Living Things

The River is a beautiful song from 'indie art-pop ensemble' Anathallo. Using MixMeister BPM Analyzer I get the BPM at 89, the beats per minute tool puts it at 88 or 89, so this is perfect for a 180 SPM run.

The lyrics are really strange, I think its about drowning, but I am not sure.

Either you can just download the tune at Epitonic, here, or listen to it here, or watch to it on YouTube, but I have to say I really don't like the photo on the YouTube video.

6 Free Running Songs for Feb 2012

Well I've been kind of busy, just started seriously using last.fm, spent some time getting it to srobble from all my listening methods. So I haven't posted in a while so to make it up to you here's my list of the 6 free songs for February 2012.  These songs are all available on Epitonic for free and legal download.  To download the song, click on the name of the song.  The band name links to wikipedia or another site, wikipedia or last.fm, about the band.  They all are close to 90BPM so work for a 180SPM (strides per minute) run.


Stay Gold by The Big Pink 88BPM
   English electro-rockers, who  "Shine a light for us to follow". Great song for night running while wearing a head lamp...

Motivation by Clams Casino  88 BPM

   One dude from New Jersey. I can't figure out the genre... its good though.

Believe E.S.P by Deerhoof 89 BPM

   From those San Francisco hipsters Deerhof, I think I'm starting to have a thing for them. 

The Kindest Hour by Big Sir 90BPM

   My favourite song on the list, electronic kind of, but has some cello going on in there too. I love cello.  I love how looking for running music lets me discover amazing bands like Big Sir.

On'n'on by Justice 91BPM

   French upbeat electro rock. Gaspard and Xavier will get you in the mood to run.

Beacon by Doomtree 92 BPM

   Fast, high energy American hip-hop.  Get some power in that running.

When I am Small (RAC Mix) by Phantogram 92BPM

OK this is seven not six, but I have already posted this song.  At the time of the post I didn't realise that it was available for download on Epitonic, I updated the post, but in case you missed it, I am repeating myself.  Download this sizzling track right away.


Not enough free music for you?  Make sure you didn't miss my other 6 free running song posts for Jan 2012 and Dec 2011.

Perfect Tunes

Today I'm recommending three songs from the Swedish brother and sister duo, The Knife.  Their sound is  electro pop, I love the mix of electronic, catchy pop hooks, and strange lyrics.

The first song is Marble House, which can be downloaded free and legal from the amazing Epitonic.  Click   here to download.  Its got a BPM of 89.

The second is Heartbeats, which is their 'hit' song.  It comes in  at a BPM of 176, so close enough for a 180SPM (strides per minute) run.




And finally Girl's night out with a BPM of 180.

Bring me to the Fire

In this post I'm recommending When I'm Small by Phantogram.  Using Tap for Beats Per Minute I am getting 92BPM, so just a little fast for a 180 SPM run.  But I just love it, especially the video. The boy and girl that make up Phantogram and both sooo sexy. The girl is on fire, and the boy well lets just say I have a thing for beards... But if you're not convinced check out this picture of them with the boy shaved.

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UPDATE 03/02/2012
This track is available for free and legal download on Epitonic :  click here to download it!  Oh and now I have the mp3 I ran it through MixMeister BPM Analyzer and got the BPM at 92.  So its confirmed!

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6 Free Running Songs for Jan 2012

Before I give you this months list of 6 legally free running songs I wanted to mention some other places to find BPM info to help you build your perfect playlist.  There are a few websites with info about BPM

• Dj BPM Studio
• and BPM Database, where you can, and I have, also upload info.
• jog.fm, which I just discovered this week!

The first two, I have been using for a long time, but don't have quite enough music that you can really stuff your playlist full, and the songs can be quite old.  The third, jog.fm has so much that on first glance it made me question whether I shouldn't just quit writing this blog!  

I started this blog because I was spending so much time figuring out good music to run with I thought I may as well put my results out there for anyone else in the same position to benefit from. Even though job.fm is really good, I think that my little blog still has a reason to exist, beyond the fact that it is fun for me to write it.  After looking a little more closely on jog.fm I saw that only about half of the songs I have recommended so far are on jog.fm, and that they too are kind of weak on very new, or off the mainstream, music.  Another point is that although I didn't check too many songs, I found a fair number of songs where the BPM was wrong.  Anyone can upload BPM info, so accuracy is only as good as the people uploading.  My advice it to double check with a tap for BPM tool before buying any song you find there. Even though the tap for BPM sounds less accurate than getting the mp3 and running it through MixMeister, it is actually a good measure since it is how you are feeling the tempo and how you will move to the music.

