Track 1: L'Audace by Sims I'm bleaching the bones of each of these old ideas and ideals And they're welcome too but they're busy cleaning the throne For the same old same old, without backbone I'm at the Sedlec catacombs thinking about permanence and ephemeral Set it in let it go I'm high concept and a few loose brush strokes I'm light it up, I'm see what glows, and I'm fully woke I dance like dice rolling I'm out here tightroping I leave that mic broken, your mind open, and that mold broke in two ... Have the miles tamed you? I can change that This track is about avoiding stagnation, of staying vital and relevant in a world that wants us tame. It's a beautiful love letter to the audacity of being, and it brings a "let's get to work" energy that felt perfect for the first track of an exercise mix. Every time I hear the opening notes I start to get excited. Track 2: String Theory by Dessa, Cecil Otter, and Sims I travel with a lungful of music, doesn’t weigh a thing Reed’s built in, breathe through it every time I sing And I got pockets full of my own hands, head full of back-up plans Temper walks beside me, a gift I guess from my old man History: lines on my face Future: lines on my palm They say heaven’s guarded by gates, damnation don’t care much who’s calling But I don’t fall for that line, only one I walk is mine I carry what I can and I’m still making good time Bones are hollow, that’s where I keep my marrow This quiver in my lip, that’s just where I keep my arrows I fold up my ideas, I pack them neat inside my skull I got this string theory: doesn’t work to push, you gotta pull So I’m pulling for me, and I’m pulling for mine And they’re easy to read, but you can’t trust the signs Eyes blur in the heat, heat curves all the lines Try to keep up, speed up, get your feet up And match mine This song is about reconciling your sense of free will and projecting self with the idea of a universe of natural laws. Not strictly putting free will against determinism, but watching the two play together as you try to figure yourself out. We're still stretching and warming up, so I'm bringing the energy down for a little bit from the splash of cold water the first track is for. Track 3: Weight by Sims I wake up to staying positive in the face of all that could point me opposite honesty and openness the policy yeah, there's work to do lay aside all that that is hurting you one, two, maybe you don't get this, maybe you don't listen no way no how insistent on digging your own way out well grab your shovel then, boy stop wait a minute, get em get em pull that weight from in em, drop that cynicism take the weight off, take that weight off take the weight off, take that weight off Weight is about picking yourself up and getting new perspective on everything that makes life feel intolerable. The metaphor of shrugging off weight is also really fun in the context of exercise and losing weight, to say nothing of a punchy and driving beat that pairs well with what I call the "ramp set" of my workout, where the warm-up turns more intense to get us ready for the main set. Track 4: Dots and Dashes by Dessa and P.O.S I’m on a vision quest at the Best Western The best-dressed wreck in the hotel lounge Found out that the message in the bottle’s the booze That my braid is a fuse But I’ve got **** left to do so So keep waiting So just be patient I’m not sure how or when or from whom But I got this funny feeling I’m in for big news Took a walk to cool off, come down and collect clues Sky rests on the overpass Cracks the foundation Passerbys' faces They don’t look like mine to me Though I’ve been told that we’re related That we’ve got the same fear of death The same basic debts, the same That we’re branded with a secret in a language we can’t read On the courting spirals of a coupled double helix Panic in a phone booth Love in a parked car Broken bottles like corpses of the fallen stars Dots and Dashes is about the living act of philosophy, of finding patterns, meaning, and surprises in the world around us. The song has a number of incredible descriptions of mundane moments of city life inspiring thought, but in the section here Dessa references a Heideggerian approach to how we recognize each other as human, being motivated by mortality and driven by a debt of being to ourselves. Her verses and P.O.S's come across almost as inverses of each other, performing the same acts and coming to different conclusions. It's a masterpiece if you ask me, and the fact that it keeps a good tempo with the right beat for the start of the main set is even better. Track 5: Goodbye by P.O.S Yeah, another day, another dime, another state Another mind, forty-eight moves to choose But no matter the coast, we all toast the same PBR So much settling for ours (what you drinking on) There's so many lives and so many lines waiting There's