| Vampire Weekend – Walcott Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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As someone said before, the Provincetown Bears are a group of hairy gay men in P-Town. http://www.ptownbears.org/main.asp I don't think 4-C's has a mascot. |
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| Vampire Weekend – Walcott Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Go behind Spartan Cleaners. Or near the Old Charles Moore Arena. There are parts of Hyannis that can seriously be labeled as "ghetto." These kids summered in Eastham though, so they're probably meaning for it to be ironic. |
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| The Decemberists – O New England Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| When the Decemberists played in Boston two years ago, Colin Meloy said that he used to go out with a girl who was from Boston and he and her mom did the freedom trail (I guess the girlfriend refused to do it or something). This might be about his trip to Boston. The blue line probably refers to the Train system in Boston and the T's blue line mostly goes along the waterfront, it leads to the aquarium and airport. The subway system in Boston up until two years ago took tokens (hence the mention of him losing his token). | |
| Dropkick Murphys – For Boston Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| Yup this is the Boston College Fight Song. It's actually one of the oldest in the country. BC's nickname is the Heights, because Gasson Tower is on top of a big hill on campus. The second verse is never used during football or hockey games, however, I'm pretty sure the Dropkicks are the only people who know it. | |
| Spoon – The Underdog Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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This song ALWAYS reminds me of the latest Super Bowl. And I'm a Pats fan so that's not cool... The whole water boy thing is kind of funny too because Tom Brady probably wouldn't talk to the water boy, although maybe he's got time for it now. I like the song itself, it's catchy, but this album is so good that I don't think it's best song on there. |
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| Vampire Weekend – Walcott Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Hyannisport is famously the location of the Kennedy compound (and tons of other huge houses), so I'm assuming labeling it a ghetto is supposed to be ironic. However, directly across from the JFK memorial beach (or Veteran's Park) is an infamously rough part of town. I don't think that can be labeled Hyannisport though. |
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| Jens Lekman – You Are the Light (By Which I Travel Into This and That) Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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i love how the cops were actually sad because they couldn't prove his crime. jens lekman is a swedish fountain of sunshine and happiness. |
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| The Decemberists – After the Bombs Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I heard them perform this song in Boston last year, but I just got the mp3, and oh my gosh I forgot about how incredible it is. It seems more California One than Crane Wife to me, and I love it. I think the people above me have pretty much got the meaning. | |
| The Decemberists – My Mother Was a Chinese Trapeze Artist Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| It's so sad and forlorn, like he feels so alone, but wishes that THESE were the reasons that he feels alone. Just kind of like "my parents and sister don't care about me, but they have good reason." I think Colin's said that this song has a lot to do with disillusionment, and I think it has to do with not being comfortable with your place. We all know Colin wants to be a sailor, but here he just wants to be a simple baker. He wishes he wished for simplicity. | |
| Ben Gibbard – Thin Ice Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I've fixed the lyrics. I heard this performed in Boston on May 7, 2007. He said that he wrote it for a movie soundtrack (or maybe just presented it for a movie soundtrack) but they didn't accept it because it was "too depressing." When I first heard it, I thought of it as a break up song, but I think wyliekyle's interpretation makes more sense and goes along with maybe Ben's mindset when writing Plans (although I think Boston was the first time this was performed). Also, if this song were to be a band song, it would be a Death Cab song, not a Postal Service song since Ben writes PS lyrics over the beats. By the way, Death Cab's working on their 6th album now:). |
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| Los Campesinos! – You! Me! Dancing! Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Great, great song. The beginning is amazing and that guitar riff... I can't get it out of my head. Thanks for the real lyrics! |
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| The Thermals – Test Pattern Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| One of their slowest songs, and I'm totally addicted. Before I looked at the lyrics, ignoring the sort of anti-religious based undertones of the album, I figured it to be kind of a relationship thing. Like a guy wanting a girl to go out with him and being like "we don't have to commit! if you want, we'll break up anytime!" and then being like "but if you leave, i will cry, i will cry, i will cry." A lose-lose situation. But it could also be about his lost faith in God. That's probably the only why I can explain the lyrics "Cause I believe, I believe you could see me forever by his side." | |
