Friday on My Mind: Modern Day Songs to Motivate a Sports Crowd

The Morning Show w/ John Richards
09/06/2013
John Richards

It’s time again for Friday on My Mind, our weekly blog post where we look at videos centered around one common theme. This is a collaborative effort between KEXP and King 5 News.

KEXP and the Mariners are teaming up tonight for the very first KEXP Night at the Ballpark! We couldn't be more excited and can't wait to see the rest of the sports going KEXP community gather this evening. For tonight, the Mariners will be facing off against the Tampa Rays and the night wouldn't be a true KEXP event without music. Therefore, pre-game, Seattle duo My Goodness will be performing at 5:30pm from the Ball Pen. Between innings, the crowd will get to hear music programmed by KEXP. So in light of that and to celebrate the season, here are our choices of Modern Day Songs to Motivate a Sports Crowd:Pixies - Debaser

One of the all time best opening songs to an album, “Debaser” by Pixies is our first song choice this week. Released in the 1989, "Debaser" kicks off the Doolittle album.Part of the inspiration behind the song was the Spanish movie Un Chien Andalou, which translates to An Andalusian Dog. Directed by Spanish filmmaker Luis Bunuel, the movie actually contains a scene which depicts an eyeball getting sliced, hence the lyric “slicing up eyeballs”. Despite being derived from such a gorily graphic film, the song is upbeat and an absolute rouser.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVyS9JwtFoQ

The National - Abel

From the 2005 album, Alligator, our next choice is "Abel" from The National. The National have been together for 14 years now. They originally formed in Ohio before calling New York home. Their most recent and sixth studio album Trouble Will Find Me was released just this past May. They are currently touring behind the new album, along with Frightened Rabbit. The National were nice enough to play a John in the Morning at Night show at Neumo's back on Oct. 1st, 2005 along with a couple of other little bands named Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and M83. Make sure to catch that the National when they bring their current tour here to Seattle at the Paramount during one of two nights, September 19th and 20th.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1BjndTZvQY

LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends

If anything is going to be a surefire motivator, it would be good friends, which is why our next choice is “All My Friends”. Although a melancholy song if you really listen to the lyrics, the driving pace of the music, which builds as the song goes on Taken from the 2007 album Sound of Silver from LCD Soundsystem.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2V_ZT-nyOs

Honorable Mentions:

The Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes Ahead

Our final motivating song is from Portland’s own Helio Sequence. “Keep Your Eyes Ahead” is the title track from their 2008 effort. While on tour for the album, their former recording & practice space flooded due to bad pipes during a period of heavy rain in Portland. Although a lot of their equipment was spared, the incident forced them to find a new home for recording, which ended up being an old warehouse. This ended up allowing them more creative freedom since they were no longer within close proximity to any other bands or houses. Literally and figuratively they could expand and stretch out, which resulted in their latest album, Negotiations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIicqULYhGw

Django Django - Default

How can you keep still while this song is playing?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDjpOrlfh0Y

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