Aquabats: A Shameless Endorsement

[dreiser]

Since I am now lame ass addicted to sharing music in my fics and LJ I figured I might as well do a post dedicated to my favorite band of all time, The Aquabats! Don't know them? You should! At least, you should if you like nerdy humor and silly but brilliant songs. How to explain The Aquabats? Well, that's kind of a difficult task. I guess first I should say they're a ska band and second I should say they put on the most fabulous and creative live shows of all time.

Basically? The Aquabats is a ska band that play songs which almost always tell some sort of science fiction or superhero influenced type story and during their live concerts they proceed to act out those stories on stage with much humor and kick ass energy. Their origins in how they came to Earth is debated and I think you can get the most information from their website listed below.

http://www.theaquabats.com/



While their website does tell you a hell of a lot about their awesomeness and offers up free songs as well, I think what can tell you the most is their theme song. Yes, theme song! lol. In their own words they explain why they left their home and ended up in Los Angeles where they got powers from a mad scientist Professor. Plus why exactly they play music. And...? Oh, it's a fun song. Hella fun!

Theme Song by The Aquabats:

http://s54.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=06ALCDHB265LK20WHZZQ6598Z0

The Theme Song does a great job of explaining The Aquabats origins but to really get how fun and silly and just whatever the fuck they are you have to go with a classic song by them called Super Rad and its accompanying music video. The quality on the video isn't the greatest because this isn't exactly No Doubt or Rancid or one of the larger ska bands. The Aquabats, while having a HUGE cult following, aren't exactly with the big time but honestly... if you can't watch the video for Super Rad and not see how fucking great it would be if they got some real money to do a kick ass video? Well, I feel sorry for you. lol. And I recommend you don't watch the video for Fashion Zombies, where they have gotten more money, because you won't see the brilliance of what they're doing there. And you won't get the humor. In fact, if you're not amused by the Theme Song and Super Rad video I say bail out on this post right now.

Because this is MY FAVORITE BAND and I plan on pimping them quite heavily in this post.

I think the most important thing to point out about The Aquabats is the fact that they're fun. Honestly, that's what they are people. They just want to play fun and silly music and they don't take themselves seriously at all. If you're not someone who can enjoy massive and innate silly behavior you won't like them. That's really clear in the Super Rad video as you see them getting consistently beat up despite being ska superheroes. Anyway! Go listen and watch the video for Super Rad! It's way fun, it is.

Super Rad by The Aquabats:

http://s41.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1F6UUXSDS2HVC1V52PDZG10MG9

Super Rad (Video) by The Aquabats:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEPQsT-LgVc&search=aquabats%20super%20rad%21

Amused yet? No? My god, why are you still reading this then? Because I amuse you? Because I put a spell on you and you're mine? Give me money and booze then. But I digress, lets get to why The Aquabats kick ass when it comes to social commentary. On their newest album, Charge!!!, which got mixed reviews from hardcore fans, the best song had to be Fashion Zombies which was a song dedicated to people mindlessly following fashion trends throughout the decades. The video they did for this song is a fucking brilliant parody on the Michael Jackson video for Beat It and even features the 80's style Beat It clothing when all the Fashion Zombie gangs battle each other. My favorite gang has to be the Goths. For some reason I cheer for them. Maybe because I sort of was among their numbers once? lol. I dunno. But I cheer for the Goths in the Fashion Zombie gang fight. When it goes into the Vincent Price type voice over towards the end of the video with The Aquabats fleeing in the ominous fog from the pursuing Fashion Zombies I'm reminded of Thriller so I guess this video is a hilarious combination parody of both Beat It and Thriller. Which, to me, makes it all that much cooler. The ending of the video is particularly bad ass.

