| Modest Mouse – March Into the Sea Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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From the above stuff, this leads into the third line of the song, "suck it off". I don't think anyone can deny what this refers to. Its a blunt phrase for a blow-job. So, applying what I said above, it makes sense coming after the first two lines. A blow-job is a pleasurable sexual act that doesn't accomplish the actual purpose that sex has, which is to have reproduction and produce offspring. So whats the point of pointing out this out? I don't know really. At the very least, I think its a really interesting thing to consider. Why have people been able to break from what evolution seems to dictate, that animals are supposed to live in such a way that they produce as many viable offspring as possible? |
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| Modest Mouse – March Into the Sea Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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Looking at the real lyrics, the first few lines are really puzzling. Based on the fact that this song seems based around evolution, maybe the first few lines mean this: These lines deal with what humans have done in the case of things that give them pleasure. The example used is for food, which obviously gives people pleasure. Food provides nutrition, which is the reason that it provides pleasure to people. We receive feelings of pleasure because from the perspective of evolution, which shaped our bodies and minds, it is important for us to stay alive, live out our lives, and breed. People have developed methods of eating that alter this basic system. For us, we may eat food to experience the pleasure that it gives us, without considering the nutritional content. While it is absolutely true that food with a lot of calories taste the best, it is not good for our health to consume things that contain a whole lot of sugar and fat. When we eat something like this, such as a donut, we are eating it mostly because of the pleasure eating it provides, disregarding what it is doing to our body. In the case of the purpose of seasoning food, it actually is simpler. Seasoning on meat for example provides virtually no additional calories, but it makes it taste much better, thus making it more pleasurable. If one were to only "suck all seasoning off" as the song says, you would be eating the part of the food that is providing the most pleasure, while ignoring the whole purpose of food, which is to provide nutrition. So basically, what the first two lines mean is that people have changed such that they do things that originally were pleasurable because they increased their evolutionary fitness, but they do them in such a way that they only get the pleasure from something, and it no longer does anything for people from an evolutionary perspective. |
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| Modest Mouse – Invisible Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I think "saline tea" is a sortof play on the word "salinity" which means the concentration of salt in water. | |
| Modest Mouse – March Into the Sea Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| Blood is what is salty. | |
| Modest Mouse – March Into the Sea Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| weird how the official lyrics are obviously somewhat different. I like how the lyrics actually turned out to be. | |
| Modest Mouse – Baby Blue Sedan Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I like the strange logic of this song. The hardest thing we do is exist, just as hard as anything else. But when you do anything, you are a human being. It doesn't make sense, but it makes me visualize several layers of pain and difficulty that everyone must feel. Perfect song, also. |
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| Modest Mouse – Steam Engenius Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| This song seems to be about the industrial revolution, which is presented in this metaphor of a human machine. The point is that people don't need machines and industrialization to exist. Machines bring us 'stasis' because they make our lives easier. | |
| Modest Mouse – Steam Engenius Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I think its 'milky teat' also. At least part of the meaning of the song has to do with industry and technology. That much seems pretty obvious. If its 'stasisity' or 'stasicity', which it sounds like it is, then what is that? Those don't seem to be words in general use. |
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| Modest Mouse – Parting of the Sensory Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| I mean carbohydrates. | |
| Modest Mouse – Parting of the Sensory Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| I like the end about 'stealing carbon.' Life is just about finding, eating, and storing hydrocarbons. | |
| Modest Mouse – March Into the Sea Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| The whole album has evolution as a reoccuring theme, especially in this song. | |
| Modest Mouse – Sunspots in the House of the Late Scapegoat Lyrics | 20 years ago |
| This song seems to repeatedly reference lead. Especially in the last section, it makes a direct reference to "all muscle cars made of lead". This may be a reference to when all gasoline had lead in it in order to make cars run better. Also, 'beware the paint's still peeling' seems to reference how all paint in houses used to have lead in it, and everyone knows to watch out for peeling paint in an old house. | |
| Modest Mouse – Interstate 8 Lyrics | 21 years ago |
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I think, maybe, this song may be a reference to the Odyssey. The 'angel with an ember halo, black hair and the devil's pitchfork' sounds alot like Poseidon, the god who kept pushing Odysseus' vessel off course. Thats the other thing. In the Odyssey, Odysseus is trying to get home, but he just keeps sailing around and around and getting nowhere. Just like the dong implies, we all sometimes seem to be trying hard to get nowhere. |
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| Modest Mouse – Talking Shit About a Pretty Sunset Lyrics | 21 years ago |
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This is from an educational text on Sonnets, refering to Shakespearian sonnets. " One pattern introduces an idea in the first quatrain, complicates it in the second, complicates it still further in the third, and resolves the whole thing in the final epigrammatic couplet. " An epigram: A concise, clever, often paradoxical statement. While the last two lines aren't a couplet, they cerainly are epigrammatic. And I think the rest follows that pattern perfectly. A Sonnet definetly isn't an unusual choice for a modest mouse song. Just read some of Shakespeare's sonnets, you'll see what I mean. |
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| Modest Mouse – Talking Shit About a Pretty Sunset Lyrics | 21 years ago |
| Did anyone notice this song (If you count the Chorus line 'Oh noose, tied myself...' once) is a 14 line sonnet? | |
| Modest Mouse – Ohio Lyrics | 21 years ago |
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Look at this song through the lens of the Quest archetype. Like most stories that deal with this archetype, the overarching theme is self-discovery, and the journey through a literal place (in this case Ohio) is meant to mirror a journey through one's psyche. There's also a reference to sleep at the beggining and conclusion of the song, a possible referece to dreaming, which fits into the theme of delving into one's subconscious. The conclusion of the song is that the innerworkings of one's mind cannot be really seen by anyone, including the one who inhabits that mind. There's a darkness that separates everyone and one from one's own self. As Joseph Conrad said in Heart of Darkness, "We live as we dream, alone." |
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| Modest Mouse – Beach Side Property Lyrics | 21 years ago |
| Its also obviously about beach-erosion, which is a big problem for many beachside communities, and suspected to be at least partially caused because of global-warming. | |
| Modest Mouse – I Came as a Rat (Long Walk Off a Short Dock) Lyrics | 21 years ago |
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"Then he will say also to those on the left hand, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you didn't give me food to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and you didn't take me in; naked, and you didn't clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you didn't visit me.' " I always think of this when I hear this song, even though I'm not Christian or anything. In this passage from the bible, on judgement day, God condemns those who didn't realize he 'was' the sick and the meek they encountered in their lives, so he casts them into a lake of fire. If Brock stole from this for this song, I'm not entirely sure how this effects the meaning. He could be pointing out the hypocracy of the biblical story; since god 'came' to people as many things during their lives, did he, in fact, trick them (stick it to you,) into not leading acceptable lives? Or, he could be supporting the meaning of the biblical story. God tried to get people to lead good lives, but they never saw a reason to change their ways. And at the end of your life, god will stop trying to change you (god dies too,) and will punish you for your life. I'm not saying I think Brock beleives in Christianity, but I've read him saying he thinks its a good story, or something like that. Above you've written about over-analysis; how the meaning changes from person to person, and how this might be the intention. Thats the huge paradox of literature. James Joyce wrote about his book Ulysses, ""I've put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that's the only way of ensuring one's immortality." " |
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