#was this just an excuse for me to incoherently ramble about some spg songs i like? yes absolutely

[kaheeliez]

i wanted to recommend some songs that are good "starter" songs in my opinion!!

TLDR; this list ended up pretty long so if I had to pick just 10 songs to show to someone they'd be:

Brass Goggles (Album One)

Captain Albert Alexander (Album One)

Electricity Is In My Soul (Album One)

The Suspender Man (The 2-Cent Show)

Automatonic Electronic Harmonics (The 2-Cent Show)

Mecto Amore (MK III)

I'll Rust With You (MK III)

Fire Fire (The Vice Quadrant, Pt. 1)

Transform (1896)

Intertwined (1896)

in this list if you click on the bold song names it'll link to the music video (or music video-adjacent) for the song if applicable, or just the audio on youtube if not. be aware that the older videos will feature pre-transition rabbit (pre-2014), and may also feature certain members who have since been kicked out from the band for their actions.

Album One:

(album one & 2-cent show are pretty good albums to start with in general, they contain a lot of the spg songs that are considered classics and many of them are still on their set lists nowadays!)

Brass Goggles - goes into a little detail about the band's in-universe origins! i am a strong proponent of the theory that the more chaotic the performance of this song, the better it sounds -pls see the 2018 denver colorado performance as an example. zero stomping makes a camera fall over it’s so good. lead by rabbit

Electricity Is In My Soul - each robot gets a verse in this song. the 2009 version has spine, rabbit, upgrade and jon singing, the steamworld heist version includes hatchworth's verse. there isn't an official recording of zero's verse yet but there is a video on youtube that has all the verses

Captain Albert Alexander - one of the band's classic story songs! this one's about a legendary pirate captain!! this one is lead by the spine but rabbit has some elaborate mime choreography to go with it and i love her

I Am Not Alone - the one and only song led by upgrade! this song is about finding courage in yourself. upgrade's actor erin has such a pretty voice

Clockwork Vaudeville - a song about a fair the bots performed at once! lead by the spine

The 2-Cent Show

Steamboat Shenanigans - honestly the title sums it up pretty well. welcome aboard the ss biscuiteer! this one is lead by the spine but it's a group song mostly. the live version also slaps and has some silly choreography

Me & My Baby (Saturday Nights) - this song has walter workers chelsea and camille join the bots on stage for a dance, it's very very cool :)) you can see it here! the spine sings lead on this one

Rex Marksley - a story song about a famed gunslinger! the music video for this is just david bennett dressed up as a cowboy pulling goofy faces and twirling a gun. lead by the spine

Ju Ju Magic - this song really encapsulates the jon's,,,, jon-ness! very fun song

Automatonic Electronic Harmonics - a robot-flavoured cowboy song lead by the spine! the pre-song bit for this one has the bots get up to all sorts of wild west shenanigans it's so funny

Honeybee - the most well known song by the band ever. very pretty though - tragic breakup song lead by rabbit.

The Suspender Man - banging story song about a man who sold his soul to the bog in exchange for sick banjo skills. lead by rabbit. this one is also very good live

MK III

Mecto Amore - honestly i don't know how to describe this one. but it's such a banger. lead by rabbit

Hatch Fever - a hatchworth-centric song, as the name would suggest, that recounts rabbit and spine finding him in a package!! sibling vibes are off the charts in this one

Go Spine Go - 6 minutes and 14 seconds of hatchworth and rabbit bullying the spine to no end.

I'll Rust With You - the sapphic song ever. a very upbeat song lead by rabbit about some of her past lovers that she's since outlived. one of my personal favourites it's very groovy

Wired Wrong - robot sad song :( lead by the spine

Turn Back The Clock - another tragic rabbit song about people she's outlived. this is a pretty common theme for rabbit jsdfsd this time it's about a little girl called julia who frequents spg concerts, and rabbit watching her grow older and eventually pass away whilst julia's partner and child still go to the concerts. this song makes me sob,,,, oughhhhhhhhh rabbitttt,,,, and to top it off there's a beautiful ballet performance by chelsea and camille to accompany it

notes about VQ: if you want to get a handle on the story, listen to the songs in order and read the VQ timeline. i also recommend watching their vice quadrant fortnight series on youtube, which has all the band members explaining a little about the story and writing process of their respective songs. the songs listed below can be enjoyed with limited context/understanding of the story. but i think you should read the story cause there's a gay alien space cowboy. if that doesn't sell you on it idk what will

The Vice Quadrant, pt. 1

On A Crescendo - gentle, optimistic yet slightly apprehensive song about space travel. david said in a vice quadrant fortnight video that he pictures it as being about the protagonist of the vice quadrant (peter walter iv) and his father (peter walter ii). lead by the spine

Fire Fire - wonderful song about an astronaut witnessing his crewmates burn to death in a fire! i also highly recommend this beautiful live version of the song. lead by the spine

Star Valley Night - a silly song about why people might wish for it to be night rather than day. this one's a group song!

