John Roberts - Glass Eights

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With every bump in the road, you find yourself more unsure of just where you are headed. This new world was something different. Something off. Not having anywhere to live is the least of your concerns at the moment. The differences between past lives seems meaningless now. The idea of being a drifter doesn't scare you. What does scare you is what you may come across.

Another, particularly large bump in the road causes you to hit your hit on the passenger-side window. The mechanical driver gives you what you interpret a sheepish look as it presses on the gas to go faster. The city approaches ever the more steadily. Night falls upon the wasteland.

You pass a checkpoint just outside the city. Having been cooped up in this oddly shaped vehicle, you relish the thought of stretching your legs. You wonder what you could spend the night doing. And then you hear it. The rhythmic thuds of distant music.

Getting out of the vehicle and thanking the machine for the lift, you make your way on foot to the source of the music. Cracked pavement and dark alleys become the normal sight on your trek. The source becomes more present, the music more defined. You realize it's club of sorts.

Down the stairs and past a set of double doors, you've found your way towards the club. Flashing lights and loud, thumping bass provide comfort you never considered a room full of people would give you. Then it hits you. There seem to be no people. Only machines. The driver wasn't a coincidence. The clash of metal on metal surrounds you. Bodies shimmer and gyrate under the glow of halogen flickers. Rattles form from the unoiled hinges of the machines.

Pain. The lights fade from your vision.

Calories: 385.5
Distance: 3.33mi

Actress - Hazyville

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With a jolt, you are woken. Your eyes burn. You are lying prone in this wasteland. Your brain goes into overdrive, doing a diagnostic of the situation. It takes a moment for your eyes to register their surroundings. Forms eventually take shape into recognizable landmarks on the terrain.

You life yourself off the dry, cracked ground and dust yourself off. Your tattered clothes and lack shoes are the first thing you notice about yourself. Behind you is the pit. You have no recollection of making your way out of it, but you are glad you are no longer left to rot down there.

Looking ahead you see a door to a small, rusted over shack. With a knock at the door, you attempt to gain the attention of anyone who might be present. After a few attempts, you give up and walk back a bit to gain a better of view of where it is you currently are. Small, sheet metal buildings greet your vision. You realize you are in a shantytown of sorts. A dilapidated sign. 'Hazyville'.

Sounds of static surround you. These sounds are unfamiliar. They are loud. Buzzing. High frequency snarls and snaps invade your brain and form new connections within. It is then you notice the monolithic radio towers in the distance. They are unlike anything you have ever seen. They stretch miles upward, with no sign of a top. Could this be what you are hearing? You don't recall being able to hear radio waves, but you wouldn't be surprised.

The shantytown now looks different as well. It looks oddly futuristic, even for what appeared to be such a desolate state of society.

You do a 180 and face opposite the towers. The sight of a large, metallic city comes into view. Lights flash and swing across the sky above the city. Suddenly, with boom, an engine can be heard. A spiked vehicle approaches with great intensity and makes a stop in front of you. The door opens and you get your first sign of possible life. Or do you? Behind the wheel of the vehicle is a machine. It points to you and then points to the seat behind it and then points to the city. It seems to be asking if you want a lift. You think briefly, and accept the machine's offer.

Miles go by. You are on your way towards civilization as you hear the booming thuds draw ever closer.

Calories: 331.4
Distance: 2.56mi

Andy Stott - Merciless

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How far down can you fall before you hit rock bottom? How much can your life be mutilated before you don't like what you are looking at? How does one fix something that was never not broken?

Pushed as far downward as you feel you could go, you stand before yourself in this pit. This consuming pit. Emotions stretched thin. Desires ceased meaning. Hopes lost. Thrown into a seemingly endless downward spiral, life becomes nothing more than a series of pointless events. So is the journey. Coping mechanisms fail to maintain themselves over this arduous time one has. And life crumbles. You attempt to keep yourself busy. Occupied. Motivated. This only lasts as long as you allow it to. Soon motivations crumble too, and everything falls apart. You are at the bottom of the pit. A lifeless husk.


Ỉ̏ͬͣͯ͌͏̩̞̙Ś̝̤̃͋̎ ̱̩̝̯̱̥̦̇I̢͓̰̟̖ͅT̻͔͎͎̪̯ ͈ͦT̳̙̥̓̇ͣͦͩͯ̾ͅH̰̼̥̰̠̘̥̏̈͆ͦͭ̓E̹͔͋͌̅ͦ͟ ̱̌͂ͨ̏ËN̝̭̺͙̯͉̅̔̍̒̇̓D̫͑͑̉̀ ̙ͤT̥͈̜̝̝̩̊̍̽̉́H̛͍͈̲͋ͥ̈ͥ̓́O̗̼̬͊̀U̼̤̳̪͗̌̍̀̚͜G̛ͦ̒ͯ̐͋H̛̲͍̹͔̟͉́?̛̈


No. There is a pulse. A slow, churning pulse. A pace is kept up. Slowly building upon each variation of itself, it continues. It doesn't lift you out of the rubble you currently reside in, though. Only keeps you going. Only allows you to wallow in this dread you have exhumed over the years of loathsomeness. You are not dead, though. The pulse remains.

