Category Archives: Music

My iPod #247: Soundgarden – The Day I Tried to Live

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“The Day I Tried to Live” is a track, and also was a single, from Soundgarden’s album “Superunknown”, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. The band plan to reissue the whole album along with b-sides, outtakes and some cool t-shirts. You can pre-order the bundle here!

The song is another one of those which I heard for the first time when its video (above) appeared on MTV2. I liked it from that moment on. The descending bass riff at the beginning and its weird time signature (it changes from 7/4 to 4/4 throughout) was what caught my attention. The song also showed me how amazing Chris Cornell actually is as a vocalist. “Cochise”, “Black Hole Sun”, “Original Fire” – all those sung by him were some tracks that I’d seen on the TV before “The Day”, but they never exhibited the range the man possesses. At some point in “The Day”, Cornell’s sings in a low register before screaming like a banshee in a split second. All in what is probably one take too. It is incredible.

Apparently, people have taken this track to be something of a suicide kind of thing, but Cornell stated that it is simply about getting out of the house and doing normal things instead of being a recluse. It is meant to be optimistic. He said so here almost twenty years ago. I will continue to listen to it with that mindset.

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.