Your boyfriend dumped you, your work enemy got the promotion you deserved, and your folks are still mad that you got too drunk and ruined your cousin's bar mitzvah. You need professional help but that's way too expensive, so you do the only thing you can: head to your apartment's dingy gym and lift until it hurts. What are you putting on??

This Week: Pump the Pain Away

Tear You Apart

She Wants Revenge

song

artist

contributer

Alica

Disko Crew's Picks

Joni: LA’s No. 1 Health Goth

illuminati hotties

BLOODMONEY

Poppy

Normal Gossip

Ain’t No Thief

Podcast (?)

Viagra Boys

Make Them Suffer

Cannibal Corpse

Andrew

Kay

Mandi

Spencer

Tallon

Ros Eo Samba

@joaquinrevel

Community Highlight

Tommy Holohan

TEAR YOU APART - SHE WANTS REVENGE

Alicia's Pick:

Mandi's THOUGHTS:

This song is like if The Killers and Cake made one joint band. Maybe some Arctic Monkeys in there as well? It’s a first listen to me but feels oddly familiar; I would love to put on an Apple Watch, start a “social dance workout” and go crazy to this with a vodka soda in hand.

I’ve always had a complicated relationship with working out since I’m diagnosed allergic to it… (Cholinergic Urticaria, look it up). However, I’m also just a girl who really can’t afford therapy and needs her endorphins as well as a good sweat. I tend to use exercise as escapism and embody this alter ego that’s much more gothic and dark than my everyday persona. This track is the cornerstone of my 12-3-30 playlist (Yes, I fell prey to that TikTok bullshit… I can’t afford pilates either) and I have it timed at the 15 minute mark to just get me over the edge to the end.

Beyond the throbbing bass and sinister tone, my workouts are catalyzed by the singer’s haunting and seductive vocals that establish this tension that reminds me of an off brand Trent Reznor—which I have a HUGE soft spot for. It’s the kind of song that keeps you locked into a groove, where the darkness of the track serves to enhance rather than overwhelm your drive. Because what’s better than killing two birds with one stone and having both—endorphins and great legs!

JONI: LA'S NO. 1 HEALTH GOTH - ILLUMINATI HOTTIES

Andrew's Pick:

TALLON's THOUGHTS:

I love the intentionally kind of annoying and mocking attitude the vocals this has lmao. Shes singing like the magic conch talks to Squidward when she puts some extra sass on “no”. Illuminati Hotties are never afraid to make choices and they fucking rule. I’m pretty sure you're the one who showed them to me!!!

I love this song because it's such a tongue-in-cheek perspective on being a hater, perfect for working through emotional baggage at the gym. After recounting all the reasons why our singer hates the infuriating cool-girl “Joni,” the chorus comes in and mocks the listener, yelling “I bet you wish you were like her.” It’s a fun twist that takes the song to a more emotionally honest place. Because honestly, I kinda do wish I was like her. She’s a punk babe, she’s on a juice cleanse, she’s never written a bad song, and she is fully aware the problem is systematic. She seems so cool, which is exactly the problem!! So do we hate her or do we want to be her? Do we hate her because we want to be her? Probably! Who’s to say.

This song works to remind us all of our own personal “Joni,” who very well may be the one who caused us to be out there “pumping the pain away” to begin with. It is, however, also a reminder not to take your emotional baggage too seriously and to try to have a little fun with it, too.

BLOODMONEY - POPPY

Kay's Pick:

Mandi's THOUGHTS:

This would work for me as a workout song because it feels so cinematic: If my life was a TV show (which I often imagine it is), this would play in a scene where I’m showing up to a party, looking hot as fuck, in a revenge-related plot where I’m on some kind of warpath. Working out to this would be in preparation of said revenge moment, and I’d be pumping through the pain to the idea that my life is an episode of Euphoria. I’ll come to the Poppy show with you if I can bring a flask in my bag, Kay.

Poppy has been consistently living amongst my gym playlists, especially everything since her 2018 album Am I a Girl? which marked a radical sonic shift in her music toward darker electronic, rock, and nu metal. I’m honestly surprised when people are wholly unfamiliar or have forgotten her internet virality circa ~2015, when she was making those weird pastel-colored videos where she repeated strange phrases robotically. She had a sort of Marina Joyce moment where some people thought she was being held hostage, but it all seems part of a larger performance in her mockery of pop culture as the character Poppy.

