Category Archives: Music

My iPod #237: Blur – Dan Abnormal

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“Dan Abnormal” is a track from Blur’s fourth album “The Great Escape”.

I listened to the song way before actually listening to the rest of Blur’s discography. The band had performed in Hyde Park for the Summer 2012 Olympics closing ceremony, and decided to remaster all their albums for their 21st anniversary as a group. So I thought I would listen to “The Great Escape” out of all of them, even though it’s not Damon Albarn’s favourite nor is it the favourite of the majority of Blur fans.

Albarn once said that all the songs on the album are about him in one way or another. “Dan Abnormal” is probably the one that you could say is explicitly about him. Look at the title and then rearrange it. Does that mean it’s the centerpiece of the album? Naaaaaaaah.

Apart from obvious tracks (Country House, Charmless Man, The Universal, Stereotypes), Dan Abnormal was one that actually stayed in my head after listening to the album for the first time. Not really sure why. The chorus was quite memorable, a lot of “la-la-las” are involved and the overall melody wasn’t hard to forget.

It might not be very impressive for some, but I like it and that’s all that matters.

My iPod #236: They Might Be Giants – Damn Good Times

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When I started listening to They Might Be Giants properly in 2004, they had just released their latest album “The Spine“, and were due to release this album where each song was dedicated to various music venues located in states of the USA.

“Damn Good Times” can be found on “The Spine”, and its video above was able to be viewed on the band’s official website. It is animated, a bit weird and oddly similar to the plot of Twilight.

John Flansburgh normally writes the rockers in They Might Be Giants, and this song is no different. The rhythm section of Danny Weikauf and Marty Beller are really on point, there’s a lot of crash cymbal action during the verses and the bass slide during the chorus and accompanied with the lyrics about concerning a naturally talented lady, the tune is very uplifting.

The actual song finishes about a minute and a half in before transforming into this slow jam with a guitar solo which gradually builds pace before coming to an end. 58BPM to around 130 apparently.

Yep, TMBG never disappoint.

My iPod #235: be your own PET – Damn Damn Leash

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I’m in year six all over again…. I say this because it was released in 2005…. when I was in that year of education.

“Damn Damn Leash” was the first song I ever heard by be your own PET. It was on the band’s first official release. I liked its video so much that I put it on my Piczo website I made. The members are chased and engulfed by a weird monster, which is clearly a group of people under a huge cloth with some material used to make the head. It has nothing to do with the lyrics whatsoever, I just think it’s humorous.

The song had its own EP accompanied with two other songs. I was a bit disappointed to see that, when my sister borrowed their debut album from a friend of hers, the song was not on there. Looking at it now, there wouldn’t have been much point to put on something that was recorded two years prior onto it.

I’m still not sure what this song is about after almost ten years (that frightens me a bit). I’ll go with a guess that it is about being led on by someone to the extent that you have no clue what to do or how to act.

It’s good, man.

My iPod #234: Blink-182 – Dammit

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Today I write this post whilst lying on my bed. It’s just one of those days.

Couldn’t do a post yesterday, for anyone who follows me on Twitter you would have known this. @JamieKManteaw by the way. I’ll do another later on, as I usually do whenever the situation occurs.

“Dammit” is a song from Blink-182’s second album “Dude Ranch”. Sung by the bassist Mark Hoppus, the track is about a break-up and various feelings that arise from it. A very lazy way to put it, but it is true.

Clips of the video for “Dammit” amongst their other singles appeared in the band’s video for “Not Now” back in 2005 when the trio released their greatest hits compilation and later split up. That got me watching all of their videos because pre-Enema of the State I didn’t know they had anything else.

The video for “Dammit” is really funny. If you’ve just become a fan of the band you may think who the hell is the guy that’s not Travis. That’s their old drummer. That’s besides the point.

Mark and Tom, but especially Mark, act like complete idiots in it. That’s may not come as a surprise looking at their other comedic music videos, but being ten years old and the ‘class clown’ in primary school when I first saw it, I was inspired by their forced stupidity.

My iPod #233: Big Boi – Daddy Fat Sax

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“Daddy Fat Sax” is the second track from Big Boi’s debut solo album “Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty”, released back in 2010.

Took me quite a while to listen to the album. Don’t know why. “Shutterbugg” was released as the first single from it, and I liked that. I still do. It’s funky. The album got good reviews too, being cited as one of the best hip-hop albums to be released in the new decade. That was before Mr. West released “Dark Fantasy” though and received 10/10 ratings and five stars from every critic or website to exist.

But it was in 2012 (during the opening ceremony of the London Olympics if I remember correctly) that I thought I might as well listen to it. That ceremony went on for ages anyway.

The rapper announces himself to the world (“It is I, the B-I-G, the B-O-I”) before telling the listener on how he has persevered, looked at the bigger picture, and maintained his game that fellow rappers fathom on his awesomeness. Scratches by the DJ Cutmaster Swiff slide in the song title during the chorus along with samples from “Xplosion“, a song from “Stankonia“. It all told us that Big Boi was certainly doing fine and that OutKast was still a part of him, even though he and André hadn’t been together for four years at that point.

Boasting is a theme that occurs throughout the album. It shows right in the last line of the preceding introduction, but it’s from this track and onwards that Big Boi never lets up. And that’s good. Being half of one of hip hop’s most respected groups, I would imagine life is swell. I think he’s allowed to brag; he does it with such effortless flow too. My goodness.