"Another Postcard" is a 2003-released song by the

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

rock band A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two guita ...

Barenaked Ladies Barenaked Ladies is a Canadian rock band formed in 1988 in Scarborough, Ontario. The band developed a following in Canada, with their self-titled 1991 cassette becoming the first independent release to be certified gold in Canada. They reach ...

. It was the band's first single from the album ''

Everything to Everyone ''Everything to Everyone'' (commonly abbreviated ''E2E'') is the sixth full-length studio album by Barenaked Ladies. It was released in 2003 and was produced by Ron Aniello. Singles from the album include " Another Postcard", "Testing 1, 2, 3 ...

'' which was released after the band took a nearly two-year hiatus from performing. The song is notable for its

reggae Reggae () is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1960s. The term also denotes the modern popular music of Jamaica and its diaspora. A 1968 single by Toots and the Maytals, " Do the Reggay" was the first popular song to use ...

-rap verses. The verses are rapped by

Ed Robertson Lloyd Edward Elwyn Robertson (born October 25, 1970) is a Canadian musician, best known as the lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter of the band Barenaked Ladies. He, along with former member Steven Page, founded the group in 1988. As of Page's ...

while the chorus and bridge are led by Steven Page. The two co-wrote the track. The song was used and featured in the end credits and on the soundtrack of the

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

film '' Space Chimps''.

Content

The song is a story told by a protagonist who explains his situation. He has been receiving anonymous

postcard A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare. There are novelty exceptions, such as wood ...

s with images of

chimpanzee The chimpanzee (''Pan troglodytes''), also known as simply the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forest and savannah of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed subspecies. When its close relative th ...

s on the front. The verses explain the situation while the pre-choruses list various types of chimpanzees on some of the postcards. The song was inspired when a neighbour of Page's sent a postcard depicting a chimpanzee to one of Page's children. This inspired the plot of the song. It was originally written as a joke song but became the first single off the album. A sizable portion of the band's fanbase saw the song for little more than its trivial subject matter. The selection of the song as a single was attributed to the band's record company

Reprise Records Reprise Records is an American record label founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operates through Warner Records, one of its flagship labels. Artists currently signed to Reprise Records include Enya, Michael ...

and was seen as an attempt to recapture the success of similarly rap-inspired singles "

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" and " Pinch Me". The song was not particularly successful and did not attain the success of the two aforementioned songs, each being the first single from one of the band's two preceding albums (''

Stunt A stunt is an unusual and difficult physical feat or an act requiring a special skill, performed for artistic purposes usually on television, theaters, or cinema. Stunts are a feature of many action films. Before computer generated imagery spec ...

'' and ''

Maroon Maroon ( US/ UK , Australia ) is a brownish crimson color that takes its name from the French word ''marron'', or chestnut. "Marron" is also one of the French translations for "brown". According to multiple dictionaries, there are var ...

'' respectively).

Music video

The

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

for the song was directed by

Phil Harder Philip Harder is a music video director and commercial director represented by Bob Industries in Santa Monica, California.Bobcentra ...

who directed many of the band's later videos. The video is a parody of the

B-movie A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double featur ...

monster A monster is a type of fictional creature found in horror, fantasy, science fiction, folklore, mythology and religion. Monsters are very often depicted as dangerous and aggressive with a strange, grotesque appearance that causes terror and fe ...

/ disaster genre and is split between two sets of scenes. The first is a disaster movie style film in which the band (under pseudonyms and in costume) avoided fake rubble in an attack by a giant chimpanzee, shot intentionally

campy Camp is an aesthetic style and sensibility that regards something as appealing because of its bad taste and ironic value. Camp aesthetics disrupt many of modernism's notions of what art is and what can be classified as high art by inverting aes ...

and interspersed with actual footage from the disaster film ''

Earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

''. The second set of scenes are performance, filmed in a round room with windows, intended to be inside

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

's CN Tower (although the set the band plays in is not based on the actual interior). At the end, the CN Tower becomes a rocket and launches into outer space carrying the chimpanzee with it, a la ''

Gamera is a fictional monster, or '' kaiju'', originating from a series of Japanese films. Debuting in the 1965 film ''Gamera, the Giant Monster'', the character and the first film were intended to compete with the success of Toho's ''Godzilla'' film ...

''. In the music video, the band's keyboardist Kevin Hearn is playing a

Nord Nord, a word meaning "north" in several European languages, may refer to: Acronyms * National Organization for Rare Disorders, an American nonprofit organization * New Orleans Recreation Department, New Orleans, Louisiana, US Film and televisi ...

synthesizer.

Track listing

#"Another Postcard" #"Next Time" (acoustic)

Personnel

– lead vocals, acoustic guitar * Steven Page – electric guitar, background vocals *

Jim Creeggan James Raymond Creeggan (born February 12, 1970) is the bassist for Canadian alternative rock band Barenaked Ladies. Early life Creeggan was born in Scarborough, Ontario. His mother taught piano lessons to neighborhood children, which Creeggan cred ...

– double bass, background vocals *

Kevin Hearn Kevin Neil Hearn (born July 3, 1969) is a Canadian musician who is a member of Barenaked Ladies, and his own group, Kevin Hearn and Thin Buckle. He primarily plays keyboards and guitars. He is also a member of Rheostatics. Early life Hearn was ...

– keyboards, background vocals *

Tyler Stewart Tyler Joseph Stewart (born September 21, 1967) is the drummer for the Canadian music group Barenaked Ladies. Role in Barenaked Ladies Stewart met Steven Page, Ed Robertson, and Jim Creeggan at the Waterloo Busker Carnival in Waterloo, Ontario, C ...

– drums, background vocals * "Chimp Chorus": ** Anna Hill ** Chris Wonzer ** Eric Sarafin ** Keith Rudyk ** Kevin "Chad" Robinson ** Pierre Tremblay ** Steven McDonald

Charts

References

{{authority control Barenaked Ladies songs 2003 singles Songs written by Steven Page Songs written by Ed Robertson Song recordings produced by Ron Aniello 2003 songs Reprise Records singles Music videos directed by Phil Harder