More Important Than Michael Jordan

http://open.spotify.com/user/spinmuse/playlist/6JQPsTI0NHyPsRfymFg76c

Does this link above work to open up the Spotify playlist? Let me know, readers! Thanks!

I was so happy to get on the bike last night after a week off! Here’s what I used this week:

1. 80’s Casual, Fiesta (Gramatik Remix) (5:10) – This is a very cool remix, and to be honest I’ve never even heard the original version.  It’s a perfect warm up song, and I don’t know what a Spanish guitar is, but I’m fairly positive that there’s a Spanish guitar in it.  It sounds a bit Santana-esque, which is most likely where I’m getting this Spanish guitar from. Anyway, USE IT!

2. Passion Pit, Sleepyhead (2:55) – Great easy tune, just play around with resistance and positions throughout the song.  Fun beat that everyone can jam to.

3. The Postal Service, Clark Gable (4:55) – I am a big fan of the Postal Service, and this song always pumps me up running so I thought it would translate well for Spin class.  It’s a fast song, with the same steady beat the whole time, which helps to keep the legs pumping fast for the whole song.  You can pick up the pace (or try to at least) during the chorus, too.

4. Van Morrison, Wild Night (3:34) – Who doesn’t love this song? Sprints during the chorus!

5. Daft Punk, Daft Punk Is Playing At My House (Soulwax Shibuya Mix) (3:20) – This is an LCD Soundsystem original, which I have always been fond of, but this remix is different and quick.  It’s almost like a mashup with all of the different types of sounds in the song.  For this, we did jumps on our own until 2:04 (I think, off the top of my head!) when we did a 15 second sprint, and then another one around 2:53 (I think!).

6. Robotic Pirate Monkey, Rio De Fuego (4:08) – I like this tune, but it might be a little too dub-steppy for a spin class. It’s got teasers of that song “Crazy on You” by Heart from way back when, which is why I liked it so much, but it never actually goes into it. We climbed for 4 minutes.

7. Red Hot ChilI Peppers, By The Way (3:42) – Heavy resistance with some speedwork during the chorus.

8. MGMT, Kids (5:03) – I will never get sick of this song.  During the chorus, if you listen to the music behind the lyrics, there are 4 loops that repeat.  We sprint during the first one, rest, sprint, and then rest.  Here it goes into the verse so we have a longer rest, but it’s a nice 1:1 ratio of sprint to rest.

9. Pretty Lights, More Important Than Michael Jordan (8:37) – CLIMB! I love this song so much. Classic Pretty Lights, and it’s an awesome beat. We were all panting by the end of it.

10. The Rolling Stones, Gimme Shelter (4:33) – I used this as a recovery, and just let the students be in whichever position they wanted to with a light resistance to catch their breathe for the whole song.

11. Paper Diamond, Can We Go Up (3:36) – This is a fun dubstep song, and reminds me of the Skrillex songs that I have used in spin before.  We did fast 4 count jumps during the dubby parts (about a minute or so in), and then rested during the lyrics, and more jumps during the dub. I don’t know a lot about this group but I have seen them on a lot of bills for festivals this year.

12. Florence and the Machine, Cosmic Love (4:16) – Great tune by these guys.  Her voice is chillingly beautiful.  We did some moderate resistance sprints in position 1 during the chorus when she’s belting out.

13. Cat Power, Sea Of Love (2:20) – I think this song was used in that Michael Cera movie, Juno. It’s a beautiful song that I think uses the mandolin.  Great cooldown/stretch song.

14. Seu Jorge, Changes (3:41) – Since that Cat Power song is short, I added this one in.  It’s from the Life Aquatic movie, with Seu Jorge, who sings David Bowie acoustic covers in French.

Enjoy the last days of summer!