| Bright Eyes – Reinvent the Wheel Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| I'm 90% sure it's about Elliott Smith. Tupac? What the hell? No. Conor covered an Elliott Smith song, so obviously he was influenced in some way by Smith. | |
| The Slip – Even Rats Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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The song is obviosuly about gay marriage. "I hear spring is nice in canada" is a referance to how gay couples go to canada to get married, as it is legal there. "Maybe the men up on capital hill need a little less Jack and a little more Jill" should be self explanitory to anybody with a brain. And the expert chart for this on guitar hero is the best thing ever. Still can't 5 star it and I broke 200k >_ |
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| At the Drive-In – Invalid Litter Dept. Lyrics | 20 years ago |
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Alright, I was extremely bored this morning so I did my own interpretation of this song. I did borrow a few things from the previous posters and expanded on them. Let me know what you think :) This song (Invalid Litter Dept. by At The Drive-In) is about a series of murders and rapes that took place in a town called Juarez, Mexico. It’s been going on since 1993, and the entire song (As well as all over ATDI and The Mars Volta songs) is very cryptic... But can easily be broken down. All of this may not be correct (Correct meaning how ATDI wanted us to interpret it. It is, however, a given, that this song IS about the situation in Juarez.) "intravenously polite it was the walkie-talkies that had knocked the pins down" Walkie-talkies refers to the border patrol, the pins being knocked down symbolizes the people traveling too and from the Mexico America border being stopped for random reasons... Even though the real trouble lays already within the country. "as their shoes gripped the dirt floor in the silhouette of dying" This refers to the way that the women died, scooped away to be raped and murdered. Their feet trying to stay on the ground... but overpowered by their attackers. "dancing on corpses' ashes" This refers to the sick and twisted joy that the killers experience after killing their victims... "yeah, they had plans for him" Not entirely sure, it could refer to an unknown man just being brought into this gang of thugs. "They" meaning the rapists and murderers. "they had spun the last of the pimps corduroy, satin nailed jewelry lips" This refers, I’m fairly sure, to the women involved in these murders. They previously worked at warehouses (Sweatshops, if you will), and thus they produced various goods (Symbolized by Corduroy) and were picked up to be murdered at their job. "while the guillotine just laughed again" This symbolizes the actual murder taking place... A guillotine "laughing" refers to the metaphorical guillotine moving it’s blade up and down to chop off the heads of the victims. The blade’s movement being compared to lips moving as one laughs. "dancing on the corpses' ashes" See above, this line is actually sung after every verse so I will not refer to it form now on. "paramedics fell into the wound like a rehired scab at a barehanded plant" This states that the paramedics didn’t really care, they went at the continuous incoming victims without much enthusiasm... "Like a rehired scab at a barehanded plant", a barehanded plant meaning a plant that has a lack of employees, and thus rehires a person (a "scab") that they had previously fired/laid off. Obviously the worker isn’t going to work for them with very much enthusiasm. "an anesthetic penance beneath the hail of contraband" This is one of my favorite lines in the entire song. "An anesthetic penance" meaning, literally, an act of self-mortification to show guilt however the pain has been subsided. The hail of contraband referring to the current acts around the city... The sorrow and mourning that people are feeling for the families and friends of those murdered. The pure rush of emotion being the anesthetic in this case, however the penance being represented by mental pain that everyone is going through for themselves, in fear of being the next victim. However, emotions subdue this pain, and thus the term "anesthetic." "they had been defected and excommunicated and all the pulses were subverted" This symbolizes the deaths in general ("The pulses were subverted," meaning that they’re dead.) however also states that the people trying to catch the murders are currently a few steps behind. Thus the "Defected and excommunicated" and "they" meaning the law enforcement officers. "and they made sure the obituaries showed pictures of smoke stacks" Also a VERY powerful and meaning line, this refers to the Asarco smoke stacks that tower high over the Smeltertown cemetery... A previous industrial life... booming with life... is now nothing but a dead cemetery. And all that is left of the aforementioned industry is the smoke stacks. The cemetery is in El Paso... which is the sister town to Juarez. Asarco filed for bankruptcy, and thus the company moved out of there. "The obituaries" meaning the deaths, and the "Pictures of smoke stacks" refers to the fact that they want their life back. They want the smoke stacks to start working again, they