| Modest Mouse – Steam Engenius Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I don't know, I just remember reading something he said in an interview about being accused of selling out or something and it pissing him off...I'll see if I can find it. I'm just looking at the album as a whole, the same things seem to come up repeatedly throughout it. But I think I've been looking at it too simplistically and it's probably something much bigger than that...just wish I knew what. As for this being their last album...guess i just always expect the worst. | |
| Modest Mouse – Parting of the Sensory Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| oh yeah, does anyone know what he is saying in the background through the middle part of the song?? I can't figure it out and I have to know. | |
| Modest Mouse – Parting of the Sensory Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| but yeah, "stubborn beauty"....he talks about Stubborn Beauty in "Education", too. And I have wondered at times if that song makes political references. | |
| Modest Mouse – Parting of the Sensory Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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I definitely see what some of you are saying about the song making some political references. However, if the song is in fact political it seems it would have to be talking about war because of all the talk of death: "carbon's anniversary", "parting of the sensory", "dehydrate back into minerals" plus at the end "Someday you will die somehow you will figure out how often something will die and you are going to steal it's carbon" to me sounds like a reference to reincarnation. In the song he also says, though it's not written in the lyrics, "some day something will die and somehow you'll figure out how often you will die somehow and something's gonna steal your carbon". We don't die and have our carbon stolen often, unless we're reincarnated, too. You know? Or is there some other meaning to these few lines that I am completely missing? |
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| Modest Mouse – The Stars Are Projectors Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I can't believe there aren't more comments on this song. I think it's one of their best. | |
| Modest Mouse – Dashboard Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I love this album...not this song particularly, it's okay but I don't love it. But I love most of the rest of the album. I just realized this album came out on the first day of spring. | |
| Modest Mouse – Spitting Venom Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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"but am I actually a bit disappointed in the lyric quality of this song. I cant help but feel that modest mouse can do better. Cheer up baby it wasnt always quite so bad for every venom that came out the antidote was had? Come on this is not vintage mouse." Maybe some of the older stuff seems better lyrically because Isaac was using drugs. Maybe he stopped using and this is him sober. Either way, I like it. And "vintage mouse"?? They're people. How do we know Isaac absolutely does not do love or break-up songs? He experiences relationships just like the rest of us so why is it so inconceivable that he might sing about it at some point? I think what HopeSoForYou had to say makes a lot of sense. |
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| Modest Mouse – Steam Engenius Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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He's either talking about Christ or he's comparing himself to Christ. It seems like this song could be directed toward the fans, particularly those who think of him as a "robotic messiah" rather than just a human being. They don't care what's good for him, they just want music similar to what he made when he was on drugs. Maybe Isaac is the robotic messiah. "Stasis" is stagnation. He's saying his sound changed because he changed...we all change. But some fans think of him as a robotic messiah who should stay the way they want him to be. "In the past talkin' present tense,. Gonna break it. Gonna wreck it. Gonna try to make it all make sense." Maybe this is about how we take everything he says and pick it apart, trying to make sense of it. See how all this could apply to both him and Christ? I don't know, maybe it's the weed talking but this is what I get out of the song. There is a lot of stuff on this album that makes me wonder if this will be their last album. But I could be way off. |
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| Modest Mouse – Parting of the Sensory Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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"Someday you will die somehow you will figure out how often... something will die and you are going to steal it's carbons." shit, he's talking about reincarnation. Maybe he's not talking about circles, but cycles. Maybe he's not pissed off that he has to die, maybe he's pissed off that he has to live again. |
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| Modest Mouse – Never Ending Math Equation Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I don't think Isaac is an atheist. He may claim to be an atheist, but he's clearly agnostic. | |
| Modest Mouse – Parting of the Sensory Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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The meaning of this song: life hurts and death is inevitable. And that's infuriating. I think he is talking about the death of a relationship, but mostly about literal death. Parting of the sensory = death, obviously. Carbon is the basis of all organic life, and it is constant. So when we die, someone or something else gets our carbon. I think Isaac is talking to God when he says, "Who the hell made you the boss?" He's saying that God could have done a better job than this, that life shouldn't hurt this bad. Isaac sings about futility a LOT. And about circles. Think about it...assuming there is no afterlife, no reincarnation, that we only live once...before we're conceived we don't exist. And then we die, and we're back to the same exact spot. Our existence is a circle. I think Isaac sees it like, what's the point in any of this if we're just going to end up right where we started? "the universe is shaped exactly like the earth"..."every time you think you're walking you're just moving the ground"...I'm not going to type them all, but if you listen to a lot of modest mouse then you know that he talks about this a lot. It's obviously something he finds very frustrating. Isaac has claimed to be an atheist but I think it's quite obvious he's not an atheist. He believes in God, and he's really pissed off at it. |
