Beth’s Music Moment: “Very Busy People” by The Limousines

Check it out! Two Music Moment entries in one week, and another one about a specific song! I usually try to mix it up more than this, but I only recently discovered this band and listened to this song today while I was working out.

To try to explain my convoluted path to this, let me give you a little background. Ken and I recently got smartphones, so I’ve been playing around with mine lately. Cousin Shane and Matt often use an app called SoundHound to find out the title and artist of a particular song they hear while out and about, so I made sure to get that. When I work out, I take out my little MP3 player and hook it into the CD player, and I take my phone out to check news feeds while I’m on the bike. I sometimes use SoundHound to find the current song (if I like it a lot) and post it to Facebook. I can’t recall what song I was listening to and posted the video, but I was exploring SoundHound a little bit, and found the “find similar artists” features.

Are you still with me?

So I found several similar artists to whatever group I liked enough to post their video, and got some music online. One of those was The Limousines. I’m having fun finding new music lately, and I’ve been listening to it during my workout. Today, I listened to The Libertines (a little on the mellow side for me), and then The Limousines. One of the songs was “Very Busy People,” and from what I was catching on the lyrics, I was laughing out loud. I used SoundHound again to read the full lyrics, and I knew I had to post about it.

This is one of the cleverest songs I’ve heard in a while, and it is so true when it comes to being plugged in. I have had to make a conscious effort to be online less and read more. I don’t spend hours chatting (actually, I spend NO time chatting anymore), I don’t aimlessly surf, and I don’t spend an inordinate amount of time on videos; however, I get much of my political news online, so I spend quite a bit of time reading those stories. I watch short videos from The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, and Bill Maher’s show; I read the stories posted by like-minded friends; I have multiple news feeds that I go through every day. I’m on the verge of having too many, and I have been skipping a lot of them lately, merely because I have resolved to devote more time to reading.

So the irony of finding this hilarious song via an app that allowed me to find it while I was reading my news feeds on my smartphone as I worked out is not lost on me. The sheer deluge of information available at our fingertips at all times is mind-boggling. I had no desire for a smartphone for quite a while, but now that I have one, I’m not sure I could ever give it up. The ability to look things up while out and about, or to get directions, or figure out just what that song is—it’s on the tip of my tongue!—or to check game scores is nothing less than amazing.

I’ve been involved in the information age from fairly early on. I had a web page before there were such things as blogs, and although I’m not an expert, by any means, I have embraced the ability to find information with a simple search. However, I’m still trying to find a good balance of the real and the unreal, the corporeal and the virtual. I still spend more time than I want to spend as I do my daily online reading, but the proper mix is within reach (I think). Anyway, enjoy the lyrics—I hope you find them as amusing and pertinent as I did—followed by the video. I like this band, and look forward to listening to more of their stuff.

Very Busy People

We'll end up numb from playing video games
and we'll get sick of having sex
And we'll get fat from eating candy
as we drink ourselves to death
We'll stay up late making mix tapes
photoshopping pictures of ourselves
While we masturbate to these pixelated videos
of strangers fucking themselves

We are very busy people
We are very busy people

There's crusty socks
and stacks of pizza boxes
making trails straight to the bed
And when we're done sleeping
we'll stay busy dreaming of the things
we don't have yet
Well there's a long, long list of chores
and shit to do before we play
oh let's just piss away the day (piss away the day)
Crank call the cops down at the station
just for friendly conversation
requesting songs they never play
Let's hear the one that goes like:

We are very busy people,
We are very busy people
But we've always got time for new friends

So come on over and knock on our door,
it's open, what you waitin' for?
We might be sprawled out on the floor,
but we still make lovely company
Pull up a chair, I'll pour some tea,
We'll shoot the shit, 'bout everything
till you get sick of politics
and flip on the TV screen
We stare at the TV screen

That Donnie Darko DVD has been repeating for a week
and we know every single word (every single word)
I've got an iPod like a pirate ship
I'll sail the seas
with fifty thousand songs I've never heard
And all the best of them go
Fa la la la la la...
Fa la la la la la...

We are very busy people
We are very busy people
But we've always got time for new friends
Yeah
Fa la la la la la...
Fa la la la la la...