The Vice Quadrant, pt 2

Soliton - woah science! a sweet love song on the surface, but the lyrics are a little uhh strange sounding!! the relationship the song describes is definitely a pretty unhealthy one. sung by the astronaut peter walter iv (the protagonist of the vice quadrant's omega timeline, played by david michael bennett [who also plays the spine]) and the giant cosmic space lady that is cosmica, the daughter of space (played by chelsea penyak, who also plays walter worker chelsea)

The Pulls - this one's got a. strange music video for sure. an unconventional but gentle love song lead by hatchworth. i actually love this one

Over The Moon - this song is so sorely underrated it's so lovely and i am determined to show it to people. it's a love song lead by rabbit, but it's about. not being "over the moon" because you're in love, but being "over" love and the moon and the stars and everything! being "sick and tired of romance" as bunny put it! very pretty song

(Super Space Blaster Centi-Asteroid Invaderpedes 2 &) Whale Song - SSBCAI2 is a dialogue only track that leads into whale song. in short, rabbit has found a pod of space whales that she is trying to get her siblings to appreciate, but they're too tired or busy to notice. she sings a cute song to the whales instead (whale song). this one is adorable so i think you should listen to it personally

Quintessential

Malfunction - about loving yourself and your flaws!! :)) lead by rabbit

The Ballad of Delilah Morreo - story song about an epic lesbian vampire scientist lady who is also a vampire herself. she's so cool. mechs fans i am looking at you specifically. i don't know much about the mechs but i know there's a lesbian vampire in there. i love delilah so much she deserves everything. this one is half lead by rabbit and half a group song.

Sleep Evil Sleep - this song is severely underrated and makes me feel shrimp emotions. just look at the lyrics. lead by rabbit

Overdrive - the robots are rapping huh??? a group song :)

1896 (if i could recommend the whole album i would)

Eat Your Heart - there are so many interpretations to this song and tbh they're probably all right. love being intimidated by rabbit and her giant cutlery

Bad Days on the Horizon - the final verse of this song is so beautiful aughsfsfg. also this song is only 5 minutes long the other 9 minutes are the spine reading patron names and then having a crisis. enjoy!

Hot On The Trail - about a relationship that's Going Through It. the anger and emotion in this one is so good and also cool pantomime in the music video!! lead by the spine

Lyin' Awake - zero's angst song :) about his time being trapped in a basement

Intertwined - one of the most soothing songs ever written. led by zero!

Latum Alterum (Ya Ya Ya) - the music video for this one is so fun look at chelsea and camille they're demons!!! lead by rabbit

Transform - this song is about rabbit's transition! the differences in the lyrics and style between the version on 1896 (released in 2020) and the acoustic version isabella originally wrote (released in 2015, only half a year into her transition) make me sob i have so much to say about this song. pls if you're queer in any way and ESPECIALLY if you're trans you gotta listen to this one

Music from SteamWorld Heist

this album is mostly acoustic-y covers with a few new songs but there are two i want to mention:

On Top of the Universe - this is an album one song but this version is just. so sweet. love is real and this is the proof. lead by rabbit

Star Scrap - another beautiful but sad love song from rabbit

Covers and Singles

Summertime Sadness - this one is just so good oh my god. this song on its own has convinced three of my friends to listen to spg. lana del ray who? /j

Diamonds - this cover is iconic. sung by the spine and gg together what more could you want

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star - LOOK HEAR ME OUT. it's zero's gorgeous voice with rabbit and spine singing harmonies in the background it's beautiful i promise. it's so calming.

Hey I know nothing about steam powered giraffe but ur mechs Ben diagram post intrigued me, could u explain it pls?

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

Steam Powered Giraffe is a wonderful musical act with elements of comedy, pantomime and puppetry (shout out to GG the Giraffe).

Created in 1896 by Peter A. Walter I, the band consists of The Spine (David Michael Bennet), Rabbit (Isabella "Bunny" Bennet) and Zer0 (Bryan Barbarin).

Former members are Upgrade (Erin Burke) [from 2008 to 2011], The Jon (Jonathan Sprague) [from 2008 to 2012] and Hatchworth (Sam Luke) [from 2011 to 2016, although he 'became' a robot only after The Jon's departure].

RELEASED ALBUMS

please note that spg's style varies from album to album and sometimes even from song to song, so every new tune is a new adventure ;]

Album One - the first one, most old-timey in vibe. with that one song you might have heard. there's also a 2011 version of it without upgrade, but with Ice-Cream Man

The 2¢ Show - second album filled with train trips, cowboys, airplanes and this other song you might have heard (insect edition)

MK III - third album, with songs letting us know more about robots themselves (my personal favourite)

The Vice Quadrant part 1 and part 2 - fourth album, 2h space opera and a masterpiece, happening in two parallel universes. even most devoted fans have to check out the timeline sometimes to remember what's going on

Quintessential - fifth album with individual songs and the dnd anthem ever

1896 - sixth (and the newest!) album with absolute bops and foreshadowing for the new album. also, a song about a band sang by a band of people playing the robot band. bandception.

The Seventh - an upcoming album. all we have now is this trailer.

Bonus music

Music from SteamWorld Heist - new space-pirate themed songs and covers of older, popular tunes made for the SteamWorld Heist game. definitely deserves more recognition

covers and stand-alone songs not included on any of the albums

STUFF WORTH CHECKING OUT IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE

general info about the band/members

lore about creation of the band + timelines of both their fourth album "the vice quadrant" and the band itself

spg comics (now also on webtoon!)

@owlhari's youtube channel, with really fun early-performance compilations and more recent videos discussing lore, theories and the band itself

obviously the youtube channel of the band itself (if you dig around a bit you can find some pretty cool videos, such as these ones)

not to self-advertise, but spg community on tumblr is pretty neat. i've met wonderful people there and also found out that colonel walter ate dog food, so it's worth it to visit our tag sometime, i guess ;3