only so much time, so many die patient So many skate only where the ice is thin We too nice to not dive in right after them We too right to not sway a little, wiggle from the path Middle up, foot upon the gas, like the past Is the rear view, last laugh lands on the man With the plan to do all that he can to do, all that he can And we all save face in the face of our friends And we all bend backwards to make amends And we all take chances that change us Civil with the self-hate just won't do Do you recognize when the world won't stop for you Or when your days don't care what you got to do Or when your weight's too tough to lift up, what do you do? They don't choose for you, don't let 'em choose Goodbye is all about getting out from under the stupid things that stop us from doing the right thing. Like Weight it confronts the importance of shedding the things that make life a struggle, but the emphasis here is on what comes next: propelling yourself into living a life you're proud of. We're still in the main set here and this song has a consistent pace that I thought would hold us through the set well. Track 6: Burn it Down by Sims Everyone stepping sideways to the Cheapest sleight of hand Play to your weakness, see the darkest side of man And it’s up to you supply those hollow dreams Or make your own Halloween So how about that? Off with their heads, make our own mask Let’s howl on back ... Let’s get it going Less emotion more emulsion Burn it black Down to the ash, start from the scratch Build it all back Burn it Down is about the needless cruelty of our social world, and how when we work together and protect each other we can stand up to anything together. The refrain and loud message of burning down to rebuild always makes me think about burning up muscle to build it back stronger, and the song has incredible energy to get us through to the end of the main set. Track 7: Mini Brute by Doomtree I came on my own two feet I left with the gasoline Walk back to my breakdown It came like a passing breeze Never know where it’s taking me Patience, push that function Just ain’t working now But I’ll work it out I’ll work it out Mini Brute is about doing more with less, taking a bad hand and shining so brightly with it that the world that cast you aside is stunned and jealous. Truthfully this is the track I always think about removing; I added it because there's a really fun guitar shred late in the song but it comes too late and is played too low behind the lyrics to have the effect I was going for. Some day I'll replace it but I still love the song and its message enough that it's hard to let it go, so maybe the answer is simply to move it. Update: the playlist was long anyway so I removed this. Track 8: Bangarang by Doomtree They hate, they petty They say we too heady, too heavy, too many, too much punk Much too drunk, too much luck, love too much Yup But we earned it all All work til the curtain calls and our time is up They ain’t got enough And it burns em up Before tour and First Ave it was D 4, T Rock, Toki Wright Way more than I’ll name drop But I got y’all when I see y’all And I’ll keep y’all when the beat stops I built more than a rap career I got my family here But some punks want to jump up With a sharp tongue and their fronts up Like we got here by dumb luck But they just want to become us But that’s what’s up when you come up I move like a dump truck Too long on the road and I earn what I hold But if you want it let me know I can burn your flow like whoah Doomtree Bangarang All these rappers sound the same Beats? Sound the same Raps? Sound the same Wings Fan the flames Teeth With the fangs 10 years in our lane Doomtree Bangarang This is a classic, anthemic song from the whole crew that I had to include somewhere. The chorus became my team cheer for the Queen Anne Dragons (my swim team at Queen Anne Pool), with very few modifications, and the message of showing love and staying true is absolutely wonderful. It opens kind of slowly which is perfect for the reset of energy as we leave the main set and head into some slower but still intense work. Track 9: Jordan 5s by Sims Somehow we're supposed to do more I've been getting up, getting out, getting something done I've been making tracks all week But tracks don't pay for lunch 'til next month So for now no sleep Get up, there's no time to lose Get up, yeah it's all on you Get up, we've got work to do 'Til the end of the night, then we all can move This always struck me as Sims looking back on an earlier time in his career, when he was filling every spare moment working on music just to get enough to get by, but also get a little extra to buy nice shoes. It's a really fun B-side that I now associate with going over to the bin of hand buoys haha. Track 10: Fighting Fish by Dessa Zeno's Arrow never hits the mark It's always hanging there