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| Modest Mouse – Fly Trapped in a Jar Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| reminds me of Satin In a Coffin. | |
| Modest Mouse – Parting of the Sensory Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I love this album. As much as I love Good News for People Who Love Bad News, it lacked something. But We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank is so Modest Mouse. | |
| Modest Mouse – Parting of the Sensory Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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This song reminds me of Cowboy Dan. "He goes to the desert fires a rifle in the sky and says 'God, if I have to die, you will have to die'"...I think he's singing about the same thing...except it's like a continuation, "Fuck it, I guess I lost." This song is so good it literally hurts. |
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| Modest Mouse – Dance Hall Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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"isaac is always drunk..." how do you know? Do you know him personally? |
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| Modest Mouse – Black Cadillacs Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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Yes, everyone sees a painting differently. But some of us are striving to see it through the eyes of the artist. Get it? Anyway, I've completely changed my mind about MM selling out as I've been listening to this album obsessively the past few days. I find most of the songs on this album just as moving as any other album. Isaac's lyrics are still poetry, still heartfelt, still beautiful, still expressive. But he and the other guys have grown and progressed since the other albums. They've gotten older. So the style is bound to change somewhat. It doesn't mean they "sold out". They deserve the credit they're getting. If you stop loving a band just because they became mainstream then you were never a true fan to begin with. But they have been accused of selling out, and I do think some of the lyrics on this album talk about it. |
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| Modest Mouse – Blame It on the Tetons Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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Also, I'd like to point out that Isaac makes a lot of references to language on this album. In "World At Large", which for some reason makes me cry when I hear it, he says "but you've still got your words and you've got your friends". In "black cadillacs" he makes a couple references to language. He also talks about running his mouth off or saying things he regrets in a lot of songs. He talks about cakes and weddings in both "This Devil's Work Day" and "Bukowski" " Wild Pack of Family Dogs" is on Moon and Antarctica. But in the song "Jesus Christ Was an Only Child" he says, "Penny found out as her hair was styled you should hide your kids while the dogs run wild." Speaking of Penny, another song is titled "Every Penny Fed Car". Maybe if we can find out the significance of these and other phrases he commonly uses then it would give us some insight into the meanings of these songs. |
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| Modest Mouse – Blame It on the Tetons Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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Yes, this album is different from the rest of their albums. But didn't they also add more band members now? So the sound was bound to change somehow. I used to think they were sell-outs, too. But then I gave this album a chance, I really started looking into the lyrics and began to really appreciate it. I find most of the songs on this album just as moving as any other album. Well, except maybe Lonesome Crowded West and the Moon and Antarctica, but yeah... I love this album now, and I love this song. It's still the same old Isaac Brock, his lyrics are still poetry, still heartfelt, still beautiful, still expressive. But he has grown and progressed since the other albums, just like we have all grown and changed throughout the years. So his style is bound to change somewhat. It doesn't mean they "sold out". They deserve the credit they're getting. If you were a true MM fan, you would be happy for them. Isaac Brock is a human being just like the rest of us, and he doesn't owe his fans, old schoolers like us or "float on kids", ANYTHING. He's doing what he is incredibly talented at and apparently what he is passionate about. So he's making more money now and attracting a bigger range of fans...how does that affect you? How does that mean they deserve ANY less credit for their talent and for the number of people their music has touched?? Get over it, you fucking snobby musical elitists. If you stop loving a band just because they became mainstream then you were never a true fan to begin with. If you really loved the band as much as you claim you once did, you would be happy that they are doing what makes them happy and, hopefully, enjoying the ride. Besides that, they're not even that mainstream. Yeah, they are on MTV, but I still only know a handful of people who have even heard of them. I've tried to introduce the music to some friends but they weren't feeling it. Oh well, their loss. |
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| Modest Mouse – The World at Large Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| I've never really listened to this song, like really tried to hear the lyrics. So, reading them, I now see that it's really poetry, and it's a really beautiful song. Beautiful in a sad way. | |
| Modest Mouse – Black Cadillacs Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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"Stars could mean celebrities. They were laughing at the stupid sell-outs, while their "feet clung tight to the ground", but low-and-behold it turns out they were just "dumb dumb dumber etc" (because guess what, sell-outs make more money)." That's exactly what I think. About these few lines of the song, anyway. It's hard to tell about the rest. But I have a feeling Isaac knows he sold out and he has mixed feelings about it. I'm not saying I don't still love Modest Mouse. I'm crazy about MM, and I love this album and have complete admiration and respect for Isaac Brock...but they kinda sold out. I hope I can "grow up" without selling out. |
