owl's steam powered giraffe song of the day!

[owlhari]

lays my hands down on the metaphorical table between me and whoever is reading this.

so, my main special interest is this funky little robot band called steam powered giraffe. their whole Thing is that the real-life band members play robot characters, acting like robots on stage and writing songs from the robots' perspectives. they've been around since 2008, have six main albums with a seventh on the way, and have tons of worldbuilding lore behind the act. their music also slams extremely hard.

instead of infodumping forever all at once, we'll be posting a song of theirs every day(ish) and talking about it! links will go to their official youtube, which has lyrics in the descriptions. if you want info or song recs Right Now i have a whole section of our website where we ramble about spg.

of course, if you have questions or stuff to say about the band, please post them! we love talking about this wonderful musical project.

the first spg song of the day has to be brass goggles

this video features rabbit (she/her, copper), the spine (he/him, silver) and the jon (he/him, gold) alongside the human backing musicians. it's one of the band's earliest songs and can be found on their first album, aptly named album one. it's the final song of most in-person shows!

the song is a great introduction to the characters as it goes through their backstory! colonel peter a. walter the first built a giant mechanical giraffe to fight giant copper elephants that were built by his rival, thadeus becile. the robots were built earlier, and (most of them) were originally meant to only play music, but he modified them for war. i'll talk about warbots another time because oh my god it's so sad.

my favorite lyric is hard to choose, but it's probably...
And what is this leaking affecting my eye?
Does the oil that is dripping mean this is a cry?

i dunno. lots of the lyrics in this song are about what it means to be alive, what it means to be a robot, and where those two things intersect. but that particular line gets me every time.

[owlhari]

i'm cheating a little bit already because i created this thread at like 1am last night but that's pretty much Yesterday anyway.

today's spg song of the day is honeybee

their most popular song on youtube and probably their most popular song, period. they play it practically every show and for good reason. it's a great song. it was released as a single before appearing on their second album, the two-cent show.

isabella bunny bennett, the actor behind rabbit, started writing this song and then was broken up with, which ultimately changed its final meaning. in-universe, this song is about a fairground animatronic rabbit fell in love with. overall, it's about loss, love, grief, and all the bittersweet feelings associated with them.

fun performance facts about this song: rabbit always breaks down near the end, glitching and malfunctioning so bad that she has to reset herself before continuing. the exact reason is unknown, but a lot of fans think it's because she gets so sad that it overloads her :[

also, at newer shows there is an extra verse added at the very beginning, over the instrumental. it goes like this...
There was a time I was in love
And all the angels and the doves
Couldn't make her say
I love you

i don't think i can pick a favorite lyric, but turpentine, erase me whole with the harmonies is always. chef's kiss.

[owlhari]

today's spg song of the day is shattered stars

this one's a zero song! he's the current third member of the band alongside the spine and rabbit. so far he only appears in their sixth album, 1896, although he's been a part of stage shows since 2017.

i love zero very much. he's super friendly, has a childlike imagination, and acts like the sweetest little brother to the twins. he also has military-grade weaponry because he wasn't originally built for music. (i'll talk about all that angsty weapon-zero stuff when i talk about lyin' awake. because oh boy i have a lot to say about weapon-zero.)

shattered stars really exemplifies how much of a joy zero is. he's so cute and cheerful and is filled with such wonder about life and Being Alive.

also this is the first song of the day appearance of the walter workers! they're the ones in very pale makeup and blue hair seen in a few shots. in-universe, chelsea (short hair) and camille (long hair) are mechanics and dancers for the robots, fixing any mishaps that happen on stage. in real life, they dance and work the merch table at shows.

anyway!! my favorite lyric in this song is...
My heart has always tended to be blue
Though I think it's strange but true
I think I'm finding I'm in love with you

it's just so cute. "blue" also has a bit of a double meaning here, as in the band's lore, "blue matter" is the energy source that powers the robots. and, as you might gather as i continue posting to this thread, i am a Certified Lore Enthusiast.

