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My iPod #327: They Might Be Giants – The End of the Tour

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“The End of the Tour” was a track I heard around the same time as I heard “AKA Driver“, “Dinner Bell“, “Ana Ng“, “Destination Moon“, and many other They Might Be Giants songs for the first time. And that was when, if you’ve read my posts on those few songs you will know, when I was on Yahoo’s Launch site.

I’ve never really cared to think about what this song is about, or what it could mean. I feel very sentimental when I listen to it. Even though I wasn’t alive when this song first came out in 1994, it somehow makes me want to reminisce about friends from the past and other unforgettable moments.

This song is about the end of something…. not just a tour. I think the whole ‘tour’ is a metaphor of life, actually. Whatever. Nothing to care that much about.

It’s a very relieving and comforting way to end the hour-long smorgasbord that is “John Henry”, especially as it comes after the monster “Stomp Box” where you wonder where the album could possibly go afterwards.

My iPod #325: The Strokes – The End Has No End

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“The End Has No End” is a track by The Strokes that can be found on the band’s album “Room on Fire“, their second album released in 2003.

Although it was released as the final single from that album and The Strokes had been around for about two/three years by that time, this was actually the first Strokes song I ever heard. I distinctly remember watching its video on MTV2, right around the time that it had probably been released or something.

The song’s music video features appearances from hot ladies Mila Kunis and Eva Mendes, though surprisingly they didn’t do anything much for me as much as Julian Casablancas’ voice did. That sounds very wrong, I know. But his general lower register singing voice as well as the repetitive melody of the chorus got stuck in my head for a while. That was until I forgot it some time later. It was until I was lying in my bed looking outside one of the windows of my house when “The Ennnnd Has Noooooooo Ennnnnnd” silently started playing in my head, and I just carried on singing it over and over again.

I like this track a lot. It’s probably one of my favourite Strokes songs just because it was the first one I heard by them. Was very lucky to be watching MTV2 all those years ago.

My iPod #324: The Beatles – The End

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It all came down to this in 1969. This was The Beatles’ last song ever. Well, it was meant to be. “Let It Be” was released a few months later after “Abbey Road“, and even on the latter album itself “The End” is followed up by “Her Majesty“. But even then, the track was recorded with the full understanding between the four guys that this would be the last thing they would do together. How did they decide to it? In one of the most epic ways possible. And all in two minutes too.

If you have “Abbey Road”, you know that the second half of it is the famous medley where all the songs run into each other. So not only are you treated to that, a musical movement beautifully put together with orchestra and guitars everywhere, but this is the climax of it all. The big finale. With a drum solo by Ringo Starr (the first and only one he ever did with the group) symbolising his recognition 0f being the steady, solid drummer and the rotating guitar solos by Paul, George and John which seem to go on and on and on until a piano plays, the four members sing ‘that’ line and the finishes on a rising chord progression.

Now you may read that and think “Well, that doesn’t sound that good. What’s all that about?” And I know I can’t do it enough justice in writing. You do have to hear it to be convinced. Actually listen to ‘The Abbey Road Medley”. Search it up on YouTube. You will not be disappointed.

My iPod #313: They Might Be Giants – The Edison Museum

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“The Edison Museum” is They Might Be Giants’ “endearing” tribute to the Thomas Edison National Historical Park, which is actually in New Jersey. I put endearing in quotation marks because the the track is quite the opposite. The lyrics and music make it out to be one of the creepiest and mysterious places to exist on the face of the Earth. The track even uses a line from the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory film, which I only just realised and makes this track a bit more comedic than I thought it was.

The use of only horns, a keyboard and a vibraband mimicking the sound of a sped up voice recording give the track a very eerie and spooky atmosphere. That’s also emphasised by radio DJ Nick Hill’s vocal. He sang  “I Hear the Wind Blow” in the “Fingertips” track on “Apollo 18”, if you didn’t know. His low voice guides the listener through the dusty corridors of the haunted building, which is apparently used as a threat to children if they don’t stop arguing and yet is still a wondrous place which amazes the many people that lay their eyes on it.

This track may be hard to talk about. It’s not one that would be regularly requested for the band to play at their shows that’s for sure. But it is still an interesting one to listen to nonetheless. It’s the last song on the band’s album “Long Tall Weekend“. It brings a very abrupt end to it; I can remember listening through the album for the first time when this song finished expecting something to follow it up. The last line is sung, and then it just stops – that is the end of the album. But that’s due to the fact that the track was originally much longer, but was cut down to the final version that was released.

It is unusual. But that’s what They Might Be Giants do occasionally.

My iPod #301: Super Furry Animals – (Drawing) Rings Around the World

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 I’ve never listened to the “Rings Around the World” album; I should get to doing that sometime soon. I started listening to Super Furry Animals’ discography a few weeks ago, starting with “Fuzzy Logic” and then “Radiator“. Their albums seem to be the only ones from a band where all of them have been acclaimed by critics and stuff, so I wanted to see if they were actually that good. Those first two are. “Guerrilla” too. I’ll carry on listening to the others later.

“(Drawing) Rings Around the World” is the title track from Super Furry Animals’ 2001 album, the Welsh group’s first one on a major label. I’ve known this one for many years now. I saw the video on the television one time, and then completely forgot how the song actually sounded because I never saw it again until a few years later. It’s a cool one. The introduction builds up from a lone synthesizer, which is then gradually accompanied by the guitars, drums and eventually lead singer Gruff Rhys about communication and rings of TVs and satellites around the Earth.

Two minutes of the song is a coda which may be repetitive for some; I enjoy just ’cause the melody’s brilliant. Reminds me of that “Rockin’ All Over the World” song. Don’t really like Status Quo though.