Non Photo-Blue

A lot of Pinback’s songs seem to be about wasting time. There’s Offline PK, which indicates the futility of MMORPGS; there’s Concrete Sounds, which references the play “Waiting for Godot”, in which the characters spend the entirety of their time doing meaningless tasks; and AFK, which seems to also be about online gaming.

The song opens with two characters, both doing meaningless tasks. Someone posting to message boards which are offline, and a person aimlessly staring at the ceiling. Their actions are identified as sparing them – perhaps suggesting that they’re both acts of avoidance. The speaker says that he’s like these people, as opposed to the person the song is directed to who is “alive dammit”. This person is shown as “gnawing on prey”, and the speaker seems confused about how exactly to classify them.
The image of the backed up data is a little unclear, but it brings back in the digital element that Pinback is so fond of – and also seems to relate to the references to the internet at the start of the song. This “backed up data” is shown as being insulatory, and confining, which relates to the avoidance and negativity associated with the actions at the start of the play.

The next three lines are sort of unclear – I’m not entirely sure what to make of them.

But the next four lines come back to our original two characters. It shows what their avoidance does to them – it numbs them, it makes them hateful. But these negative effects are given paradoxical value – they’re how these people relax, oddly enough.

The song sort of switches tone here, changing melodies a little bit. It gives three more images, the “crayon past line,” “stay after school” and “crosswords filled in non-photo blue”. I can see these as being more time wasting activities. Staying after school, listlessly filling out a crossword, or drawing aimlessly in crayon. And these are followed by the line “So they’ll never find you,” harkening again to avoidance.

The last two lines give a vague hint to the intent of the song. This is a warning, or a piece of advice. Is it to the singer himself? To someone he knows? Just in general? It’s unclear.

But the final chorus gives what could be interpreted as either a nihilistic or a sarcastic conclusion; regardless of whether you choose to avoid your life, or whether you choose to attack it (“gnawing on the prey”, as the song seems to put it) there’s the same conclusion.

I really relate to this song, as someone who’s addicted to meaningless shit on the internet, and a constant procrastinator. I like how Pinback can take on modern issues without coming off as trite. I really like Summer in Abaddon, and hope that Pinback stays together for at least a few more albums.

I accidentaly added this comment for B too :I

it seems like its about people who kind of deaden themselves to the world because they cant deal with something like a breakup.. they kinda just become drones.. cuz they've been wronged in some way.... thoughts?

This was on The OC? Fuck, that's depressing.

someone tells me what they think this song means...

I heart it.

I mean tell, someone TELL me what they think this song means

wow this is an amazing song. it reminds me of one of those poems that sound so good but at the same time you have no idea what it means. my first guess is pretty vague...but i think this whole song is just a metaphor of a broken relationship.

great tune but dont really understand it, any guesses anyone?

drugs

why drugs? sure, building up a pot habit makes you very antisocial, but every song about loneliness is not referring to self-caused pot-habit-loneliness.

i think this song is just about being lonely and wanting to be, but yet still yearning for some kind of social activity. also all the time wasting you do when you've been sitting around on yr ass for most of the time is brought up here. drugs are one of the possible ways to waste time, but i can't find any references to them here.

I don't really understand it to be honest. It's a good song though.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-photo_blue