[owlhari]

today's spg song of the day is prepare for boarding

i let shuffle decide this one because i couldn't choose, and i'm very glad it did because i get to talk about steamworld heist! also this is the first song of the day with hatchworth, the bronze automaton with the stovepipe. i adore him.

anyway, steamworld heist is a very fun and cool video game where you're robot space pirates saving the universe and collecting a bunch of hats. it's a part of the steamworld series, but you don't need to have played any of the other games to enjoy heist. i'm bad at explaining video games, go look it up if you're interested.

steam powered giraffe did the soundtrack for heist! they also appear in the game as NPCs, and the spine even has a few lines of dialogue. you can hear them after winning boss fights, on the radio in certain locations, and see them perform at the various space bars you can enter. it's really fun to run into them when you're not expecting it.

there are very few lyrics to pick a favorite, but i really like the way they sing steamworlds torn apart at the end of the song.

[owlhari]

today's spg song of the day is hot on the trail

the thumbnail for the music video is so spooky. where'd your eyes go, the spine!?

this one's from their most recent album, 1896. spine's vocals are spectacular as always, and his mime skills are on full display in the music video. david michael bennett (the spine's actor) is so incredibly talented at robotic movements. the video was also taken in just a single shot!

my favorite lyric is
My heart placed in your hand
Then we gave love a chance and...

the way the song ends on the "and," leaving all that hope and love open-ended. maybe the relationship ended well, maybe it's still going. but that's not the focus of the song, and i think that's neat.

[owlhari]

skipped a couple days, we've been busy. whoops.

today's spg song of the day is i am not alone

the only upgrade song! her actor didn't like to sing very much and she left the band in 2011, before their second album released. she has a wonderful voice, though. lyrics can be found on this page because they're not on the youtube upload.

the song begins with the dialogue "ooh! i like this one!" due to how the previous track ends—the spine malfunctions and starts playing random songs before stopping on this one.

i love upgrade a lot. did you know she's canonically a hippie? she dodged the draft during the vietnam war. unlike her siblings, she was a nurse and not a weapon. yippee for sexism i guess. she's also a princess in kazooland, a wacky magical dimension in spg's lore.

this song is very sweet and very comforting. to us, it's about siblinghood and well. not being alone. it can also be interpreted as being about plurality, and in that way it means a lot to us as a system.

our favorite lyric is hard to choose, but the way upgrade sings if i trip or if i fall or if i'm just too scared is very nice.

[owlhari]

today's spg song of the day is hatch fever

hatchy-boy you're ready to go far!! this is sort of an introduction to hatchworth and all his silliness. his vocals in this song are spectacular (yes he does that extremely long note at the end during live shows too, and yes his voice really does go that high!)

fun performance fact: um. this one's under a spoiler for describing gore(?) because although spg is a family-friendly show i don't want this bit out in the open lmao

Spoiler

sometimes during live shows, after the "open up that chest cavity!" line, hatchworth mimes ripping a still-beating heart out of his hatch, sounds and all. then he throws it to rabbit, who either throws it into the audience or. she eats it. i'm not kidding.

[close]

other fun performance facts that are wholesome this time i swear: the skit before the song is usually rabbit trying to tell the story of hatchworth's arrival, only for hatchy to get too excited and interrupt her. then she throws a mini-tantrum because she wants to tell the story!! let her tell the story, hatchworth!! they're such siblings and i love them.

lastly, at the beginning of the song, rabbit and the spine stand side-by-side and hide hatchworth from the audience. then they swing open like a door when his vocals start! in some recordings you can see him peeking out from behind them like ":D i'm so excited for my song! yippee!!"

my favorite lyric is probably
Please don’t act out these lyrics
We don’t want you to leave so soon

it's very silly, and the way he sings "leave so soon" in most live recordings is always very good. there's a particular cadence to it that i really enjoy. i just love his voice in general, but that's the case with everyone in this band!!

[owlhari]

today's spg song of the day is automatonic electronic harmonics

also listen to the steamworld heist version with hatchworth if you want!

cowboy? time? i guess? it's very upbeat and cool, the bots are rockin' out and i love it. but also it's such a sad song? it's about being not-quite-human, having emotions and singing about love but people still see you as just a machine. it's very special to us. and of course the harmonies are gorgeous.

our favorite lyrics are so hard to pick because they're all beautiful, but:
And oh, maybe it's alright, 'cause baby it fights
for some time just to be held tight
And oh, maybe it's not wrong, 'cause it sings a lovely song
one that drifts on for so long

the bots just want to be held!!! and they want to sing about love and they sing so wonderfully and people still don't treat them right!! and their songs resonate with so many humans because humans feel the same way, too!!! aaa!!