you feel like you're walking down a run way. It's a very sexy rock song. It makes you want to stop and pose for the cameras. Luckily, I resisted this urge and kept the fact that I was walking down the streets of Brooklyn in mind.
I am in Love with You by
Imogen Heap, from her album "Speak For Yourself" (
iTunes) is another sexy walking song. Maybe a little bit slow, but if you're in the mood for a more leisurely walk then that's fine.
Mayan Pilot by
Splashdown, from the album "Redshift" (iTunes unavailable). Another kind of jazzy/funky song, it's hard for me to walk to this song without singing along and grooving. When I worked at the Gap years ago, they played this song and it was one of the only ones they played that I didn't get horribly sick of after hearing the same 20 songs looped over and over and over. Although, I must admit, that first half of the summer, they had a pretty good compilation CD going. I had never heard of any of the songs they played, so it actually did take me a while to get sick of them. Other artists I discovered from this compilation include The Magnetic Fields and Elefant (both of whom I started hearing a lot of like 2 years later, so props to The Gap for being ahead of the times with the music).
Beware of the Dog by british pop artist
Jamelia from her album "Walk With Me" (iTunes unavailable), which is along the same vein of Rihanna's "SOS." Jamelia samples the music of "Personal Jesus" by Depeche Mode (and covered by greats like Johnny Cash, Marilyn Manson and Tori Amos among others) but then takes the song and basically completely re-writes it and makes it her own. I really like this whole re-invention of 80s songs trend. It's sexy but still has rock flavor, and I am not sure I could take one more straight cover of "Personal Jesus."
And now for some male influence (although there are men in Shiny Toy Guns),
Spread Your Love by
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, from their self-titled album (
iTunes). There's a reason they're called BRMC. This song definitely makes me want to ride a motorcycle. But since I don't have a motorcycle, it's a great song to take a walk to.
Then we have
Unconditional by
The Bravery, also from their self-titled album (
iTunes). The lyrics in this song ring a little too true to me sometimes though, so if I'm not in a really good mood this song can be detrimental to my emotional state. Still a great song with a great beat nonetheless.
Pretty much any song by
Teddybears, but I particularly like
Different Sound (
iTunes) or
Little Stereo (
iTunes), from their album "Soft Machine" and I think they have great rhythm for walking. The other great thing about Teddybears is that all their songs sound so different so you can listen to their whole album on a walk and feel like you were listening to all different genres of music. The only thing all their songs really have in common is a great upbeat rhythm.
This is song #11, but it's a song I have already posted and I posted two songs by Teddybears, so I'm not counting it:
Get Off by
The Dandy Warhols, from their album "Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia" (
iTunes). This song is so... bouncy. I don't know if that makes any sense to anyone but me, but that's just the word that comes to my mind when I hear this song. It makes me bob my head up and down and puts a little bounce in my step. Bouncy. I don't mean it in a negative way. This is one of my favorite songs of all time.
Man, there are so many more that I want to post... But I will stop here. Enjoy. Stay out of the rain. Tata dahlings.
Locksley went on first. I was surprised by the number of people that were there to see them since the last time I saw them (for free at After the Jump) there weren't that many people there. But people seemed to know them - at least the people who were up front where we were. Locksley still puts on a great show. They still looked cute and well-dressed as ever. And I'm still in love with guitar player Kai Kennedy. The show was actually very similar to the last time I saw them except there was a much bigger audience. They even played a cover of The White Stripes' "Hotel Yorba" again, but this time they didn't bring people up on stage "in the spirits of music education." I suppose that wasn't the point of this show this time though, so that's forgivable.
The Bravery went on second, after a bunch of hulabaloo in between of giving away things and pulling people on stage to embarrass themselves in various ways (that I could've done without). I had never seen The Bravery perform before and they were pretty awesome. Lots of energy. The two guitar players liked to get as close to the audience as they could without actually leaving the stage, which was cool for those of us up front and for taking pictures. The audience was dancing but for the most part not getting rowdy. The only downside was when a fire alarm went off and they stopped the show for a while (not like they evacuated us or anything, but The Bravery left the stage for a while). That was kind of annoying, but oh well. When they came back on, they played a few more songs - of which my favorite "Unconditional" was one of them - and ended the night on a good note. They also played one new song that is not on any of their albums thus far, which was good.
I'm a little jealous of that microphone... Not gonna lie..
So cute...
This would be my favorite pictures if I hadn't cut off his head...
