My iPod #246: Guttermouth - A Day at the Office

"A Day at the Office" is a song from Guttermouth's third album "Teri Yakimoto". I didn't find the track by actually listening to "Teri", but was listening to my own customised radio station on Launch. I always talk about this site... but I'm not sure if anyone knows what I'm talking about. It looked like this.

When the song came on, it was listed to be on the soundtrack for the film "Godmoney", a movie that I've never bothered to watch after all these years and probably won't in the near future. I also assume that the site didn't have "Teri Yakimoto" in its database or something.

The phrase 'a day at the office' is defined as 'an ordinary or typical event' by thefreedictionary.com. The track details a kid who is electrocuted by the next door neighbour, a guy who falls off a roof while his family go on a trip and eventually the death of everybody when a power plant 'blows' unexpectedly and sends deadly toxins into the sky. These are not ordinary or typical events. But obviously that's the joke.

What also adds to the humour is that the melody is really cheerful, so the lyrics don't really affect you until you properly read them.

"Pleasant dreams and thanks for listening."

My iPod #64: The Wombats - Backfire at the Disco

Evening again.

"Backfire at the Disco" was released as a single from The Wombats' first album "A Guide to Love, Loss and Desperation" in 2007. It reached #67 in the charts.

At that time no one really knew who the band were, and so they re-released it in 2008. It reached #40 in the charts.

The band was another that played on MTV2 when they first came about on the scene, and so there wasn't a day when this song wasn't playing on the channel.

I didn't really like the song back then. The song that really got me into them was "Kill the Director", which will be coming up later many years from now.

The song includes a trademark vocal that the band used throughout their first album and then abandoned in their second. You know how on "Employment" by Kaiser Chiefs, almost every song (or single, I haven't listened to all of that album) included a part where a build up in tension was signified by an "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh *breath* oooooohhhhhhhhh woooooooahhhh ooooooooooooooh"?

Well, on "A Guide to Love" almost every song (I can say that this time as I own the album, and have listened to it) includes a "woo" or an "ooh" section, either as back up vocals or as a break between a verse and a chorus or something.

Both bands are similar in that when they both abandoned those vocals, their second albums didn't do as well. I haven't listened to "This Modern Glitch", and probably won't. I would stick to their first if I was you.

The song is about a person who goes out on a date, and it almost goes well until they go to the disco and everything goes wrong. I'm sure many people have been through this before. I guess.

Until tomorrow.

Jamie.