Tag Archives: covered with ants

#766: Guttermouth – Looking Good Is All That Matters

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After ‘I’m Destroying the World’ by Guttermouth became a song that I was always looking forward to hearing while playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 back in the day, the band’s album Covered with Ants was a constant request for birthdays and Christmases. I never did get the CD. It took until 2012 when Spotify had just properly got going, that I was able to listen to the album in full. And it wasn’t bad. Not the greatest album of all time, but if you’re into skate punk and like some sarcasm in your music then it’s worth a shot.

‘Looking Good Is All That Matters’ is the fifth track on Covered with Ants, and is a basic criticism of those who have no self-respect for themselves and only motivated by physical appearances. The first verse sets the scene, with the description of a date where the man clearly can’t stand the person he’s with but she looks good so he may as well stay. The second describes a girl who throws up to maintain her slim figure. The whole message is summed up in the sarcastic chorus: “Looking good is all that matters/God bless our society.”

This track got my immediate attention when listening through the album the first time. I always enjoy a bit of humour in the music I listen to, and ‘Looking Good’ runs on that. Nothing like jokingly pointing out people’s insecurities to fast-paced punk chords.

#594: Guttermouth – I’m Destroying the World

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I used to play Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 on the PlayStation 2 when I was younger. It was a great game. A big part of its greatness for me was its soundtrack. I have a lot to owe for games such as this one and the FIFA series, they all introduced me to some great music in my formative years. Pro Skater 3 mainly leaned to songs of the punk and hip-hop persuasion. Guttermouth’s ‘I’m Destroying the World’ was one of them.

From listening to the album this track is on and another song of theirs I’ve written about in the past, I’ve gathered that the band tend to take a cynical, sometimes sarcastic viewpoint in their lyrics. This one is from the outlook of a kid who is sick of their redneck family and rebelling by destroying the world. This narrator shows no remorse for their actions, claiming that “[they] don’t really give a shit, cuz it feels so goddamn cool”. Basically it’s an awesome punk song about teenage rebellion.

This was always one of my favourites playing Tony Hawk back in the day. The song’s country influence is worn on its sleeve with the inclusion of banjos and fiddles, those always helped the song stick out in the television speakers. The chorus is definitely the best part too, there’s no space between it and the verses so it always hits like a tonne of bricks when it arrives.

My iPod #217: Guttermouth – Cram It Up Your Ass

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Um…. Okay, I know this looks bad…. let me explain.

“Cram It Up Your Ass……. really? What the fuck.” That may be one of the thoughts that may have come to mind when you first saw the title. If you have come to this from my Twitter page, you may be even more confused and surprised. I couldn’t put a song title like that on my feed; people wouldn’t even want to click on the link otherwise.

Enough about that. “Cram It Up Your Ass” is the closer to Guttermouth’s first major release “Covered with Ants” and is one of the funniest songs I have ever listened to. And one of the creepiest.

The only reason I know of this song is because all I wanted to do, when I was ten and playing Tony Hawk on the PS2, was find and listen to “I’m Destroying the World” on the computer for minutes on end. However I could never do that; I always had to listen to thirty second samples instead on random music sites. Whenever it said ‘download’, the link would take me to a place where I had to pay… I’m not about that life.

“Cram It Up Your Ass” is on the same album as “Destroying the World”, and the title looked interesting so I decided to hear it’s sample. Nothing much happened, as you can tell. Just the lead singer singing the title over a bass that was playing the vocal melody. No big deal.

That was until, years later, I found out that it turns into a proper headbanger where all the guitars play the vocal melody in unison with frenetic drums rolling around all over the place. The dynamics are a very key part of this song. The last lines “Do you still like me?” are sung when the instruments come to a sudden stop, leaving the singer all alone. That part freaks me out a bit.

It doesn’t end there. After a few seconds of silence, a bloody grand piano comes in and plays the vocal melody over and over again for five minutes or so! I don’t know. I cut that bit out though, that part is unnecessary.

How could I even write so much about this track.

My iPod #101: Guttermouth – Black Enforcers

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Hi everybody.

I’m not a huge fan of Guttermouth, but it was their song in “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3” – which I’ll dedicate a post to later on – that got me interested in them. Particularly the album “Covered with Ants”, the album that song is on. I had good times with THPS3, burying the bully in Canada, being really excited when I managed to grind the molten bucket in Foundry, and the soundtrack is one of the best in any game ever. It’s a must buy – even if it’s for the PS2.

I was nine years old around the time and I really wanted to listen to that the track on my computer so I tried to search for it in the Guide section on an old version of Windows Media Player. It wasn’t there. This song was though. I liked it, it rocked. Even though it was only a minute and ten seconds long. But it just wasn’t the same as “Destroying the World”. The chorus didn’t compare and it was probably too short for me to really get into it.

Do you know how hard it was to find songs to listen to on demand all those years ago? I didn’t know what Napster or Limewire was, there was no YouTube or Spotify to go to. I had to deal with 30 second clips on random music sites, that was the closest I could listen to “Destroying the World”. It was also the way I heard “Cram It Up Your Ass” for the first time, which is the funniest yet disturbingly creepiest song on the album.

Thanks to Spotify I was able to listen to “Covered with Ants” last year, and “Black Enforcers” stood out for me. It’s the penultimate track on the album, and another song with a really angry sounding riff. Makes me want to punch a wall. And shout at something. You know that episode of The Simpsons when Homer joins that secret society “The Stonecutters” and he starts singing the theme song with Lenny and Carl and everyone else. Well, this is the theme song for the “Black Enforcers” where if you don’t know the rules…. then you don’t know the rules and the original members have ‘got no pity on you’. The song absolutely rocks, the only problem I have with it is the bass. Where is the bass? It’s like they completely mixed it down, you’re not The White Stripes for goodness sake. I’m just saying the presence of a bass might have added an extra something.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.