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UPDATE (27-01-2012) : Sorry I have to update what I wrote about jog.fm. I hadn't tested the upload feature of the site at the time of writing this post. In fact it is not the user that enters the BPM info.  On jog.fm you add a song by entering in enough info for them to search for the song on iTunes. If they find it and you click on the song, it automatically add this song to the job.fm database.  This means any song available on iTunes can be added to jog.fm.  I am not sure why they can't just import all iTunes songs, why the user has to do the uploading (but probably Apple is not exposing the API to do this programmatically).  Exactly how jog.fm figures out the BPM isn't available but maybe they are using the 30 second sample to calculate the BPM and this might be why I found songs with inaccurate BPM.  But you can also flag songs that you think have the wrong BPM.   So I go from a 4 star to 5 star rating of this site!  It rocks!

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So now here's my list of the 6 free songs for January 2012.  These songs are all available on Epitonic for free and legal download.  To download the song, click on the name of the song.  The band name links to wikipedia or another site about the band.  They all are close to 90BPM so work for a 180SPM (strides per minute) run.


1. Eyes Be Closed by Washed Out  89BPM
Beautiful song for running, electronic but melodic, according to Wikipedia the style is Chillwave. It feels very summertime but its so good I couldn't wait to the summer to post this song.  Here are the lyrics to the first verse...

Inside your voice resounds, 
Your thoughts realign
Your words recall to mind
Your short sweet life

Perfect running lyrics, no?

2. Super Duper Rescue Heads by Deerhoof   88BPM
Electro pop again, from San Fancisan's Deerhoof.  


3. Hearts by I Break Horses  90BPM
Swedish indie pop/rock. You can almost hear the heart beating.


4. Gobbledigook by Sigur Rós  88BPM
Icelandic giants.  I love the name of this song and I love that these guys are massive, but still sing in Icelandic.  Fuck English domination!  


5. Hole by KRAPP 89BPM
Frenchie electronic/pop music. I think they sound super like CocoRosie.  Listen to this track and then compare it to CocoRosie R.I.P Burn Face that was on last months 6 Free Running Songs.

6. The Delicate by Shipping News  88BPM
OK enough electronic, happy music, here's a something a little harder, with a track from post-punk/post-hardcore, Shipping News, if you like that sort of thing...

180BPM Difficult

Finally I have a track that really is 180BPM!  I orginally downloaded this track from Epitonic under the title 180bpmDifficult, but when I went back to link to it, it seemed to have disappeared.  Well I found it again under the title, Let The Future Tell. Its by Daedelus and available for free on Epitonic. So click here to download it for free, then put it on your run playlist, and you're in for 2 minutes of dark, menacing organic beats.  Perfect for trail running in the winter.

6 Free Running Songs

I've been kind of quite recently, had a lot of crazy stuff going on. To make up for it this post contains 6 free running songs! All these songs can be freely and legally downloaded from the amazing music site Epitonic. Click on the name of the song to download it. I've linked the band name to their corresponding Wikipedia entry for hardcore music fans to get band info.

1. Excuses by Bibio 91BPM
   This song starts a bit low key and takes about half a minute to really get into the beat. But it is worth it! This is a beautiful electronic landscape - with nice lyrics too. I think it might be my favourite on the list. Oh and if the slow start doesn't work for you while running, you could always trim it.
2. R.I.P Burn Face by CocoRosie 90BPM
   Sweet tune, strange lyrics, just as I like it.
3. My Time bu Minus the Bear 92BPM
   Although its a little fast, this is a great tune to run to. A nice little indie pop rock song, hard not to like.
4. Glass Table Girls by The Weeknd 89BPM
   Warning lyrics contain bad words, otherwise super hip and cool, and is he rapping some old Siouxsie and the Banshees lyrics? "this is a happy house, we're happy here in our happy house"
5. Civilian by Wye Oak 90BPM
   According to Wikipedia, Why Oak have been described as "earnest folk-influenced indie rock with touches of noise and dream pop". Yeap.
6. Black Night by The Dodos 91BPM
   Straight up indie rock to get those feet moving.

Battle Song for Running Warriors

Today's song is Leyendecker from the band Battles. The BPM is 91, so just a little on the fast side to tempo your 180 strides per minute run. It has a crunchy, driving electro sound that will make you run strong and hard, like the warrior you are.  You can download it for free from the AMAZING music site Epitonic.