| Death Cab for Cutie – Title and Registration Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| I'm from Boston, so we usually head west to find ourselves a better life. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – Dear Mr. Supercomputer Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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The live version is absolutely amazing. He omits most of the lyrics, but the orchestration and new arrangement is genius. You can find the mp3 here: http://ryspace.com/index.php/2006/10/02/sufjan-stevens-the-town-hall-september-29th/ |
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| The Decemberists – The Engine Driver Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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An interesting tidbit about money lenders, they'd have lots of money and lend it to people, collecting outrageous interests (and thus getting more money). Many of them knew they were doing the wrong thing but couldn't stop because they kept getting more money ("I am tortured, ever tortured"). Many of them thought they were hell-bound, so they'd become donors, giving massive amounts of money to build cathedrals and churches to save their souls. That's probably my favorite verse in the song. When the drum set drops out, the xelophone (or whatever kind of mallet instrument that is) part is just so perfect and subtle. I love it so much. |
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| Death Cab for Cutie – Someday You Will Be Loved Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| I never really liked this song until I was there. Gibbard knows. He always does. | |
| The Decemberists – Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then) Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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This song reminds me of the book/movie Cold Mountain and how it follows both stories of a soldier at war (this one presumably dead) and his sweetheart left at home. I got my hands on a pre-release of this album and then bought it when it came out, and Laura Veirs' vocals are slightly different. Colin's are the same. I'm just curious as to why this would happen. |
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| The Decemberists – The Engine Driver Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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People have touched on this, but I'll elaborate my own interpretation. He writes fictions, becoming his characters, trying to forget her. In one he's an engine driver, another he's a county lineman, another he's a money lender. In each of his main characters, he engrosses himself, and ultimately the characters all become the same: working men who are stuck in their jobs, and cannot stop thinking about this girl. It's ironic in that he has such freedom in creating stories, but in essence he can't get by his feelings and they all turn out the same. |
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| The Decemberists – My Mother Was a Chinese Trapeze Artist Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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He wrote it at a time when Tarkio was still around, and recorded it with them and probably performed it solo, but he's made it a Decemberists song since. By the way, the interview mentioned above (in like the second post) is a fantastic one. Sean Nelson, who's the lead singer of Harvey Danger and frequently contributes guest vocals on Death Cab records interviewed him and the article is great, especially the entire transcript. |
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| The Decemberists – Shankill Butchers Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I love the Decemberists' demented wives' tales and bedtime stories. (For another one, see A Cautionary Tale from Castaways and Cutouts.) It sounds as if this song was recorded in a similiar fashion to the Death Cab song "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" in that the singing and acoustic guitar part were recorded simultaneously in one take. It's particularly effective in that it makes the songs more sincere and, in this case, a lot more creepy. Mr. Walla seems to like that method. |
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| The Decemberists – The Crane Wife 3 Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| You know it's going to be a good album when its first song makes you cry and smile at the same time. (Sorry, but farewell2RMS took the words right out of my mouth.) I do believe the Decemberists have done it again. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – Romulus Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I don't think this will reach many people in time, but go out and buy this season's Topic magazine. The topic is Music so Sufjan wrote an article for it and it's amazing. It says that his own mother left his family when he was five: "I didn't know it then, but she is planning her escape. Front door, Parker Street, taxi cab, Greyhound, Amtrak, the golden promise of California, where she doesn't have to bear the bad-tempered music of her children any longer." It's heartbreaking, just like this song. |
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| Death Cab for Cutie – Lightness Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Haha you know when you're learning about Shakespeare in high school and sometimes you have to "put your dirty mind on"? Well, dear Mr. Gibbard does some wonderfully intelligent wordplay with these lyrics: "your heart is a river that flows from your chest through every organ your brain is the dam and i am the fish who can't reach the core." Just put your dirty mind on. The fish = semen, the core = his/everyman's 'goal.' He can't get to his goal because 'her mind' keeps saying "No." Gibbard does this all with keeping in the metaphor of the verse. But the best thing about this is you can interpret it any way you want. It doesn't have to be about sex... it's certainly not sung that way. Although he does a good job of sliding these things in: if you're looking for them. Look at Company Calls Epilogue, or 405 (or even, more bluntly, at We Looked Like Giants). Sometimes you just have to 'put your dirty mind on' with Death Cab. |
