| Kimya Dawson – Lullaby for the Taken Lyrics | 20 years ago |
| The John she's referring to is John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats. | |
| The Mountain Goats – Standard Bitter Love Song #8 Lyrics | 20 years ago |
| This takes place in Lloyd Center in Portland, Oregon. I like it. | |
| Kimya Dawson – Hadlock Padlock Lyrics | 20 years ago |
| This is about living in Port Townsend/Jefferson County, Washington. | |
| Mirah – Mt. St. Helens Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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I believe that the lyric goes "You were hotter to me than the sun that burned me up the day we went to Mt. Saint Helens." Great, great song. And if you've never been to Mt. Saint Helens and seen the mess that remains after more than 25 years, I'll just say that that is real destruction. I'd never want to feel that. |
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| Beulah – Sunday Under Glass Lyrics | 20 years ago |
| This song reminds me so much of Pavement. | |
| Ben Folds – Late Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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Whoops. I take that back. Elliott Smith DID change his name. To quote an article from Glorious Noise written by Stephen Macaulay, "Elliott wasn't always Elliott. He wasn't Elliott through high school. His given name was "Steve." The name change occurred when he attended Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, a college he attended because he was in love with a high school classmate, Shannon Wight. Nugent writes, "They started dating, and after she got an early-decision acceptance to Hampshire, he decided to apply—he hadn't gotten around to applying anywhere else, says Wight, and he wanted to follow her. She sensed that this might be 'a terrible idea' as far as their relationship was concerned." She was right, because they broke up shortly after they'd made the move from Portland. But before that happened, Steve and Shannon devised a new name for Steve: he became Elliott. Nugent explains, "Elliott is spelled with two t's, like a surname, because Wight was inspired by the middle name of her previous boyfriend. When she mentioned this to Smith later on, she recalls, he was surprised, although she remembers telling him where she came up with the spelling at the time." While this isn't pursued by Nugent, it strikes me as a signal time in Smith's life. Here is a young man who moves from his home in the northwest and travels fully across the country because of his love of a young woman. He takes a name that she helps him devise, a name that he learns came from his predecessor for her affection. And then she dumps him. Yet the name remains. I believe that this is telling of the kind of obsession with things that characterized the man's life, from his music. . .to, eventually, the drugs that probably did as much to kill him as the knife." Names do mean a lot. |
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| Stars – Reunion Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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"Nearly dying felt so cool" Until I heard Stars perform this song, I thought that Torquil sang "Nearly died, it felt so cool." I think I like it this way better. I really identified with that feeling, that you're a teenager, and you've got it all figured out. You're doing things that are so new to you and life is exhilarating because of it. I liked interpreting it as if they were inhaling something that was completely harmless, but they felt so cool from doing it, that they almost died. Of course, "Nearly dying felt so cool" works too, but it doesn't trigger that same spark of a memory for me. |
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| Ben Folds – Late Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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This is such a beautiful song. I heard Ben perform it just a few hours ago. My personal take on the name thing: My mother, after going through a difficult divorce and after getting me, her only child, through my first 18 years of life, decided to change her name. She didn't change it much. Just a different version of the same name. But to her, it means an entire new identity, and she is hurt when she is referred to by her old name by someone who knows that she has changed it. Now of course Elliott didn't change his name, and he isn't my mother, so this isn't entirely relevant, but I do think that names are one way that we identify ourselves, and misspellings can be disrespectful. Not that I don't accept that the person who posted the lyrics just made an easy-to-make mistake. But I also don't think that someone wanting it to be corrected makes them a pseudo-intellectual. There is such a long list of shit that makes one seem pseudo-intellectual, but I don't think correct spelling, especially out of respect, is one of them. Also, I agree with the person who said that it should be "In some other DIVE a thousand miles away." |
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| Pavement – Harness Your Hopes Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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I'm a girl. And I like to think that I get this song. It is one of those Pavement songs that you (or at least I) know all the words to and drive on the highway in the middle of the night, belting it out. Favorite lyrics in the song: Show me A word that rhymes with pavement And I won't kill your parents And roast them on a spit And I'm asking you to hold me Just like the morning paper Pinched between your pointer Your index and your thumb |
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| Ted Leo and the Pharmacists – The Ballad Of The Sin Eater Lyrics | 21 years ago |
| I saw Ted in Seattle last sunday (2/13). When he performed Sin Eater, he set down his guitar and just had his microphone and went crazy. My friend and I were front row, center, and he threw himself down on our bags that we had on the stage. I held his hand and my friend tossled his sweaty hair. He got back up and started banging his microphone against his head, drawing blood. There is a picture here: http://www.jflats.com/~paigebre/images/bre%201090.jpg (He used the giant acorn on another song.) Oh, and he shoved the microphone in my face during the "you didn't think they could hate you now, did you?" part. And he dedicated Me and Mia to me. Sorry, this has nothing to do with the topic. But GAH! Ted, you have no idea. | |
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