Fashion Zombies by The Aquabats:

http://s54.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=020686PZPUKAF1KHWV15IGA177

Fashion Zombies (Video) by The Aquabats:

http://aquabats.superbad.net/media/video/The_Aquabats/the_aquabats-fashion_zombies-high.mov

Humorous social commentary indeed. Or just a kick ass video making fun of the drones who follow trends to be cool. Now lets move back to the fun and silly aspect of The Aquabats. Namely the fact that they like to make up fake commercials which air during their fake television shows. Have I said yet that I've wanted for years for someone to fucking have an Aquabats television show? Or a movie? I mean, a live action Aquabats movie that shows their superhero origins and uses their songs in it and it's a goddamn action musical with huge ass silly fight scenes against Powdered Milk Man and other such foes? I haven't? Oh, well. I really want someone to make that. lol. I've considered writing the movie screenplay myself but part of me thinks that surely someone is already working on this. They've been around for years so it would be impossible for them not to have something in the works, you know? Hmm. But view their brilliant commercials!

The Aquabats Rub-O-Rama Commercial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NO3L9GRits&search=aquabats%20rub-o-rama

The Aquabats Pudding Dispenser Commercial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNhQULNwTs8&search=aquabats%20pudding

Totally Slammin! lol. Perhaps the most loved song type The Aquabats have are the superhero, science fiction, and adventure style songs that tell stories of their enemies or how members of the band have done some not so smart things in their scientific experiments. Here are three such songs. The first song Powdered Milk Man describes their nemesis made out of powdered milk and how he's making the cereal of all the children soggy with his milk of devastation. To truly get the funny kick ass nature of this song you have to have tasted powdered milk. If you've tasted it then you know the lyric "from the dust of zombies it is ground" isn't at all an exaggeration. It's some nasty shit. I would love to see a video for this song. Powdered milk flying everywhere and The Aquabats unable to fight because it gets in their eyes and mouths. Niceeee. lol.

Powdered Milk Man by The Aquabats:

http://s41.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=375G0Q6ENIB1706UX1IZ3KET4B

Next up is the classic Cat With 2 Heads which is an over the top hilarious science fiction themed song and also is my brother's favorite song by The Aquabats and it's definitely one of their most dramatic sounding. This tells the story of a young scientist who had an idea to make a cat with two heads and it turns out not being such a very good idea. Probably because he kept it in a box and used atomic energy to create it. Although some argue the fact that it ate all The New Kids On The Block means the cat with two heads couldn't have been that evil. Obviously they're not a fan of Hangin Tough. Ohh ohhh ohh hangin tough! Hee. But this is a nice science fiction story song about the horror of a brilliant but doomed idea.

Cat With 2 Heads by The Aquabats:

http://s54.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=3EHN5EBVE9HK02G4ZQG7LNRL3M

Last but not least we have the crowd favorite of many, the king of all Aquabats adventure songs, Captain Hampton and the Midget Pirates. The song title pretty much tells you what this is about. It's a swashbuckling tale of young Jim who was a lad in search of adventure and how he stowed away at the age of ten on the ship of Captain Hampton who was in search of the fierce midget pirates of Willygoat. When Captain Hampton does find the midget pirates the battle doesn't go as Jim and the rest of the crew expects. Listen for yourself!

Captain Hampton and the Midget Pirates by The Aquabats:

http://s41.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1L0K2H3UUN70724ANALKE23KNF

Not only are The Aquabats super entertaining they're also educational! Don't believe me? Then listen to Worms Make Dirt a song that I played for my mother and she now uses it in her first grade classes to help with explaining parts of her life science exercises. Plus the song is really fun to sing along to. lol. Don't believe me? Sing along! Come on! "Worms make the dirt and the dirt makes the Earth and people hold hands and feel terrific. Food comes from dirt, it's scientific!" lol. That was super fun, admit it you bastards.

