| No Age – Scheduling Mishaps Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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Maybe my favorite no age song. I'm not sure this is 100% correct, but it's really tough to transcribe and this is a great attempt! I think, like a lot of no age songs, it sort of starts with a normal setting/small idea (this one definitely seems like it could be at a show or something, especially considering the band's connection to LA's live music scene). And I think it's sort of about realizing the surreal sadness (both in oneself and in others). Kind of like looking across the crowd and realizing that loneliness that permeates the whole place, and how ridiculous it was that you came to 'stand in line' and to get 'in front,' when what you (and seemingly everyone around you) is desperately, secretly hoping for is for acknowledgment, the forging of a new connection, to have someone simply recognize that you're there. But instead, you just lose yourself in the moment ('wash apart in line') and settle for empty conversation ('everyone I meet/back and forward I'm alone') while you swallow you're painful emotions ('I can't stand and cry'). The 'damaged because I'm alone' thing is about the way that continuing to subject yourself to these kind of situations and ignore the pain in it chips away at that unstable thing we call a soul. If 'I'm sleeping I'm not alone' is the correct lyric, it could be about plugging into the dream-state, where these kind of raw-nerve emotions aren't constantly quelled as they are in waking life; that is, dreams being the one place where we can feel universally connected in our plain-faced loneliness. The earlier bit ('look at what I see/wasn't part of a dream/I'm damaged cause i'm alone') eludes to the fact that we continually deny such pangs of broken aloneness in our daily lives, only to be faced in dreams. |
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| No Age – Life Prowler Lyrics | 12 years ago |
| Only the naked desperation that powers a No Age song could make a chorus this simple so multi-faceted and thought-provoking. The verses definitely add some meaning, though. All these odd dimensions (of time and personal perspectives alike) that add up to something we've collectively labeled a "life." | |
| No Age – Errand Boy Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I love songs like this, that use a relatively straightforward jumping-off point (in this case, I think it's about attempting to cope with the pain of day-to-day banality by having a desperate eye out for someone who will reach out to you (in a romantic sense, most likely)), but sort of slowly reveal a darker reality beneath the obvious sentiments. "I wanna see a face I know one that I can use" is the pivotal line -- it's like he's realizing that in his desires/fantasies that are directed at whatever person, a Ms. X or whatever, he's not worried about her perspective and everything that informs it (HER desires, needs, etc.). Daily drudgery has kind of turned him into this zombie* who can only hunger for this basic need for connection and companionship. This sort of need is typically considered a positive component our human makeup (I.e. associated with "love"), but the line about a face he can "use" and the strangely ominous atmosphere (*kind of what I was getting at with the 'zombie' thing) suggests that there's a bleak undercurrent to such needs that usually goes undiscussed. The idea that your hopes are based around using someone to fill a hole that the cold world has cut into you. |
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| No Age – Eraser Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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I don't know, it's actually a pretty good theory -- there are all kinds of layers of guilt that could come with this situation. "a window broke I wonder what I get paid/watch him die" This could definitely be about getting into an accident and instantly thinking about how some much needed money is coming your when, THEN wondering if the other person is ok, and subsequently realizing you're priorities are dangerously out of of order and feeling a serious sense of shame. The part you quoted could easily about trying to come to terms with unpleasant things you've learned about yourself, as well as the ways that unearned money can actually stunt your growth as a human. |
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