Tag Archives: supergrass

My iPod #404: Supergrass – G-Song

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*yawn* It’s been a while. How’s everyone doing?

Hope you all enjoyed your festivities over the holiday season. Feels quite strange starting this up again, seeing as I haven’t done one thing on this site since late November. I apologise. I need breaks too. But here I am again, and here I should be (almost) every day to give you the songs on my iPod beginning with the letter ‘G’.

So what better way to start it, than with a track entitled “G-Song” – the fifth track on “In It for the Money“, the second album by Supergrass. I always wondered why it was named as so.  The title has nothing to do with the song’s subject matter; the phrase doesn’t appear in the lyrics. But it came to me not so long ago. The song’s written in the key of G Major. Duh.

The only reason I can think of enjoying “G-Song” is having listened to it repetitively alongside the other eleven tracks that accompany it on “In It for the Money”. After “Late in the Day” ends I always expect “G-Song”‘s sudden introduction to kick in, with its chugging guitars and solid bass. The instrumentation is something that really gets to me when listening to this track. It’s got a real *oomph* to it. Can’t find a better way to describe it. Especially the phrase that plays during the “There may be troubles…” refrain. Groovy as anything.

Like many of the other tracks on the album, it also contains a bridge which sounds like it could have been used to a completely different song altogether. Yet somehow, the guys manage to bring it back right into the song’s already established riff. That is good stuff, right there.

In terms of lyrics, I have a feeling that this track is one of those where the band worked on the music beforehand before coming up with the words to suit it. Gaz Coombes sings about feeling strange whilst walking on his way home or something….. I really don’t know. But that’s not a bad thing. What matters is, this track is pretty good. Recommended listen.

On an unrelated note, “I Should Coco” turns twenty this year. Anyone on getting a Supergrass campaign started to get all their nineties albums re-released and remastered? Very politely ask Gaz Coombes and Mick Quinn.

Annnnnnnddddd……

The White Stripes – Fell in Love with a Girl

Hello again. If you read the final post from the F’s, you’ll remember me writing that I had actually skipped one track out by mistake. This was the track. How I skipped it, I’ll never know.

“Fell in Love with a Girl”. Classic. Not much to say. Bass-less, simple five chord track with an amazing video which makes you wonder what you’ve been doing with Lego your whole life.

I remember seeing the start of this video when I was younger, and being disappointed when it turned out that it wasn’t “Walkie Talkie Man” by Steriogram. That video was directed by Michel Gondry too. As a result, I would always change it without really listening to the song. Big mistake. The White Stripes’ video and song are much better.

Was never a huge White Stripes fan. But this track is great. Have to say. RIP.

I bet no one remembers who Steriogram is.

My iPod #402: Supergrass – Funniest Thing

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“Funniest Thing” is an album track from Supergrass’ first release of the 21st century, “Life on Other Planets”. Of course, Britpop was well and truly over at this point, and Supergrass carried on exploring new sounds just as they had with “In It for the Money” in ’97.

On “LOOP”, some tracks are very guitar-heavy and give off a great hard-rock feel bordering on T-Rex territory at some points. But they still have that fun Supergrass attitude to them, and their then-recent acquisition as Rob Coombes as permanent member seemed to give the group an even bigger dynamic then they had before.

“Funniest Thing” begins with a mysterious keyboard line backed with sighing backing vocals and shimmering ride cymbals which give quite a psychedelic feel to it all. This all changes when the whole band kick into gear for the chorus; Gaz Coombes sings about seeing all these weird things happening around him, and even though this event is the ‘funniest thing [he sees]’… it is still a bit too hard to bear.

I’m thinking the lyrics are meant to be from the perspective of someone in a hospital after breaking a part of the body, who is then given morphine to relieve the pain and ends up having all these weird hallucinations because of it. That’s just from the lyrics though. Could be about something else completely. It probably is.

‘F’ section ends tomorrow.