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| Modest Mouse – Alone Down There Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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"How do, how do you do? My name is you Flies, they all gather around me and you too You can't see anything well You ask me what size it is, not what I sell The flies, they all gather around me and you too" To me that sounds like Death is being personified here and "he" is talking to someone who is dead. Then his voice changes pretty drastically. Which I think may be a hint that he is talking as one person in the beginning of the song, and as another person in the rest of the song. "To be alone down there, to be alone The Devil's apprentice he gave me some credit He fed me a line and I'll probably regret it I don't want you to be alone down there" maybe he is selling his soul so he can be with someone in Hell, because he doesn't want them "to be alone down there" |
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| Modest Mouse – 3rd Planet Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| whitetrashboys...right on. I get it now. | |
| Modest Mouse – Life Like Weeds Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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"And you think you feel most everything And we know that our hearts are just made out of strings To be pulled, strings to be pulled So you think you've figured out everything But we know that our minds are just made out of strings To be pulled, strings to be pulled" Some people believe that, if our current understanding of the laws of physics is correct, then it means there is no free will, that what we have is an *illusion* of free will. That's what these lyrics make me think of. "strings to be pulled"...even if you believe in an omniscient, omnipotent higher power, there would still be no free will, because that higher power would already know every decision you're going to make, meaning everything is predestined. "Strings to be pulled"--like we're puppets, controlled by strings. With either of these philosophies, our actions are not our own. So they're meaningless, they don't really matter. And that includes the words we speak, just meaningless words, filling up the air. |
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| Līve – Run To The Water Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I always interpreted this song, or at least the first part, to be a conversation with "mother nature" or "goddess". Oh desert speak to my heart Oh woman of the earth Maker of children who weep for love Maker of this birth 'Til your deepest secrets are known to me I will not be moved I will not be moved ^ Here is is demanding answers from "her". Then "she" replies (notice his voice pitch is higher, so it sounds more feminine): Don't try to find the answer When there ain't no question here Brother let your heart be wounded And give no mercy to your fear And "she" tells him to run to the water and find her there, to find her in nature, burnt to the core (by what mankind has done to the environment) but not broken. Yeah, i can see it now lord Out beyond the breakin' of waves And the tribulation It's a place and a home of ascended souls this part, however, makes me think of the book of Revelations...? Adam and Eve live down the street from me Babylon is every town It's as crazy as its ever been Loves a stranger all around he's obviously just talking about the shitty state of the world. But the song is overall an optimistic one. But now I shall read up on what TheSleeper is talking about and it may change my views on the song. |
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| Modest Mouse – Life Like Weeds Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| I'm reading about the string theory now, but it's pretty complicated. I got some of it, but got lost when it started talking about p-branes an d-branes. | |
| Modest Mouse – Life Like Weeds Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| This song is about finding meaning in a meaningless existence. | |
| Nine Inch Nails – Happiness in Slavery Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| This song explains exactly why I choose not to take antidepressants. | |
| Modest Mouse – Wild Packs of Family Dogs Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| I think I agree most with askeready's interpretation. | |
| System of a Down – Spiders Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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Many spiders have several eyes. That's why I think this song has something to do with government surveillance. Plus the v-chip comment. Serj doesn't have cable, or any television channels. And with a v-chip they know what we're watching on cable. So it gives "them" a lot of insight into our lives. Plus the v-chip people are now having implanted into themselves. Google "v-chip". I think that by "awake" he doesn't mean literally waking up from sleep. Maybe he means waking up to something, I'm not sure what though. Ok, Chantze--now that I've read your comment I think it really, really makes sense with the song. However, that all sounds kinda far-fetched and you didn't give any sources. But yeah, that would fit because it's like he's saying they'll be able to control our dreams after that, which would explain "before you know, awake". |