Worms Make Dirt by The Aquabats:

http://s41.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0NKD9GFBYZ5JC36QPHK5DH72JJ

Some of my friends, online and not, are having hard times romantically. Plus my favorite character on The L Word and although she isn't real I still love her and I think this totally suits the Danish break up in the first part of S3 and how Dana treated Alice. The Aquabats have many songs of romantic heartache and they somehow still manage to be very upbeat and make you want to sing along. One such song is The Story of Nothing which details the feelings of becoming invisible to your former lover and the feelings of emotional distance versus physical distance when you see your ex everyday but you don't talk to them. And also the painful and total lack of understanding about how the hell things got this way. This song is angsty but happy and it baffles me. But it's fucking awesome in explaining the loss of identity you get with many romantic break ups.

The Story of Nothing by The Aquabats:

http://www.dreiser.net/mp3/Story%20of%20Nothing.mp3

Last but not least is my favorite song by my favorite band and that's Playdough, the extended version, which is a secret track on The Fury of The Aquabats. Which, to me, is probably their best album from start to finish. Why is Playdough my favorite song? Because it pretty much is exactly who I am as a person. lol. It's sad that a song can explain me, isn't it? But whatever. That's what Playdough does for me and if you had any sort of wonderings about who the fuck is lame ass Nic then this song will clear it up. It's a song of longing for your lost toys and your youth and pondering where the fuck has time gone. But at the same time it's not sad. It celebrates those times and most of all, makes you feel that you're not so alone in your nerdy loves and obsessions. As if my ramblings about Sweet Valley High and the reaction it got didn't already prove that. Honestly though? These lyrics explain perfectly why I love and dorky connect with this song so much:

Running through my old life
Looking for my lost toys
Where has all my fun gone?
Now that we're all older
Before we grow much colder
We'll get together and sing this song
An anthem for all lost toys
Now that we're all big boys
We'll get together and sing this song
It's not too long
So everybody sing along

That's how I feel about life. Why the fuck as we get older do we have to lose our toys? Why do we have to forget what we loved as kids? Why in the hell do we have to be serious and stodgy and lose all sense of fun? And most of all why in the goddamn name of all that's holy do we have to try and be cool and trendy and whatever the fuck that our parents or our significant others or society wants us to be? Why can't we just be big kids who love life but still manage to pay all their bills? Why? Why? WHHYYYYYY? lol.

I'm ranting now and I don't think it's entertaining. Anyway, if you feel somewhat similar to me then maybe Playdough is your anthem as well. So everybody who agrees with me? Let's play the fucking song and sing along.

Playdough (Extended) by The Aquabats:

http://s62.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1TGE70QDEA5OB1EFKGULHPXYFR


END SHAMELESS ENDORSEMENT

Comments

[oneiric22.livejournal.com]

Take me back to my happy land.
Take me back to my happy land.

[dreiser.livejournal.com]

Hee. Exactly!

[(Anonymous)]

Hey - just wondering how things were going with your Danish fic?

eurovision song contest

[danish79.livejournal.com]

hey,

I thought you might be interested to hear the song germany just selected a few minutes ago to be at the eurovision song contest this year.
Maybe it's something you'll like, you know, being a music nerd and all...
I love it, it's different!

http://s5.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2HTFC4AZGT0SJ37ZKXP6GLAE47

Re: eurovision song contest

[dreiser.livejournal.com]

Ohh! I love this song. Although it's so happy and mellow I wonder how it's going to look live? Eurovision tends to favor those big dance numbers and such. How was it when they performed live for the Germany finals?

Re: eurovision song contest

[danish79.livejournal.com]

The song pretty much rocked the house lol, believe it or not. The other two songs to choose of sucked, they were both lame "everything is so pretty and everybody loves everybody" kinda thing. Im pretty sure that germany won't be the last one at the contest like last year, lol. I remember those two older guys from Sweden (?) who won a few years ago, so it doesn't always have to be the big dance numbers and so on.
That's getting boring anyway.

[dreiser.livejournal.com]

Well, Anonymous, lol, it's going nicely. I don't want to give any dates or times or anything else because I'm actually quite busy with real life crap but I have one scene left for Part 3.