Monthly Archives: March 2014

My iPod #246: Guttermouth – A Day at the Office

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“A Day at the Office” is a song from Guttermouth’s third album “Teri Yakimoto”. I didn’t find the track by actually listening to “Teri”, but was listening to my own customised radio station on Launch. I always talk about this site… but I’m not sure if anyone knows what I’m talking about. It looked like this.

When the song came on, it was listed to be on the soundtrack for the film “Godmoney”, a movie that I’ve never bothered to watch after all these years and probably won’t in the near future. I also assume that the site didn’t have “Teri Yakimoto” in its database or something.

The phrase ‘a day at the office’ is defined as ‘an ordinary or typical event’ by thefreedictionary.com. The track details a kid who is electrocuted by the next door neighbour, a guy who falls off a roof while his family go on a trip and eventually the death of everybody when a power plant ‘blows’ unexpectedly and sends deadly toxins into the sky. These are not ordinary or typical events. But obviously that’s the joke.

What also adds to the humour is that the melody is really cheerful, so the lyrics don’t really affect you until you properly read them.

“Pleasant dreams and thanks for listening.”

My iPod #245: Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Date with the Night

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How’s everybody doin’.

I didn’t know Yeah Yeah Yeahs until 2006, the year the band’s second LP came out. It was that year that my sis started to like the one-woman-two-men group and borrowed “Fever to Tell”, the band’s first album released in 2003, from a friend.

“Date with the Night” was Fever’s first single. It is about getting ready for a night out, looking forward to what awaits and wishing to fulfil expectations.

This song is noise. It isn’t one you want to listen to if you need to relax. Guitars are screeching, drums are booming, lead singer Karen O moans and howls endlessly at various points of the track. Pretty hot stuff. Very hot actually.

I’ll stop there.

My iPod #244: Pavement – Date w/ IKEA

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Today’s song is by Pavement, and taken from the band’s fourth album “Brighten the Corners” released in 1997.

Unlike the majority I have on my iPod just because Stephen Malkmus basically wrote almost everything else, this Pavement track was written by the other guitarist in the band Scott (Spiral Stairs) Kannberg. He wrote quite a few for the group, getting two songs at the most on each of their albums bar “Terror Twilight”.

What can you expect from this Kannberg composition? He’s not that great of a singer (worse than Malkmus; he’s not so good either) and the chord progression is quite basic. In fact it’s the same one as that used in “Kennel District”, but in a different key and everything. But it is a really enjoyable tune.

The title is a bit abstract; there is no mention of it in the lyrics. I never really think what it is about. I just sing along, and enjoy the music.

My iPod #243: Modest Mouse – Dashboard

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Sorry, the post is a bit late. Had some work to do, you know.

I had never listened through song fully by Modest Mouse before “Dashboard” appeared on the TV seven years ago. The last few seconds of “Float On” were the only thing I had witnessed when I changed the channel onto MTV2 one time, but unsurprisingly those seconds didn’t last long in memory.

The video for “Dashboard” was regularly advertised, being shown as the ‘brand new single’ from the band’s then forthcoming album “We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank”. It was their first album in three years, and Johnny Marr, formerly of The Smiths, had recently joined the band’s lineup so interest was high. I say this like I know; I only assume, I was twelve at the time.

Dashboard is about taking the positive aspects from a less than satisfactory car journey. Or a car accident. Maybe more the latter. The dashboard melted, but hey look on the bright side…. they still had the radio. Even with the positive message, the song itself is not bright and happy melodically. There’s something about those strings after the first chorus that reminds me of being on the sea during a thunderstorm. Like a pirate sort of thing. But maybe that’s because of its music video.

The video is funny too. Apparently Seasick Steve is the barman who has the guitar fretboard for a leg at the end (you’ll need to see it to understand)…. but I swear it looks nothing like him.

My iPod #242: Franz Ferdinand – Darts of Pleasure

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This is no mistake. I have no song by another artist between this one and yesterday’s, so here’s Franz Ferdinand again. This time with “Darts of Pleasure”, another track from their debut album. It was actually their first single, months before anyone would know about “Take Me Out”, and just missed out on a Top 40 place reaching #44 in the UK singles chart. The song itself is about the use of words to seduce somebody. The words are the darts of pleasure.

I can’t exactly remember when I first saw the video for “Darts”, but I have a feeling that the other singles from the album had already been released before I saw it on MTV2. It seems to be on a low budget compared to their later videos which is standard as it was their first single. In it, the viewer sees life from the point of view of Alex Kapranos’ mouth where various antics occur. It’s funny or icky depending on how you look at it.

The best part is definitely the coda with the German lyrics during the final minute, why the band chose to use it we’ll never know but I’m not complaining.