Mixtape: Shred Gnar

I have a weakness: I feel compelled to add a soundtrack to almost everything I do.

Cooking, cleaning, walking the dog, driving five minutes to the store. It’s always accompanied by music, podcasts, or audiobooks. For me, silence feels like an underused channel.

I don’t consider this a moral failing, but when I first heard about the recent internet trend of “raw dogging” long flights (e.g., flying from Seattle to Boston with no entertainment, no nap, just staring straight ahead at the seat in front of you), I wish I’d reacted with curiosity. Something like, wow, what an interesting challenge, I wonder what that would uncover in me.

Instead, my reaction was closer to: why would anyone willingly do that to themselves.

I admire people who are comfortable being undistracted. There’s a freedom there. I’ve tried, at various times, to push back against my instinct to DJ every single activity in my life. Going on walks without headphones. Dedicating days to not hitting the play button. Driving for thirty minutes with nothing but the sound of the car.

It’s something I want to dive into more in a later post.

That said, skiing and snowboarding are definitely not where I take that stand. There are few things better than pointing downhill with the right track playing. It’s something we’re lucky to get to do a fair amount of out here in Colorado.

A quick note, because it matters: I’m a big fan of bone-conduction headphones (I use Shokz). No headphones make you perfectly aware of your surroundings, but these don’t physically block your ears, which helps you stay present and responsive. The music almost feels like it’s nearby instead of being piped directly into your head. They also don’t get gross with sweat during workouts.

Another note: please do not be the kind of person blasting a Bluetooth speaker on the slopes and assuming everyone wants to hear your music. They do not. Using this playlist to do that will disappoint the snow gods and result in an above-average number of mid-lift chair stops for you and your closest kin.

Anyway.

What I actually want you to do here is listen to my snowboarding playlist.

When I moved to Colorado about a decade ago, I started building a master playlist that I turn on whenever I hit the slopes. It’s had many names over the years, but the roots of Shred Gnar go back to the excitement of finding myself in a new place and the joy of suddenly having access to world-class mountains.

The name is an affectionate homage to snowboard lingo we’ve spent years mocking. Maybe because we never felt cool or authentic enough to use it earnestly. Nothing makes me feel more self-conscious than saying something like “wow, that was gnarly.” And yet I’d pay good money to have the unabashed confidence to pull off a line like “get pitted.”

This playlist is my collection of tracks that feel right for moving downhill. It’s electronic-backed rock, some vintage cuts, a lot of garage-adjacent energy, and a small but meaningful dose of Spanish punk.

Along the way, it’s quietly become my catch-all activity playlist too, which means I’ve listened to it a lot while pedaling. Additionally it stays on after activities, and I’ve found it’s just as good for beers in the backyard, or hanging out in the garage as it is for riding lifts.

Anytime you want to channel the first six minutes of the 2004 snowboarding film Afterlame, this is the playlist to put on.

Give it a listen and see what you think. It also holds some of my deep Spotify favs - artists that I wish got more shine like Grady Strange, Hinds, Spiritual Cramps, Only Real, and Los Porcos.

Editor’s note: Joey’s editor here. Joey believes he’s pretty good at picking the right song for the right occasion, which means sharing a playlist carries emotional stakes that well-adjusted people might not recognize. And there’s history here. One of his first jobs was DJ’ing his high school dances, which he got because he was the only one willing to read the manual for setting up the equipment and speakers. They paid him for this, which may have reinforced the wrong message. He’ll probably cover this, and his regrettable DJ name, at a later date.