over its shadow Safe from battle, waste of archer's time and trouble Waste of effort, waste of parts If you don't aim for the center it's a waste of the art I didn't come looking for love I didn't come to pick a fight I didn't come to wave or take pictures Pander to some benefactor, ring on every broken finger Won't extend my wings to be clipped I know the culture here is to stay humble but **** If we all go round bowed heads, button-lipped If none of us go for the bell, then who is? My mother says I've loved too many men But I took and left something in every single bed The rook can look left, right—just turns his head But the knight might rise up, investigate the grid Gender, genre, guess I'm on one Bent both Just the constructs of the old world Gone broke Women, children let me tell you I've been both And it's a myth we all swim for the life boats I didn't come looking for love I didn't come to pick a fight I come here every night to work And you can grab an axe, man Or you can step aside Zeno's Arrow is a paradox from ancient Greece about the impossibility of motion of an arrow in flight. Dessa uses it here to describe the futility of a life without objective, and pushes hard on the message that a woman shouldn't have to feel ashamed of her ambition. The whole song has beautiful imagery and manages to land exactly in the overlap between singing and rapping that Dessa has spent her career exploring. At this point in the workout I get to put in some kinda slower songs that I really love so I'm just playing my favorites now. Track 11: Optimist (We Are Not for Them) by P.O.S Shed a little skin, I'mma bet it all and win I'mma set it off and run, I'mma kill it 'til it's dead I'mma do it 'til it ain't fun and the words don't come Then I'm gonna find another hobby Probably find love, probably find trust '81 young with a little bit of rust Clean interior, Minnesota plates Money in the bank with a lot of you to thank ... We break their stride 'cause we break our mirrors They hugging that pride like it's all there is We make our own and if they don't feel it Then we are not for them (and that's cool) This song has always really spoken to me, with its kind of quiet and somber approach to optimism about finding a quiet future for yourself. I also can't get enough of the repeated line about making what you want out of your life and being okay if it's not for everyone. Track 12: Hey You by Sims Hey you, looking like you're way past due Don't let the days pass you Dedicate, make your way through that zoo And the path you take got to pave that too Hey you, there's those who want and those who do Push it until the screws come loose Got to draw that line, stand up high, pursue And the end of your life how the time just flew Hey You is a really simple and lovely song about hard work and making the most of each day. There's not much to it but I've always loved it and the tone felt right for the tail end of the workout. Track 13: The Chaconne by Dessa I don't suppose you'd tell the truth So I won't ask you anymore All the things that we all do To pass the time between the wars I don't regret a single day Heard your chaconne on every stage But your love sleeps in a velvet case So what'd you bring me for? What'd you bring me for? At this point I know I've asked a lot of the people who don't care for rap music (yet), so I threw in an incredibly singsong piece by Dessa about a difficult but compelling musician whose personal life is a disaster because music is all he can handle. It's a great song and we're stretching now so it fits really well. Track 14: When It Rolls In by Sims From here the birds seem so full of grace, so full of finesse But they’re just like the rest, surviving the storms That’s the song they’re humming up These days are fleeting but the song is beaming And they sing with all the spirit they summon up And the ugliness never leaves, true enough That’s the beauty and the pain that’s coming up And all I’ve learned is that it never ends, buckle up So I’m getting better at building that rubble up And the clouds rolling in, thunder rumbles up The warm mist kisses my face while I’m looking up The wind whips through the nest, it ain’t took enough Then the drips hit my chest and I scream Let the rain pour down on me Let the rain pour down on me Let the rain pour down on me And for the first time in my life I believe it’s okay This song veers so heavily from rap that it's almost prog rock, and even though Sims isn't a particularly good singer his attempt somehow perfectly conveys the ugly beauty that can only be found in a rainstorm. It's bittersweet and humbling and, as a lover of storms and rain, tells a story of the kind of beauty I look for in the world. It's a bit melancholy for a final track but hey, we're done working out now and this song always makes me feel ready for the rest of the day.