Crash. Light breaks through. You are illuminated. This light shows you what you are. What you have become. It shows you just how long you have been in this pit of desolateness. You are pale. Weak. Nothing.

Then the warmth comes through. It begs you to return. To try again. To make everything right again. Its outstretched hand is shown to you, hoping that you take it in yours. It knows another opportunity is not likely, so it offers you mercy.

Your past misgivings have made you cynical. You think nothing can fix you. You think life is merciless. Why should you take this offer? What good could come from taking it? What do you have to prove to it? You ask yourself these questions before your mind goes blank. You reach forward and put your hand into the warmth and pull yourself out of the wreckage.

A new beginning.

Calories: 380.8
Distance: 3.00mi

The Jesus And Mary Chain - Psychocandy

This is just one of those albums where my expectations for the style of the album were not what I expected. And in this case hoped. Psychocandy is a pretty downtempo dream pop album when you take away the layers of distorted guitars. I was hoping the sound would evolve and maybe get louder and more agressive as the album went on, but that was not so much the case. It was content to slowjam, but I was not so much. There are a few tracks on here that do excel, but not enough for me to warrant a recommendation.

Calories: 242.0
Distance: 2.00mi

Andrew Cedarmark - Moon Deluxe

I have once again returned to this medium of communication. My life has changed severely over the past few weeks, which is my excuse for not working out. My workout environment is now completely different. I now workout in a public fitness center on campus. I've decided the only way I'm going to motivate myself to workout is by doing it early in the morning, before class.

Unfortunately, with this comes a change in the way I listen to the music. Before, I could just blast my tunes on my studio monitors in privacy. Now that I'm in public, this is obviously not socially acceptable. As working out with my expensive headphones would cause more harm than good, I'm using to mid-to-low tier headphones that are lightweight and non-obtrusive. This means my critiques of the sonic aspect have to be shifted down as well, because I'm not getting that full effect of the track. So, still take my reviews with a grain of salt, and see them as more personal experiences than anything. So, where do I begin?

Moon Deluxe is an indie rock album with some very well executed, and sometimes heavy, sequences of lo-fi. It bears quite a resemblance to the more rock-oriented tracks Phil Elverum has put out under The Microphones, but this is certainly not a bad thing. Eleverum is really the only other person occupying that same type of folky lo-fi. It jams harder than than Elverum ever really has as well, which lead me to enjoy this album quite a bit. It keeps up it's more uptempo rhythms throughout, but never becomes overly noisy or too abrasive. Provided a enjoyable return to workouts. Definitely check it out.

Calories: 315.0
Distance: 2.64mi

Pixies - Doolittle

Having listened to Bossanova a year or two ago, I can definitively say I like Doolittle better. I can't really quantify what it is about Doolittle that makes it special, as I grew up on 90's indie rock, but I can definitely say there is a good amount of tracks on here. I think my favorites would have to be "Hey", "Debaser", and "Mr. Grieves". I enjoy the relatively simple approach to alternative rock that Pixies took on this album. The vocalist's squeals and yelps are well appreciated among the sometimes ripping guitar and quality bass lines.

There isn't really a song on here that I would say doesn't work at least moderately well for running. The closest it got would probably have to be "Silver", which I just found too western for my tastes. Overall very good.

Calories: 341.2
Distance: 2.66mi

Clinic - Internal Wrangler

It's not often an album gets to me like Internal Wrangler does. This album is one of the few albums that I can confidently say that the vocals were just not doing it in the slightest and were the anchor that sunk the ship. It's sort of an odd thing that the vocals angered me like they did because there is nothing inherently bad about them. I felt like the mumbling but also chirping quality of them just did not mesh at all with the instrumentation. The real problem is that when the instrumentation quiets down, its hard to overlook the vocals. And how much I don't enjoy them.

I feel the album is at it's best when it loudens up to the point where it drowns out the vocalist, but that hardly happens enough and the points where it's quiet drag so much that it impedes my drive to give it my all. I didn't really expect to go on a diatribe about the vocals, but they were just that bad to me. I cannot recommend this album because of them.

Calories: 261.2
Distance: 2.02mi