Skip to about 1:12 in the video, that’s when the song actually starts.
The Offspring’s seventh album “Splinter” from 2003 contains “Da Hui”, a tribute to surfer group of the same name based in Hawaii.
In the track, Dexter Holland tells us that he won’t fuck with Da Hui because they will fuck with him. He won’t park next to a member of Da Hui, as he will not feel comfortable. He then finally warns us not to fuck with Da Hui, because eventually they will fuck with us. The video for this song gives an example of what Da Hui can do.
Lyrically, it’s very dumb. Very repetitive. Simple. I did listen to this track for the first time when I was eight/nine so being the crazy, hyped-up child I was I probably didn’t care at the time. In fact, those are probably what drew me to liking the song more.
Musically, it’s a beast. Very very quick. Booming drums, especially those tom-toms near the end of the track and a cool guitar solo.
Short and sharp stuff. Under two minutes, so appreciate it before it ends.
It has been a year since I started doing this. Feels like it’s been a year too.
I did actually start posting on the 22nd February last year which I completely forgot about until I checked earlier on today, but it was two days later that I took on the challenge of writing about (almost) every song that I have on my iPod. Click on here to start all the way from the beginning.
Since I last posted, nothing much has gone on. Just living life and listening to a lot of music too.
So here is the return of ‘My iPod’ and the Ds. For how long, I don’t know. But I’ve seen the number of songs I have that begin with the letter ‘D’. There are many. A lot more than ‘C’ for sure.
But we begin with the third song from Arctic Monkeys’ second album “Favourite Worst Nightmare” – “D Is for Dangerous”.
I remember that this was the track when I first bought the album in 2007 that caught my ear straight away. “Brianstorm”- I had obviously heard many times before and “Teddy Picker” took me a few listens to get into, but it took me that first listen for “Dangerous” to sink in.
It probably isn’t even the best song on the album. It’s pretty short and quick, only 2 minutes and 20 seconds long if you round it up, but everything is delivered with such slick execution. Cool guitar playing, a great bass line by the then-new Monkey Nick O’Malley and vocals by both Alex Turner and Matt Helders. Pretty much all I can say.
Whether they thought of the name of the album before writing the song or vice versa, I’m not sure. But it is in there. Also watch out near the end, when it sounds like the track begins to skip. I thought something had gone wrong with my computer the first time that happened.
That album by the band is my favourite of theirs. It’s probably the last one they’ve released that I can listen to the whole way through and not become….. bored? I don’t think that’s the right word. Basically, I haven’t been as hyped for Arctic Monkey albums since then.
For many it just doesn’t compare to “Whatever” or possibly even “AM” now, knowing that a lot of people are liking that. But “Nightmare” is just really solid. Maybe it’s the production or something, but there’s something in all twelve tracks that makes we want to carry on listening to them. Can’t really say that for the albums that followed. Hate on me if you want.
This is the end… for now. I’ve come to the last of the ‘Cs’, and starting from tomorrow there won’t be posts for a while. I enjoy typing these; I hope you like reading them. I may come across as a bit repetitive or just silly in general, telling you how I feel about songs and trying to ‘review’ them without having technical music knowledge is quite challenging, but it gives me something to do everyday… so it’s all good.
“Cyclops Rock” is a tune from They Might Be Giants’ album “Mink Car” from 2001. After John Linnell’s track about a mesmerizing hair cut comes John Flansburgh’s about….. I’m not so sure. I don’t want to say the lyrics are nonsensical or random because there probably is a clear meaning behind them…. I can’t tell. What does “cyclops rocking” entail? How is it different from plain rocking? I’m only joking.
It doesn’t really matter when it comes TMBG. All of their songs have that sort of thing about them. Who cares what the song is trying to say when it rocks as hard as this. Starting with three chimes of tubular bells, “Cyclops” launches into life with Flansburgh shouting the chorus at you along with some great guitar playing and sliding saxophone notes by Linnell on the side. Full of energy, very quick, a cameo by Cerys Matthews in the bridge (which was actually meant for the late Joe Strummer at one point). Three things you can expect from this song.
Ah…. the first Pavement song I ever heard. It all started from this.
I was ten years old, probably getting to eleven, and I was downstairs nice and early whilst everyone else stayed in their beds to watch the music videos on MTV2. “Cut Your Hair” came on, played for the its three minute duration, and then was gone. But it got stuck in my head. The “ooh ooh ooh” chorus, the easy-to-remember ‘riff’ (don’t know whether it’s a riff or not)….. I am certain that that was the only time I saw the video on that channel before it got revamped, renamed and whatever else the company did to totally remove its credibility.
The music video is really simple and not at all serious. The band come into a barbershop, weird things happen when each member sits in the chair resulting in no one getting their hair cut and they leave when the song finishes. Does it have anything to do with the song? Not really. It’s more of an obscure “Hey we’re Pavement” type thing, seeing as this was the band’s first proper music video to go with a song that did quite well commercially. Although, it did leave me wondering who played what instrument and who the person singing was.
Anyway, “Cut Your Hair” is a song about people in the music industry caring more about their appearances than they do about the actual music. It is sarcastic in tone, something supported by Malkmus’ trademark loose and “off-key” vocal.
I liked it so much I put the video on my Piczo site; every kid who was in Year Six (2005/06) will know what I’m talking about. Too bad that company died, and my site is gone now.
The track actually comes right after that song. After a sample of what appears to be amusement park music, someone counts-in, a lone guitar plays with some backwards singing (which reversed is Bert yelping out “Happiness Is a Warm Gun” by The Beatles) before the rest of the band joins along.
The lyrics mostly concern the themes of love, sex and suicide. Lines such as “going out at the same time” and the loss to the brain “feeling like a gun” probably reinforce the last of those three a greater amount. They could also refer to a ‘petit mort’ (something my English teacher taught us when he went off at his daily tangents during his lessons) which is describes the state of unconsciousness one goes through after ‘sexual experiences’. Maybe the double suicide that is hinted at is actually a thought of a couple having an orgasm at the same time. I don’t know what “cleaning up the mess” would mean though. You know what, this is too weird. I’ll stop there.
I do like this song though. Obviously, otherwise why would I type about it? It was one I added to my iPod straight away after listening to the album in full before I started Year 10. The last minute or so is glorious when Bert starts shrieking out the repeated choruses before the track mellows out, all except for a noise which repeats and segues into the next song.
The Music in My Ears 