indie punk

Legs decided before my brain did

By Rob Gordon

Legs decided before my brain did. That's indie punk.\n\nYou're not thinking about form or breathing or whether you're supposed to be doing recovery pace today. You're just moving—fast, instinctive, propulsive. The drums hit and your feet respond before the overthinking part of your brain gets a vote. That's the whole deal with indie punk and running: it short-circuits the committee meeting in your head and just makes you go.\n\nI discovered this accidentally with Bass Drum of Death on a Tuesday morning when I was supposed to be doing easy miles. Wasn't easy. Wasn't slow. Was exactly what I needed. Because here's what indie punk does that polished pop-punk can't: it sounds like it was recorded in someone's basement because it probably was. There's urgency baked into every track—not the manufactured kind, the real kind. FIDLAR sounds like they showed up to the session hungover and pissed off. Plague Vendor sounds like they're trying to outrun something. Spanish Love Songs sounds like therapy you do at 160 BPM.\n\nThis is music made by people who never got the memo about professionalism, and that raw energy translates perfectly to running. The Menzingers hit that sweet spot where melody meets aggression—you get hooks you can hang onto during mile six when everything hurts, but enough bite that you don't drift into autopilot.\n\nI keep thirteen playlists in this category because indie punk is never one thing. Some days it's garage-adjacent chaos. Some days it's closer to emo with better drums. Some days it's PISSEDOFFEDNESS—which, yeah, that's a playlist name, and it's exactly what it sounds like. The through-line is simple: three chords, no bullshit, perfect cadence for when your legs know better than your brain.

13 playlists

Top 10 Indie punk Running Songs

These tracks appear across multiple curated indie punk running playlists.

  1. 1. Clear The Air — Off With Their Heads
  2. 2. Nightlife — Off With Their Heads
  3. 3. Rolling On — The Murlocs
  4. 4. Self-Destruction (as a Sensible Career Choice) — Spanish Love Songs
  5. 5. Tellin' Lies — The Menzingers
  6. 6. 'Bout To Lose It — Dinosaur Pile-Up
  7. 7. 302 — The Lippies
  8. 8. 65 Nickels — Pkew Pkew Pkew
  9. 9. A Pack Of Wolves — Black Eyes
  10. 10. ALIEN LOVE CALL — Blood Orange

Frequently Asked Questions

What pace should I run to indie punk?

Tempo runs, threshold work, anything where you're supposed to be uncomfortable but controlled. This isn't recovery music—if you throw on Bass Drum of Death for easy miles, you'll blow up your week. Most indie punk sits between 150-180 BPM, which maps perfectly to that 'comfortably hard' effort where you're working but not sprinting. I use it for progression runs: start with something mid-tempo like The Menzingers, finish with FIDLAR when I need to close strong.

What's the BPM range for indie punk running music?

You're mostly looking at 140-180 BPM, with the sweet spot around 160. Fast enough to keep you honest, not so frantic you're tripping over your feet. Dog Party tends toward the higher end—pure propulsion. Spanish Love Songs sits in that mid-range where you can sustain the energy without redlining. The beauty of indie punk is the tempo feels faster than it is because of how the drums are mixed. Everything sounds urgent even when it's technically moderate pace.

Which indie punk artists should I start with for running?

Start with Bass Drum of Death—they show up in four playlists for a reason. Simple, driving, impossible to overthink. Then FIDLAR if you want something with more chaos and gang vocals that'll carry you through tough sections. If you want melody with your aggression, go Spanish Love Songs or The Menzingers—both give you something to sing along to in your head when the miles get long. Plague Vendor if you need pure intensity. Honestly, just hit the TURNSTILE playlist and see what clicks.

Does indie punk work for long runs or just speed work?

Intervals and tempo runs, primarily. Long runs need more variation than most indie punk provides—you'll burn out mentally before you burn out physically. That said, the RUN EMO playlist works for longer efforts because emo-adjacent indie punk has more dynamic range. You get loud-quiet-loud structures that create natural rhythm changes. I've done half-marathon pace work to Spanish Love Songs and it held up. But for true easy long runs? You need this category in rotation with something else or you'll be cooked by mile eight.

Why does indie punk sound better running than it does sitting still?

Because it's fundamentally restless music. In your living room, indie punk can feel one-dimensional—same energy, same volume, relentless. But running is relentless too, and suddenly that restlessness is an asset. The lack of polish matches your effort: you're both working hard, nothing's precious. When your breathing gets ragged and your form gets sloppy around mile five, FIDLAR sounds exactly like you feel. It's music that meets you in the discomfort instead of trying to distract from it.