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| System of a Down – Suite-Pee Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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OMG. I *cannot* believe how many people think this song is promoting Christianity. He's saying that Christians are getting fucked by the church or by the religion. "Lie naked on the floor and let the messiah Go all through our souls" Think about it: when you're getting FUCKED, you are lying down...and you're naked. Naked because you're getting FUCKED. The he says he wants to FUCK his way to the garden. Because that's what Christians are doing, they're getting fucked so they can supposedly get into paradise. Get it? But he's not comparing it to rape, because you can't rape the willing. "everyone needs a mother fucker" Christians think everyone needs to convert to their religion in order to get into Heaven. He's calling the church a mother fucker, or maybe he's calling God a mother fucker. Either way, I don't see how you can twist it around to be something *positive* about God. "We’re crossed and terrored ravages of architecture, hoist around the spade." A spade is a GARDENing tool used for digging. Could this be another reference to the garden of eden/paradise/heaven? "crossed and terrored ravages of architecture"-- I think he is saying here that the religion itself is a piece of architecture, designed and structured by human beings. Ravage as a noun means havoc, or grievous damage. Think about the Old Testament and how God supposedly told men to wreak havoc on other cities. Kill the men, rape the women, sometimes even kill the women and children...sometimes even infants. All for this religion, or this "piece of architecture". "terrored"....people are scared into believing in Christianity. Please, no one get offended by that. I'm not saying that it's the reason for your beliefs, I'm just saying that *many* people are scared into believing it because of the fear of Hell. Something I've struggled with my whole life. That "what if?" The ultimate scare tactic. "Die her philosphy die" to me that sounds like he is telling the philosophy to just fucking die already. Again, I fail to see how anyone could think this song is saying good things about God or Christ. |
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| System of a Down – Know Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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This reference to Babylon and Semiramis is probably a metaphor. Babylon was surrounded by really thick walls..."valley of the walls". In the Bible, babylon is a metaphor. But I don't know what Semiramis would have to do with it. I don't know what this song is trying to say. Here are some links on it... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiramis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon and something I find interesting: "What does Babylon the Great represent? It is a symbol that stands for all the ungodly religious-political-social-economic systems that humans have created. As John might put it in his letters, Babylon is simply "the world" (1 John 2:15). The world system depicted under this symbol would be that one that does not reflect God’s nature of love, and which in turn enslaves mankind." http://www.wcg.org/lit/prophecy/babylon.htm |
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| System of a Down – Know Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| semirimoloch--thanks for the information. I've never heard of that but now I'm gonna look it up. | |
| System of a Down – Know Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I think there are two possibilities. 1. He's talking about organized religion. "we can peak from the windows of your mouth"--that's about people trying to gain insight into the afterlife by listening to others preach. "The sheep that ran off from the herd"--people who don't conform to organized religion? They may be "dead" in the eyes of some, as in damned, but at least they're free from religion, free from the fear it instills. "The other side" would be the afterlife, if there is one. Flying = dying. Or, flying = being free from the shackles of organized religion. 2. It could just be about this whole system. The majority of people are close-minded and don't question why society is the way it is. Why do we spend out lives slaving away at meaningless jobs so we can buy all this crap we don't need? Why do we allow ourselves to be hypnotized by advertisements, advertisements are EVERYWHERE. Why do we tolerate our government's lies and corruption? Why do we destroy the Earth? Why are so many people plagued by emptiness and doped up on antidepressants? Because we're all fucking sheep! I could go on about this all day. In this interpretation, the stray sheep are people who decide they don't want to be slaves to the system. The other side = that state of enlightenment, waking up to how fucked up everything is, and how this is NOT how it's supposed to be. |
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| Modest Mouse – This Devil's Workday Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I think this song is about selling out, being a slave to money. He talks about eating the wedding cake til the whole damn thing is gone...wedding cakes are huge. "Gonna climb around on all fours til all the blood falls out my knees"--makes me think of how people work their asses off and slave away, and spend most of our lives working jobs we hate for all this shit we don't need (the wedding cake...one person doesn't need more than one piece of cake at a time). So it's like he's talking about working your ass off or otherwise selling your soul (setting a sack of puppies out to freeze) so you can have way more shit than you could ever need. "Well let's take this potted plant To the woods and set it free I'm gonna tell the owners Just how nice that was of me" well isn't that just ridiculous? Like that is some huge thing, some wonderful deed that one would deserve recognition for. It's laughable. "I could buy myself a reason I could sell myself a job I could hang myself for treason For I am my own damn god" if you're committing treason, or you have to sell yourself a job or buy yourself a reason, then obviously you are not your own god and you're "worshiping", or slaving away for, or selling your soul for something. That's what I think the laugh is about--it's like he's saying "yeah, right!" That's what I get out of the song, anyway. |
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| System of a Down – Soil Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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lyrically it's a great song, but musically it doesn't get good until toward the end. What is with people saying this song is about Jesus? Jesus didn't blow his head off. |
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| System of a Down – Soil Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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Don't you realize evil lives in the mother fucking skin maybe this means that evil does not come from external forces like Satan, but rather it comes from inside us. |