My iPod #332: Supergrass – Evening of the Day

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While being a fantastic bass player, probably one of the most underrated during the Britpop era, Mick Quinn of Supergrass was also a decent singer. He did occasionally take on lead vocal duties on many Supergrass songs such as “You Can See Me” and “Sometimes I Make You Sad” from “In It for the Money“, “Beautiful People” and co-lead vocals on “Mary” from their self-titled album. But it is on the 2002 album “Life on Other Planets” where fans get to hear a lot more of his singing, as he takes on lead vocals on four of the twelve songs on there including today’s track “Evening of the Day”. I asked the man himself if he did take the lead on this one, thinking that he wouldn’t reply……. and to my surprise he did only a few hours later.

Positioned right in the middle of the album, “Evening” begins with some smooth bass and piano. Sounds really laidback, and cool. There’s a very lounge-y/jazzy tone about it all. Quinn enters with his lower register vocal (which is what got me confused about who was singing it in the first place) and goes on to sing about how, during the evening of the day, he waits somewhere (possibly a location of a high altitude) for a person who is very important to him. While he looks at the view, all he can think about is that person. The song’s chorus is a line from a Spinal Tap track “All the Way Home” which is as follows: “If she’s not on that 3:15, then I’m gonna know what sorrow means.”

It is at 3:15 of “Evening of the Day” when what I have described to you above finishes in a minor and rather messy fashion. I can’t tell whether it was supposed to be a different song altogether and the band decided combine it with the first three minutes or if it was all planned. But in this particular part, the band members sing about someone being stoned and not knowing what they’re talking about. Whether they’re referring to the ‘narrator’ of the first part of the song, I’m not sure, but it does bring a light and comedic end to a very good song.

My iPod #179: Supergrass – Cheapskate

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This is one of my favourite songs by Supergrass. It is one of my favourites from “In It for the Money”. The only problem I have with it is that compared to other songs on the album, it is too short. It is probably for the best though.

I am very sure that “Cheapskate” was in a holiday advert from years and years ago that was on the television. I know it has been used in a film or two, but I am certain I remember it being played for about 30 seconds somewhere else…

The music video was never shown in the United Kingdom. It was a US only single though and got into one of the many music charts that the country has. The band also chose not to release the video on their ‘best of’ DVD for reasons unknown.

The opportunity for me to see the ‘lost’ Cheapskate video was back when I was twelve or so. I randomly searched ‘Supergrass – Cheapskate’ into YouTube, and to my surprise it was there. The version here is what I watched, and is quite different to the one above. The speakers for the family computer were busted, so I had to make do with opening iTunes and playing the song along with the video. A minor inconvenience, yes, but it all worked out well in the end.

But why do I like “Cheapskate” so much? Well the song starts off with this funky groove, apparently influenced by Kool & the Gang according to the band themselves, which carries on through the verses before launching into an atmospheric chorus where the guitar blares out its chords and the overall volume of the song just rises. That along with its lyrics, “I need someone to be around ‘cos I’m breaking into life/Somebody stop me, ‘cos I’m looking for my high.”, just makes me feel warm and very happy inside.

What is the song about? Haven’t got a clue. Why is it called “Cheapskate”? The word isn’t mentioned once in the lyrics, so your guess is as good as mine. What matters is, I like it, you should probably listen to it, and try and find that advert that I talked about because it is really bugging me just thinking about it.

My iPod #170: Supergrass – Caught by the Fuzz

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Supergrass’ first official single as a band. Sounding like it was recorded in a few minutes in cramped and compact room, “Caught by the Fuzz” is an autobiographical account of lead singer Gaz Coombe’s first time of being arrested by the police when he was only 15.

The song is very quick. Quite punk-esque, with a semi-talking verse and a belter of a chorus which all end with the word ‘tonight’. Well, it’s not really a chorus. But if you listen to it, you will understand what I mean.

The film “Hot Fuzz” has this track playing during the credits, so if you wanted to know what that song was called…. here it is.

It is the second song on the band’s first album “I Should Coco“, a bit of Cockney rhyming slang for those of you who aren’t familiar.