Discover Hidden Gems: Music for Bowling Alleys

You walk up to the pinsetter and scan the racks for the perfect ball: weight 9, medium size, magenta. You glance at Joe–he's smirking; he thought he already won, that smug geezer. The score is 28 points behind at the 10th frame, and you need at least two strikes in a row for a chance to win. If it were any other day you would've lost hope, but today, that familiar weight in your hands brings memories for the hundreds of throws back into you. You close your eyes, take a deep breath, and tune your body to the world. Just as you take your first step, David Guetta and Bebe Rexha's cover for "I'm Good (Blue)" from the alley's speakers violently pulls you out of your zone. You stumble on your lost balance on your next and stumble on the third. The ball slips from your hand and lands hopelessly in the gutter.

Ever fear this would happen? This week's newsletter is for you! Music team came together and brought our favorite obscure picks for 🎳Music for Bowling Alleys🎳. We rated each pick from 0 to 5 🎳 emojis based on how well they fit bowling, classified our greatest picks as Spare, and our #1 pick as the Strike! This week's picks are all FCC Safe, if you're DJ, feel free to play any of them on your shows.

Wii Curling - Gabriel Gundacker

For college aged zoomers today, our perception of sports music has been irreversibly molded by Wii Sports. Bowling, as a sport that evolves many mechanics and screens, also feels especially gaming as a sport. LA based comedian and musician Gabriel Gundacker has released an album of his own Wii Sports music about sports that was never featured in the game. Not only does Gundacker manages to imitate the original composer's style impressively close, each song still maintains artistic merits, it times out Wii-Sporting the originals (the original Wii Bowling music, for example, isn't very interesting!) - J.L.

Notes -

• FCC safe
• Genre: Easy Listening, "Video Game Soundtrack"

Rating: 6.5

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Ruby - Silver Apples

The Silver Apples were arguably one of the important bands for modern music, pioneering the usage of synthesizers in pop and rock music.  This song hectic, filled sounds of pots-and-pans-esque percussion and washed out vocals. Ruby doesn't really embody a bowling alley as much as a backyard DIY bowling. In some ways, "Ruby" sounds like bowling from the perspective of the ball. - J.L.

Notes -

• FCC safe
• Genre: Experimental Rock

Rating: 6.5

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Westermarck - Charly Bliss

"Westermarck" sounds like it comes straight out of a Tween Bop movie soundtrack. Brooklyn Power Pop band Charly Bliss's stands out with lead vocalist's Eva Hendricks saccharinely bubblegum vocals which divided music team, ranging our individual ratings from 4 to 8. Overall, we agreed that though "Westermarck" embodies the spirit of friendly teenage bowling, it's vocals take too much precedence and might be distracting to play in a bowling alley. - J.L.

Notes -

• FCC safe
• Genre: Power Pop

Rating: 6.5

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intentions_ - Knxwledge.

LA producer Glen Earl Boothe, A.K.A. Knxwledge, has made his name in hip hop when he landed producing credits on To Pimp A Butterfly. However, Knxledge's style go far beyond hip hop, and we see fascinating blend of house and R&B in "intentions_". The song's repetitive, but fits as background music. The house drums are upbeat, but the R&B samples provide the song a profound melancholy. The song is almost too sad for bowling, but we can still see it playing during late-night bowling. - J.L.

Notes -

• FCC safe
• Genre: House, R&B

Rating: 7

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1. intentions_, by Knxwledge.

from the album HX.24

Knxwledge.swebdreamz

Ripple Rock - The Evaporators

Did you know Nardwuar had his own band? His voice fulfills the almost ska-like power pop of The Evaporators' music perfectly, and listening to it will for sure change your perspective of this man. "Ripple Rock" sounds like teenagers having fun and Nickelodeon, supported with some real nice womping Surf Rock guitar tones. - J.L

Notes -

• FCC safe
• Genre: Power Pop

Rating: 7.25

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Gaming Man - Shinichiro Yokota

Japanese House producer Shinichiro Yokota is one of those great talents that have made been discovered by the Youtube algorithm, only releasing his solo debut in 2016 because of a song he produced in 1992 gained popularity. This song again taps into the video game soundtrack energy inherent in bowling. Listening to "Gaming Man" is like a power-up; its repetitive beat will fade into your subconsciousness and tune you into the flow state as you bowl away. - J.L

Notes -

• FCC safe
• Genre: House

Rating: 7.5

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Could Have Gone Your Way - Flying Ibex

London band Flying Ibex draws a wide variety of African and Brazilian influences into their music, creating a very unique sound. "Could Have Gone Your Way" wouldn't be playing in your average down the road bowling alley, but rather you would hear it during Midnight Madness at the dark neon-lights filled bowling alley in a high-end resort. The song has a mild mid-tempo reggae energy, and is filled with subtle psychedelic textures. - J.L.

Notes -

• FCC safe
• Genre: Psychedelic Pop

Rating: 8

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Telepatijia - Tihomir Pop Asanovic

Music Team discovered Croation Pop and Jazz band Tihomir Pop Asanovic through one of their songs being sampled by Kendrick Lamar on DUCKWRTH. We're glad to discover this gem that we otherwise would never know about, because it's such an enjoyable, loungey yet bop. "Telepatijia"'s smooth and slow jazz instrumentation serves the perfect backdrop for casual weekday bowling, where the people bowling is countable on one hand but you're having a wonderful time. - J.L

Notes -

• FCC safe
• Genre: Croatian Pop, Jazz

Rating: 8

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Coral Reef - Shigeru Suzuki

The album Pacific is a fantastic lounge city-pop album brought to us by the three Japanese legends Haruomi Hosono, Shigeru Suzuki, and Tatsuro Yamashita. Among the three, Suzuki's style is the most distinctively laid back and easy listening, perfect for casual bowling. "Coral Reef" has a retro aesthetics that would fit a classy historical bowling alley. - J.L.

Notes -

• FCC safe
• Genre: Easy Listening

Rating: 8.25

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Untouchable - Golemm

Soundcloud artist Golemm produces some of the best hardcore break tracks on the album Hazardous Bubble Basics. Bowling for a large part is a laidback sports, as you are sitting and chilling for most of a game of bowling. It makes sense then, that the majority of the picks this week are slower, easy-listening music. "Untouchable", on the other hand, is for high-octane competitive bowling, the final frame of the bowling league at your local alley while everyone's watching. This is what you play during the bowling action montage, the audio equivalent to bowling on rainbow road.

Notes -

• FCC safe
• Genre: Breakbeat

Ratings: 8.5

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