"Signals Over the Air" is the first single from War All the Time and the first major label single from the band, reaching #30 on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

Modern Rock Tracks

Modern Rock Tracks

Alternative Songs is a music chart in the United States that has appeared in Billboard magazine since September 10, 1988. It lists the 40 most-played songs on modern rock radio stations, most of which are alternative rock songs...

 chart. It performed at most live Thursday shows, usually with vocalist Geoff Rickly

Geoff Rickly

Geoffrey William Rickly Geoffrey William Rickly Geoffrey William Rickly (born March 8, 1979 is the lead singer and songwriter of Thursday, an American rock band from New Brunswick, New Jersey. They have released six studio albums. Rickly grew up in Dumont, New Jersey...

 explaining that the song is about sexual revolution

Sexual revolution

The sexual revolution was a social movement that challenged traditional codes of behavior related to sexuality and interpersonal relationships throughout the Western world from the 1960s into the 1980s...

; during the tour following War All the Time, an extended introduction was played before the song. This introduction was recorded as part of the Live from the SoHo & Santa Monica Stores

Live from the SoHo & Santa Monica Stores

Live from the SoHo & Santa Monica Stores is a split EP by emo/screamo band Thursday and emo/post-hardcore band Thrice. It features live acoustic performances of nine songs. All of the songs performed by Thrice on the EP previously appeared on their Island Records debut, The Artist in the Ambulance...

split EP; a live acoustic version of single the song was used on Y100 Sonic Sessions Volume 8, taken from a live radio session recorded by the band in November 2003 at Indre Studios in Philadelphia. A radio edit

Radio edit

In music, a radio edit is a modification to make a song more suitable for airplay, whether it be adjusted for length, profanity, subject matter, instrumentation, or form...

 exists as well, removing much of the bridge near the end of the song.

To correspond with the release of War All the Time, Thursday released a video discussing the track. Rickly comments that sexuality

Human sexuality

Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...

 used to be talked about in punk rock

Punk rock

Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

 songs, but it is now seen as taboo

Taboo

A taboo is a strong social prohibition relating to any area of human activity or social custom that is sacred and or forbidden based on moral judgment, religious beliefs and or scientific consensus. Breaking the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society...

. He continues that the song is about gender

Gender

Gender is a range of characteristics used to distinguish between males and females, particularly in the cases of men and women and the masculine and feminine attributes assigned to them. Depending on the context, the discriminating characteristics vary from sex to social role to gender identity...

 issues and discussing sexuality in a nonnegative way; he also states that the song is about coming to terms with his own sexual identity, saying he doesn't feel an affinity for male culture such as The Man Show

The Man Show

The Man Show is an American comedy television show on Comedy Central. It was created in 1999 by its two original co-hosts, Jimmy Kimmel and Adam Carolla, and their executive producer Daniel Kellison.-Format:...

. Rickly relates a story where a gay

Gay

Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....

 man used the song to help him, even though people would call him faggot

Faggot (epithet)

Faggot, often shortened to fag, is a pejorative term and common slur used chiefly in North America against homosexual males. Its pejorative use has spread from the United States to varying extents elsewhere in the English-speaking world through mass culture, including movies, music, and the...

. Rickly states that he has always enjoyed songs like PJ Harvey

PJ Harvey

Polly Jean Harvey is an English musician, singer-songwriter, composer and occasional artist. Primarily known as a vocalist and guitarist, she is also proficient with a wide range of instruments including piano, organ, bass, saxophone, and most recently, the autoharp.Harvey began her career in...

's "Man Size".