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ShapeSphere · Joined: 16 Oct 2004 Posts: 386

Calling all music lovers.

This is a long shot, but I have exhausted all the search engines (Google, Yahoo, Dogpile, Ask Jeeves, A9, etc.) on the internet. I am trying to identify a song which I can download. (I know downloading is illegal - so no lecturing please).

The problem is I don't know the name of the song or the band. Yes that is rather problematic I must admit.

However I remember the music video very well. The band were North American, one-hit wonders probably, the song was about 3-5 years old, it was rock music, but the song was fairly relaxed in pace and tempo with a brilliant catchy tune, the video also contained the band playing to a backdrop of hundreds of little toy robots.

This last part might provide a spark of remembrance to the mighty intellects on this site. (BTW it's not Radio GaGa by Queen or Intergalactic by the Beastie Boys. Those two I know. And they didn't have lots of little robots.)

It is absurd that I am using this forum for song id - but then everything else has been discussed. So apologies to the self-righteous ones.

If you can help - then it would be greatly appreciated. If you can't help - could I ask that you shut your cakehole? Wink

Sinobear · Joined: 24 Aug 2004 Posts: 1269 Location: Purgatory

Have you tried the Billboard Top 40 charts? Do you remember any of the lyrics? Some of the lyrics sites let you search for a song with just a few lines.

Good luck!

Atlas · Joined: 09 Jun 2003 Posts: 662 Location: By-the-Sea PRC

try the Billboard top 100 and cross index with a google image search....

ShapeSphere · Joined: 16 Oct 2004 Posts: 386

Thanks for the advice, but I have been doing all that regards the image searches. This turned up the Flaming Lips - it might be them as they sound a little similar. Am downloading them anyway to find out - as they are good.

I don't remember the lyrics accurately enough to find it on Billboard - but I will look. Embarassed

Just the melody was very good and the video is still clear in my head.

gtidey · Joined: 18 May 2004 Posts: 93

give us the genre, a bit more specific like "surfer rock" or "pop rock" or "punk rock" or even "like weezer or like jimmy eat world"

and by north american you dont mean canadian?

and tell us more scenes from the video, not just the one with the robots.

if u can, think of what else was released at the time.

i used to work in a record shop, i am the master of "do you have: doo doo doo d-doo do doo?" Very Happy

by the way i had someone who wanted an opera tune and tried to sing me the tune. LOL!

ShapeSphere · Joined: 16 Oct 2004 Posts: 386

Hi gtidey. The genre? Not surfer rock. Maybe pop rock (but the band didn't look so trendy) or possibly indie rock - but hard to tell. As said above they probably sounded like the Flaming Lips - but more sedate.

North American - means I'm not sure if they were from the US or Canada. Probably the former - but the video never revealed their origin. I am just guessing.

The whole video I remember well - it was purely the band in a studio miming to their song. The band were a relaxed group - not good-looking or overly trendy - just your average blokes enjoying their living. Around them were lots of these little toy robots moving about, falling over, lights buzzing. That was the whole video. Cheap and cheerful.

I first heard it in Germany! And think it was in my later stages there. So this narrows the time frame down to mid-2002 to mid-2003. (I will check at chart hits in this period).

The lyrics are really uncertain - at first I thought it was "Turn it on" - but checked that one by the Flaming Lips - and it's not that. I think the song had something to do with 'on' and the toy robots and their energy & power must have had some connection to that.

Thanks for writing in! Very Happy

ntropy · Joined: 11 Oct 2003 Posts: 671 Location: ghurba

Try sticking the lyrics in:

www.getlyrics.com

I regularly use this site to get lyrics and do cloze exercises to music.

Sinobear · Joined: 24 Aug 2004 Posts: 1269 Location: Purgatory

The Flaming Lips did indeed have a video for their track 'Yoshimi and Pink Robots'; but I'm not going to send you my copy. Nyah.

Cheers!

distiller · Joined: 31 May 2004 Posts: 249

That is true and that album is great, although Soft Bulletin is hard to beat. Sadly, I do not think there are a bunch of tiny robots in the video for any of the songs on the album.

Brooks · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 1369 Location: Sagamihara

was it Do you Realize?
That was from the Flaming Lips.

ShapeSphere · Joined: 16 Oct 2004 Posts: 386

Sinobear · Joined: 24 Aug 2004 Posts: 1269 Location: Purgatory

ShapeSphere: you may also find the following links of interest -
http://spiritofradio.ca/Charts.asp
http://www.technology.niagarac.on.ca/people/mcsele/music.htm
http://www.flashbackalternatives.com/

Cheers!

waygukgaijinhaole · Posted: Fri Dec 24, 2004 7:59 am Post subject:

Please post if you figure it out. It is gonna drive me mad. Smile

ShapeSphere · Joined: 16 Oct 2004 Posts: 386

FOUND IT!

It's called "Now It's On" by Grandaddy. (Band name is correct spelling!)

By chance I came across a very useful website:

http://www.musicplasma.com/

This is a graphically pleasing site that allows you to enter a band name and it displays other bands that are linked in style or genre to them. So if you don't know the lyrics of a song, you could find a song by association. (E.g. I entered "Flaming Lips" as felt the song was similar to their sound, I then espied "Grandaddy" and this felt familiar, checked their discography and noticed "Now It's On" - which I instantly knew was the one I wanted.)

The site displays a discography of the band and you can zoom in or out to get a narrower or broader picture of the musical relationships.