SONG:
ARTIST: grant. Originally by Tom Waits.
SOURCE: This is another penitential cover version – penance for a late original song. It’s about insects. And people. There’s no specific scientific source, although you can see the video to the original song here.
ABSTRACT:
“Army Ants” was recorded following the precedent of the late song – a spoken word number with some… vocal experimentation. In this case, I was using a gag I learned from Captain Beefheart (which also appears on the second track of this a capella album): cutting up a vocal and reassembling it later. Beefheart (and, as far as I can tell, Appendix Out) used one singer and audiotape. I used my family members and the computer.
The family that records together, forms a super-intelligent colony organized to protect the queen and defend against attacking colonies together.
I wanted it to sound like that, anyway.