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| Death Cab for Cutie – Stability Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| Yeah, I did a whole Grapes of Wrath interpretation of the lyrics in the "Stable Song" section. Only if you're interested... | |
| Death Cab for Cutie – Stable Song Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I've been thinking about this song and I ended up finding similarities between it and the Grapes of Wrath. Tsuppi said something about oppressed farmers. And in the book there's that whole thing of them not having a home ("rows of deserted houses") and going to California with "nothing but crippling doubt." Which is true because they started off with so much hope, and then they found nothing that they didn't have before: each other. Which may be the "we'll rest easy (justified)" part. Also, "I've suffered a swift defeat, I'll endure countless repeats," they've been evicted from their homes and they're going to have to keep fighting every obstacle just to stay alive. I'm not saying it's ABOUT the Grapes of Wrath, it's just that I interpreted similar themes. It's a stretch, but it's something new. |
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| The Postal Service – Such Great Heights Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Aw, I can imagine Ben writing this song to his girlfriend while on tour with Death Cab. Radio debate aside, imagine hearing this song on the radio while knowing that it's written to YOU. And that's the amazing aspect of his songs. Even if you're not Mr. Gibbard's lucky girl, you still feel like the songs are written for you. For me, most of the songs that he's written projects a voice that says, "I understand. It happens." Sometimes it's nice just to hear something like that when you're in a bad mood. |
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| Snow Patrol – It's Beginning To Get To Me Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| hmm why don't they have the full lyrics in the book of the CD? Or am I blind? | |
| The Decemberists – A Cautionary Song Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| n00t and Meinos seem to have it. The only really important lines are the last four. The lines before serve as only a tale to reinforce the message to the kid to be kind to his mother. It might be totally untrue, or an exaggeration. How could the kid know: it happens when he/she is asleep. It's kind of like a Santa Claus of sorts: a tale to make kids behave well. I know I'm basically repeating what Meinos said, but it's so very logical, I have to reinforce it somehow. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – Carlyle Lake Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| I know it sounds weird, but this song vaguely reminds me of the Ewok song in Return of the Jedi. I can't put my finger on what it is, either. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – The Avalanche Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| The CD jacket says "Lord" although it does sound like "noise." But Lord is very Sufjany. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – The Avalanche Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| Oops. The "S" is in proximity to the "D." How sangerous. I mean dangerous. | |
| Sufjan Stevens – Dear Mr. Supercomputer Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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This song has a definite nod to the "You Never Give Me Your Money" portion of the Beatles' Abbey Road medley. "1-2-3-4-5-6-7 All good children go to heaven..." |
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| Sufjan Stevens – No Man's Land Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Thanks for the info on the time signature! Sometimes I can pick it out, sometimes I can't. This is one of my favorites on the Avalanche. In it Sufjan takes us across the land of Illinois. It starts with observations, the progresses to actions, then feelings, and all seem to be fueled by memory. He's showing what the land means to him, and at the end decides that the "land was made for the good of itself," but as it fed his memorys, functioned for the good of his existance as well. |
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| Death Cab for Cutie – Brothers on a Hotel Bed Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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thecomaboy: When it came out that Chris has a big hand in the song, many people assumed that he wrote the lyrics. I was just clearing that assumption up. (I'm guilty there too: I have a past post to prove it.) But I think usually with Death Cab songs, Ben has the basic melody, vocals, and rough arrangement written and then they take it apart and do what they do. Thus I'm assuming that Chris wrote the melody, and Ben wrote lyrics to go over it, which made the song more collaberative than past Death Cab recordings. It came out fantastic. If that is what they did, they should do it more often. |
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| Destroyer – Looter's Follies Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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This song = pure poetry. "Why can't you see that a life in art and a life of mimicry -- it's the same thing!!" It seems like it's just about being stuck in a rut, or in neutral. It's always secure to have some sort of position in life, whether it is bad or good. But what if you're neither here nor there? It's even worse than being at the negative end of the spectrum. "And win or lose - what's the difference?" |
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| Sufjan Stevens – The Henney Buggy Band Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| umm ok i'll fix. | |