I Disagree is such a front-to-back banger of an album, but “BLOODMONEY” has always stood out to me as a stellar track. That chainsaw of a bassline definitely makes me want to hammer my skull in, of which I usually transfer that feeling into pushing mad weight or slogging through +12 resistance on the elliptical. The delicate demeanor that Poppy carries herself (especially in interviews) makes her an extra compelling artist in this genre, especially when you get those whispery verses right before she starts screaming over the most blown out distorted… noise. Who even knows what instrument(s) that is. For as mangled and ear-splitting of a breakdown this song has, the production is surprisingly dynamic and textured—it almost seems to breathe in and out with the cutoffs as you get her distant laughs and gasps woven throughout. It’s so delicious and I want to feel it reverberating through my chest as I’m being thrown around in a mosh pit. But pumping the pain away is also a good substitute.

The struggles this song speaks to are a little more broad as in capital S Society, but man does it boil up whatever anger I may have in any part of my life simmering underneath.

NORMAL GOSSIP - PODCAST (?)

Mandi's Pick:

Kay'S THOUGHTS:

LMAO this is a fucking hilarious answer. I totally get it for you, but it’s completely baffling to me as someone who has tried to listen to audiobooks and podcasts while exercising, and it just never fails to completely deflate the mood. Working out for me is basically a stand-in for being at the club, so I am typically listening to very upbeat dance tracks for cardio to feel like I’m sort of dancing, and more aggressive and often dark rhythmic tracks when I’m weightlifting. I was imagining this playlist was going to be a combo of just that—upbeat/aggressive songs to get lost in, but I don’t know what the hell y’all are listening to when you work out. This has truly been an anthropological study more than anything.

This is a great podcast though and I’m glad you put me on. What better way to pump the pain away than to tune out your own drama and dive into someone else’s?

I’m kind of forfeiting this theme because it appears that my relationship with working out seems very different from y’all’s, based on everyone’s submissions (side bar—what the fuck is wrong with some of y’all). I’ve attempted multiple times to try to engage in a regular, solo gym regime in the past 4 years, and every time I would try to play music to hype me up it felt….boring? I would have fun listening to Megan the Stallion for the first 30 minutes, but would always end up switching to an audiobook or watching How I Met Your Mother horizontally on my iPhone XR. My cardio of choice is riding my bike around the hills and streets of my neighborhood, listening to oddly specific songs with personal attachments slammed into a playlist that really doesnt make any sense (the juxtaposition of playing Lizzy McAlpine and Brockhampton back to back), and acting mysterious and coming-of-age-y while the wind swirls my hair behind in me in wake. If the concept here is “what are you listening to at the gym to tune out your own duress instead of swimming in it”, then my answer is probably the Normal Gossip podcast :)

I love stories about interpersonal relationships and other people’s experiences, as exemplified in my attachment to How I Met Your Mother, podcasts like Heavyweight, and my collection of audiobook memoirs. I was introduced to Normal Gossip verbally from a friend last year, and from the first episode I was hooked. It had everything I could possibly want: interpersonal drama, creative storytelling, impressive journalism (Kelsey McKenny and Alex Sujong Laughlin, the women that you are), and a look into the beautiful lives of anonymous strangers that provides me with an escape of my own reality.

The podcast talks a lot about the ethics of gossip as a whole, which I find very interesting as a gossip myself, and they do a great job of anonymizing everything so that the listener can get lost in the drama and not the specifics. This works like a charm for me, and gives me an escape from my own psyche to become invested in the anonymous lives of Orchid Dad, the empath with 25 bridesmaids, the watch mechanic who faked his own death, Bunco girl, the list goes on. Anyways, sorry I can’t contribute a song to this one y’all. I’ll give the playlist a shot next time I hit the stairmaster.

AIN'T NO THIEF - VIAGRA BOYS

Spencer's Pick:

Mandi's THOUGHTS:

The beat of this had me bobbing my head from the beginning, but the vocals made my stop because for a second I thought you had punked us with a Lonely Island song. The flow of this guy is giving serious Andy Samburg vibes, specifically "Threw it On The Ground." Maybe Andy Samburg was actually taking from theses guys the whole time……. Anyways they should collab

"Ain’t No Thief" is a perfect song to put on if you’re at the gym and want something to motivate you to exercise as aggressively as possible. My heart rate increases by like 20-30 BPM within seconds of hearing the shrill guitar and dancey drums that kick the song off. By the time the vocals kick in I’m on the verge of having a heart attack. It’s the type of song that makes me want to crush someone's skull with my bare hands and drink their blood, or maybe I could just dance to it, either works for me. In a catalogue full of outrageous dance punk songs this reigns as Viagra Boy’s towering achievement.