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| System of a Down – Blue Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| wait, maybe he is saying "I'm wishin' away as you go". That would make more sense. | |
| System of a Down – Blue Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| this song is about him wanting to believe in God but maybe not quite being able to. He so badly wants it all to be true but he's just not sure. That's what I get out of it at least, but that may just be because of my own experience with that shit. | |
| Modest Mouse – Exit Does Not Exist Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| Either you're right and it's a bad trip or Isaac is schizophrenic. That's what I get out of it anyway. I love this song, because of both the lyrics and the music. | |
| Modest Mouse – Custom Concern Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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it's about urbanization. here's why I think so: "Build up the monuments and steeples To wear out our eyes" There just have to be buildings everywhere so our eyes are worn out from looking at them. "Goes through the parking lot fields Doesn't see no signs that they will yield And then thought, this'll never end" What used to be fields are now parking lots. And it's going to keep happening that way, the cement will never stop spreading. Read some interviews with Isaac and you'll find that he talks about how Issaquah became just another seattle suburb. He talks about this in Cowboy Dan, also, IMO. "And we're losing all touch, losing all touch Building a desert" we're building ourselves into isolation, maybe. Or maybe he means desert as in no more trees or grass or streams. Maybe he means a cement desert. |
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| Modest Mouse – Cowboy Dan Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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Isaac was pissed that the city of Seattle spread to his town and turned it into a suburb. This song talks about urbanization. "didn't move to the city, the city moved to me" "Standing in the tall grass Thinking nothing You know we need oxygen to breath" "I got mine but I want more" |
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| 30 Seconds to Mars – From Yesterday Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| I really think it's about Bush. It just fits perfectly, IMO. | |
| Modest Mouse – Float On Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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"I like being optimistic. There is enough bad news and there are enough records in the wilderness with whiney dark bullshit. Not that I don't like that stuff, but I just feel there's not enough bands saying that things are going to be ok." http://www.drownedinsound.com/articles/9933 so, yeah, he's not being facetious. |
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| Modest Mouse – The Good Times Are Killing Me Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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how the fuck do all you people seem to know so much about Isaac? How do you know he doesn't still use drugs, other than what he said in that one interview? How do you know he's drunk all the time? How do you know any of this stuff? Has anyone here ever had a conversation with the man? I'm not an indie kid or a musical elitist but come on, how can you say their past albums aren't better? whatever, he's brilliant, with or without drugs. I think I'm in love. |
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| Modest Mouse – Float On Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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Maybe mousefan is right and Isaac is just being facetious with this song. If so, then MM is even more genius than I thought. And it makes more sense, anyway, when you look at the album as a whole, because the other songs aren't exactly optimistic. It's just weird how most of the songs on this album are good, and still sound like modest mouse, except this one. It sticks out like a sore thumb. As for it being upbeat...well, it's as upbeat as a modest mouse song could be. I guess the guitar still has that anxious sound to it. Kind of like Dramamine how, when I'm listening to it, I can't decide how I should feel. |
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| Modest Mouse – Float On Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| I heard Modest Mouse for the first time a couple months ago, and they're the only band I've listened to since then and probably my favorite band ever. Maybe they did sell out but I'm not a musical elitist so I don't really care. I love many songs on this album but I gotta say I CAN'T FUCKING STAND THIS SONG. Blech. It's catchy, and that's the only good thing about it. Lyrically it doesn't compare to any of their other songs. Lyrically, it's their worst, IMO. And it's stupid. We'll all float on? What does that even mean? That everything will be okay? Does he really believe that, that everything will be okay? Or did he just write it b/c that's what would sell? | |
| Modest Mouse – Perfect Disguise Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| Isaac Brock is the most fascinating lyricist I know of and I have a huge crush on him. | |
| Modest Mouse – Other People's Lives Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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"Well I’m fed up and I need to go out of existence Or just down the road forever" sounds like he was thinking about suicide. |
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| Modest Mouse – Mice Eat Cheese Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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"mice eat cheese for the most part, they do as they please then cat comes home mice don't feel very free to walk around" I know that feeling because that's what it was like for me as a teenager when my stepfather would get home from work. Because he was a drunk and an asshole. It's like I was walking on eggshells until he passed out on the couch every night. I certainly don't miss those days. |
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| Modest Mouse – 3rd Planet Lyrics | 19 years ago |
| kappel: how do you know? Have you asked Isaac personally? | |
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