| Death Cab for Cutie – 20th Century Towers Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I'm going with the 9/11 interpretation of this song. When I first heard it, I thought that it was about the songwriter losing his faith in God, with 20th century towers being churches. But I think the 9/11 thing fits better. | |
| Death Cab for Cutie – Stability Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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"When we recorded ['Stable Song'] as 'Stability' for The Photo Album, with the big, scary, bleak-ass outro, that was the sound of a band falling apart." -Chris Walla interview with The Onion's AV Club (http://www.avclub.com/content/node/41269/4) Can anyone else smell the irony? "'Stability' was the sound of a band falling apart." |
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| Sufjan Stevens – Pittsfield Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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The song is so amazingly pretty until the electric guitar gets ridiculously ugly, crazy and chaotic and then... beauty again. It's like a perfectly sunny day that concludes with a violent evening storm at dusk. And then there is calm again. |
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| Sufjan Stevens – The Mistress Witch from McClure (Or, the Mind That Knows Itself) Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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This song made me cry the first time I heard it. The children follow their father, and discover that he has a mistress. Chaos ensues with the discovery and he eventually leaves the family. Sometimes there are things you don't want to know. But if anybody can decifer the background vocals starting at "Oh my God, the shuffling at the floor" it would be a greatly appreciated post;). |
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| Keane – Is It Any Wonder? Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I think this song is amazing. They sound a lot like U2. But that's not a bad thing. Are those... guitars I hear, Keane? Oh, I also think that maybe the theme of this song was borne out of the conflicts between the band members while making this album. I read that they nearly broke up while making it, and maybe this song reflects the emotions they felt during that time. |
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| Ben Gibbard – Farmer Chords Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I'm pretty sure it's "These simple lines and you painted in words." This is because lines has a double meaning. The song is "Farmer Chords" which overall gives me an impression of a farm, like a painting. Often times a farm is laid out with lines of crops. Yet this is a metaphor for the ideal home that the singer's lover is away from. It also goes along with the song, the message, that the singer has given his lover so they'll remember each other while she is away. He has given her "lines" and "words" to think about when she's lonely. There is another way to interpret this song, too. The lover has gone away, and has been away for a long time, but the singer can't accept it, so he writes her a song to remember him by. He still believes that she is truly home when she is with him, so he invites her back "home" whenever she sings the song. |
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| Snow Patrol – Hands Open Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Sufjan Stevens? What a crazy allusion! I love it! |
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| Sufjan Stevens – In the Devil's Territory Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Could this be focussing on the time now known as Lent? When Jesus went into the desert (the Devil's Territory) and was tempted by the Devil? And then he emerged (Palm Sunday), died(Good Friday), and was resurrected (Easter Sunday). There's a big thing about waiting and "I'm not afraid to die." Also, the father which could be God. (If I'm inaccurate in the Bible part, feel free to correct.) Oh yeah, the instrumentation (banjo, acoustic guitar, piano, etc. rhythm and melody) is fantastically beautiful. But when isn't it with Sufjan? |
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| Death Cab for Cutie – Brothers on a Hotel Bed Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Oops. Links don't work. | |
| Death Cab for Cutie – Brothers on a Hotel Bed Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Contrary to popular belief, the lyrics to this song were not written by Chris Walla. They were written by Ben Gibbard. The MUSIC was written by Chris Walla. Here's proof: FUSE Scroll down and click on the video "Death Cab for Cutie -- Lyrics." If the link is outdated, then go to www.fuse.tv and search "death cab." It should come up with the same screen. |
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| Death Cab for Cutie – Bend to Squares Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Hmmm... I think I was called "emo." Blah. What a horrible adjective. All I know is this song is awesome. |
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| The Shins – New Slang Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Does anybody have any insight upon the symbolic significance of "gold teeth" if there is any? | |
| Nada Surf – Inside Of Love Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I don't think I've ever found a song that fit my situation as well as this song does. I've been trying to find love (like what this song is talking about) for so long but it seems like I'm JUST missing it. Did he get into my brain or something? | |
| Death Cab for Cutie – No Joy in Mudville Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| thank you so much, ohinvertedworld. | |
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