I’m Back
June 7th, 2007
Those of you who have been watching the live stream of me recording this song over the last week or so have already heard it plenty I’m sure, but for the rest of you, here’s a new song. It’s the first public thing I’ve written since the end of Thing a Week in September of last year, and it feels good.
My daughter went through a phase where she asked constantly for this YouTube video (which, incidentally, is a blatant violation of copyright) of a National Geographic show about octopuses. In the opening sequence, the unassuming and literally spineless octopus takes out a shark like it’s no big thing – the shark is just minding his own business when all of a sudden, bam! Eight arms, baby. If you are a sea creature that an octopus wants to eat, God help you, because it’s definitely going to eat you, and it’s going to hurt a lot. So for a while I went around singing “Octopus, some kind of octopus,” in my head and thinking about an octopus just tearing things to pieces, mostly crabs. Naturally, this became a nice metaphor for a breakup song (as long as I avoided using the word “sucker”).
Here it is for your listening pleasure. Feel free to actually buy it if you like it, but at the very least I hope you will pass it around:
WOO! Sounding good!
I found the octopus video and turned the sound down on it and pretended that was the music video for it. Good times!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_6jQ6b-Tqg
I drew a visual response to Joco recording the song. You can see it here.
I also recorded myself creating, a la Monster By Mail.
I will edit the video and link it when I am done.
Technically what an octopus will to a crab is liquefy it and suck it out of the shell, but that’s pretty gruesome too.
Sounding good! You’re right–it would make a pretty good breakup song.
That’s awesome, especially “you make my insides, outsides” !
You put Octopus together so fast it didn’t have a chance to tear stuff apart!
As promised, here is the video. This may be the fastest video ever done for a JoCo song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE84HH8wNwY
This is me jumping up and down like a fanboy. Awesome song.
[...] end of the Thing A Week project last September. It’s called “Octopus” (download here) and was recorded over the past week. Coulton set up a live stream of the recording and allowed [...]
Len, you beat my record on the video of 1 day!
I like this song already…probably because I’ve heard it lots already before it was released.
Wow. What a great song and a fun ride along with it. Thanks for letting us in on the process.
[...] Listen: Octopus Jonathan Coulton released a new song. What are you waiting for? Go listen! Tags: Asides , Jonathan Coulton , [...]
Mr. Coulton,
Since I enjoyed the making of the song so much, I attempted to buy 3 copies of it, so as to pay what I feel is a fair price for the more than a song experience I got, however, the sopping card system automatically reduced my “quantity” to “1″ – so I ran through two more transactions. But your songs are worth more than a buck to me. In fact, if you had let me :name my price” I would have probably paid $5.00 for “Octopus”
Whoops. Missed the “Update Cart” feature – carry on.
Oy, one last comment and I’ll shut up. I’ve been singing just the chorus of “Octopus” since yesterday – as my wife left for work this morning, she was humming…”Octopus, some kind off Octopus” having not even herd more than my creaky warbles of the tune. That’s what I call an “infectious” riff.
Mmm…extended metaphor….very cool song.
Octopuses have three hearts but it sounds like this particular one lacks any at all…
I really dig this song. I’ve been jonesing for some new music.
I didn’t know octopi had more than one heart.
Ahhh…. a new Coulton track. Perfect addition to a Friday.
So is that an album title, then, on the Music page? “The Aftermath” seems like a great title for a Coulton compilation, evoking both broken relationships and geeky Mandelbrotian academia.
Oh, this is a happy happy week! Birthweek for a new album, birthweek for new online recording experiences, new online illustration/recording/publication formats — I am off to buy a couple of bananas.
Yes. Awesome.
Excellent. and, ahem, shouldn’t You Oughta Know also be in the Aftermath?
Awesome! It’s been forever. In return for once again giving me something melodious and geeky to hum you can count on a cut of my paycheck in the form of a banana or two.
Is this a sign of things to come? I sure hope so.
Also: I think it’s fantastic that your daughter is already watching YouTube and is so interested in natural history and in underwater battles between titans of the deep. Clearly, you are raising her well. ^^
Cool! Great to finally hear it since I wasn’t able to tune in on UStream. Now it’s time for me to announce this to everyone in my address book. Let the viral marketing begin!
Martin F: If you’re just dying to throw your hard-earned cash at JoCo, which I strongly encourage, you can always buy bananas, monkeys and robots on the home page.
Woot! New JoCo song! Sounds great!
The inspiring video makes me wonder: first, I see a shark taken out by an orca (not surprising), then an octopus. Could sharks really be this overated?
Awesome song JoCo. Glad you’re back! Im gonna have this friggin song stuck in my head for days…i can feel it.
Long time listener first time writer and all that jazz…is it just me, or did the website go down again yesterday afternoon? It wouldn’t load for a while on my computer.
Anyways, three or more huzzahs for octopi and metaphors!
Now if I could just quit slacking off on my creative output…
I paid my dollar. Woohoo!
One of your best, JoCo… thanks so much for continuing to share the music via Creative Commons. I am continuously amazed at what your fans do with your songs.
-CSJ
I guess that an octopus’ garden wouldn’t be quite as much fun as we have been led to believe.
If your daughter ever fixates on anything from the Discovery Channel drop me a line.
Hmmm….. there’s ‘Furry Old Lobster’, ‘Seahorse’, ‘I Crush Everything’, and now ‘Octopus’.
A few more songs like that and you’ll have enough for a “Jonathan Coulton: Under The Sea” compilation album. Ka-ching!
Or, if you don’t want to wait, you can throw in ‘Code Monkey’, ‘My Monkey’, ‘De-Evolving’, ‘Under The Pines’ and ‘Cobras’ and release a “Jonathan Coulton: A Day at the Zoo” compilation album right now instead.
reminded me of an earlier cephalopod intensive internet classic . . . behold the fishy triumphant!
http://www.threebrain.com/dailies2.php?daily=168
[...] Coulton has released another song about love, life, relationships and cephalopods. Octopus is his first public song since his celebrated Thing a Week ended last year. Nice to hear from him [...]
JoCo! This is amazing!! Like seriously just sososo good… I’m so happy you got a new song up.. it’s gorgeous!
[...] is how it happened… Someone posted on Twitter that Jonathan Coulton had a new song out called Octopus. So, being the curious type, I went over to JoCo’s site to check it out. Turns out a guy [...]
I drew a picture about this song.
http://lunajurai.deviantart.com/art/Octopus-some-kind-of-Octopus-83070993
“My daughter went through a phase where she asked constantly for this YouTube video (which, incidentally, is a blatant violation of copyright) of a National Geographic show about octopuses.”
It isn’t against copyrite. It was on the actual National Geographic channel, so it was released by the producing company.