Tag Archives: world

#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 #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.

My iPod #182: Blur – Chemical World

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I undertook on a Blur marathon earlier this year. Putting my Premium Spotify account to good use, I decided to listen the band’s discography. It was not a continuous action so marathon may not be the right word, but it took me a weekend to get from “Leisure” to “Think Tank“. It was not just those original albums either; they included the bonus discs including B-Sides, demos and live material that accompanied each album as part of the “Blur 21” compilation. It was a lot of hours well spent. That ‘event’ also helped me to realise how much good music the band actually made. Before, I just had the Best Of compilation and thought that was fine, but the deep cuts are just as good. Buy albums. Compilations are useless. Blur is probably one of my favourite bands now, and it only took a weekend of their music to make me see the light.

That’s enough of that.

“Chemical World” is a tune from the band’s ‘fuck you America’ album “Modern Life Is Rubbish“. It was also released as its second single in 1993.

Like many other songs I have on my iPod, this was one that I first heard/saw when its video played on MTV2. Then, I didn’t think much of the song. That’s how I feel with pretty much everything I listen to. But its chorus was quite memorable and embedded itself in my head, even though I had no idea what Damon was singing in the verses.

Fast forward a few years later and do what I describe in the opening paragraph, I couldn’t wait for the song to start because it was the only song – apart from “For Tomorrow” that I would be familiar with. Well, that and “Sunday Sunday” but that’s a different story.

Listening to the lyrics now, still not sure what it’s about. I initially assumed it was a song about the environment seeing as it was called “Chemical World” and mentions of “putting the holes in”. It may be about drugs – it’s all very metaphorical.