want to get as much life back into that cemetery as possible... Even though it can never happen. "a vivid dissection that mocked the strut of vivisection" Literally, this means that as opposed to the cutting/injuring of meaningless creatures (In most cases, lab rats. That’s what vivisection is) it became a very vivid and wide cut (A dissection) and suddenly... everything became real. Metaphorically, this refers to the sudden realization by the people of Juarez that SOMETHING is happening! It started out as a few deaths here and there, which is represented by vivisection. This is because nobody really cares when people test products or cut into lab rats. The sudden realization that HUNDREDS are women are dying is represented by the dissection, because usually a dissection is cutting deep into an already dead carcass for study. The "dead body" in the case being the city, it’s already slowly dying because of the murders, however now they’re getting worse, and worse... Hence the "Vivid dissection". When it says the vivid dissection mocks the vivisection, it’s stating that now that people are realizing that something BIG is going down it seems to just poke fun at the previous lesser murders. "semi-automatic colonies and a silencing that still walks the streets" Semi automatic refers to the way that these murders are taking place, one at a time. The "colonies" being the women that are being attacked because they are all technically a colony of people that are now dead. This is actually somewhat of a firearms reference, semi automatic, of course, meaning one round being fed at a time. One woman is taken away to be murdered, then another, in succession. "A silencing that still walks the streets" refers to the still non-apprehended killers, "A silencing" meaning that these people are killing the women, silencing them. "That still walks the streets", obviously, represents the fact that these murders are still on the streets... just looking for another victim. "in the company of wolves was a stretcher made of cobblestone curfews" "Alright, this is a rather complex line, and I’m not sure if my interpretation of it is correct of not, although I’m fairly sure." "In the company of wolves" obviously refers to the fact that these murders are still out there, symbolized as "wolves" because wolves are generally regarded as vicious and scary creatures by humans. The "stretcher made of cobblestone curfews" is a hard line to interpret, simply because it can be done in so many ways. A stretcher is something that is generally used to save lives (Used by medics, etc) however... In this case it states that the stretcher is made of "Cobblestone curfews", which I interpret as "foolish rules". This is because I'm assuming that the local police made some foolish rules in order to try and save lives (the saving of lives being represented by the stretcher). I say this, because cobblestone is a very rough and naturally rounded stone, and thus it can be rather sporadic and random. If a rule (curfew, for example) is compared to cobblestone, then it can be random, not make a lot of sense, and generally be too sporadic to be put into practical use. It could also refer to a literal curfew (maybe they put a curfew on the streets to help protect people) however also using the same cobblestone reference. "the federales performed their custodial customs quite well" This one is self explanatory, basically. I'll explain it anyway for the sake of completion. The federales are basically the federal law enforcement officers. Them performing their "Custodial customs" refers to the fact that they weren't able to actually prevent the crime, simply clean up the mess that was made afterwards. "The mess" can either be the physical mess (Blood and guts) or the media mess that occurs with something like this. "callous heels numbed in travel endless maps made by their scalpels" "Callous heels numbed in travel" refers to the killers. Callous meaning toughened over time, in this case it's symbolized using a heel... Which can physically grow calluses, however in this case it most likely refers to the toughened mental state of the killers... Less remorse, et cetera. "Endless maps made by the scalpels" refers to the trail of death and destruction. Their scalpels meaning the weapons they used to kill their victims, and endless maps meaning that through the trail of death they had actually made an elaborate map for law enforcement to find them. If I recall correctly, they WERE eventually arrested and most likely sentenced to death. "on my way nails broke and fell into the wishing well" This is the chorus of the song, and appears usually after every three verses. I'm just going to sum it up here for the sake of simplicity. This is a hard part to correctly interpret, so yeah... "On my way" most likely refers to the metaphorical trip of the women into heaven after their deaths. "Nails broke and fell into the wishing well" refers to the fact that despite they're prayers for life they were denied and murdered. As the nails crumble out of the metaphorical wood and fall down into the seemingly endless abyss of the well... The "wishing well", because they "wished" for life. Well, that was fun and consumed an hour of my time. I hope this helps a little. |
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