Songfacts®:

• Frontman Frank Black explained to NPR that the song is about "a girl, a girl who plays the bass guitar." He added: "It's got kind of a metal riff which I think that, on occasion, we all really enjoy playing, even though we're not a metal band And I wouldn't be the first to write a song about some gal who plays bass."
• The song's music video was directed by Jonathan Furmanski and Matthew Galkin and set in the desert. Speaking to NPR, the directors explained they originally had some grand plans for the clip but in the end decided it was cheaper to just blow guitarist Joey Santiago up. They stated: "Our original vision for the 'What Goes Boom' video was to create an homage to a central, dramatic scene in Star Wars. But, after that idea proved a bit too costly to produce, we decided the next best thing was to blow up Joey Santiago in the desert – the compromises we make for our art."
• The lyrics "Grace...carryin' her bass" are a reference to Frank Black's wife Violet Clark. "Her middle name is Grace," he explained to Mojo magazine. "She plays bass, and I guess it's a snapshot of me at that time, chancing upon her. The chorus is, "What goes boom?' well, she goes boom – who the hell is that?'"