Despite the intense instrumentals, the lyrics are actually quite silly. The song is written from the perspective of an obvious thief gaslighting his victims into thinking that “he just happens to have the same stuff”. It’s a really propulsive song filled with chaotic energy, and the goofy lyrics are just a cherry on top. I’ve been listening to it on a loop while writing this and even on the third and fourth go around I can’t stop myself from bobbing my head, it’s just that good. I love this band!

MAKE THEM SUFFER - CANNIBAL CORPSE

Tallon's Pick:

Alicia'S THOUGHTS:

I’m not much of a metal head myself but hearing this song and reading your review really elevates it for me. I can absolutely see you in the gym with this just blaring through your headphones! In terms of the limited scope of metal I have heard though, this track ruled. I used to get Cannibal Corpse and Coheed and Cambria confused but after hearing this I don’t think I’ll ever make that mistake again lol.

10 albums into their already legendary career and the death metal titans, Cannibal Corpse, were still releasing pure, ultra-violent, unrelenting, top-shelf aggression. This isn’t some dumbass, baby-time, light-cardio-to start-the-day song. If you put this shit on, I guarantee that you will hit a new bench PR, set off the lunk alarm at planet fitness, and bite the head off the attendant who nicely asks you to quiet down.

It’s insane how much energy they bring to this track. Starts off at a 10 and just keeps letting the blood boil hotter and hotter until it spills over the pot. The guitars are so meaty, and Rob Barett is just blazing away on it. It’s amazing how crazy the riffs get on this while still not feeling out of place with the drums which are also going fucking nuts??? Seriously how do they get away with still sounding so tight while unleashing such ferocity on every single instrument? Fist-clenching madness. The boys are LOCKED IN on this album. Especially George Fisher (Corpsegrinder).

Back in the day there was a lot of dispute as to whether he could ever live up to Chris Barnes vocals. And while I think he came out of the gate swinging on Vile and Gallery Of Suicide, Kill is the record the made sure no one could deny him as a hall-of-fame metal vocalist, and for my money the true voice of Cannibal Corpse. His vocals are just about as powerful as it gets. Brutal, bloodcurdling, and relatively understandable. Seriously. His enunciation game is terrific. It’s always impressed me just how many lyrics you can catch even on the first listen with how fast and monstrously he’s singing.

I have a massive soft spot for Cannibal Corpse because they were my intro to extreme metal, and the band themselves are massive sweeties. This is probably my favorite album of theirs but I highly recommend y’all check out the rest of their stuff, because they’re easily one of the most consistent bands out there.

ROS EO SAMBA - TOMMY HOLOHAN

Community Highlight:

FROM JOAQUIN:

The way I tend to pick a good workout song is choosing between two polar opposites. One is to have a song match with how you're feeling, whether you're sad, mad, or happy. This can be with certain lyrics that resonate with you at the time, or a beat that makes you feel a certain way. The other choice can be songs that don't really let you feel anything...other than pushing some heavy ass weight haha.

So for Ros Eo Samba, it's the latter. The beat starts as soon as your press play, and only has a few short breakdowns in between. Your brain/body doesn't really have time to take a break or wander off into thought. Lastly, it essentially has no lyrics, which I usually gravitate towards, as songs with lots of lyrics try to push a certain emotion on me. I tend to more so enjoy songs that allow me to pick the emotion. Granted this song doesn't really allow for much but to simply GO. So yeah Ros Eo Samba is a great workout song imo if you're okay with a certain "repetitiveness" in songs.

THANKS FOR LISTENING WITH US! STAY TUNED TO OUR INSTAGRAM TO FIND OUT THE THEME FOR THE NEXT MUSIC BOOK CLUB ☻

SUBMITTED BY @joaquinrevel

WHAT WE LOVED ABOUT IT:

We thought this was a good pick because it was exactly what we were hoping the theme would evoke: music to turn your brain off and sync your body into. We all struggled to find common ground with our picks this week, as did many of y'all apparently. This feels like more of anthropological study more than a cohesive playlist—and you know what? That's alright. We all have different ways to cope with emotional strife.

So next time you're at the gym looking around at all the people next to you, ask yourself the question: are these people listening to AWOLNATION? Everyone is truly fighting a battle you know nothing about!

Check out the playlist: