Parasites

I feel this song contians many of Brock's recurring themes:

'To the best of his comprehension, life is meaningless and nothing happens when we die. There is no creator diety and the concept of one is even more unsettling than the lack thereof, the latter being the most probable.'

Many existentialist concepts expressed and built upon here...

There are many songs I could list that contain illustrations/snippets of these concepts but I suppose one of the best parallesls between songs I can elaborate on is "Parting of the Sensory". Considering "Parasites" was written much earlier for UC and the concept was in and around the writings of 'Sad Sappy Sucker, its pretty safe to say he hasn't had much experiences, realizations, epiphanies, etc.. that would suggest a drastically different theme.

In the end we have nothing but our biology left as evidence. Decomposers and detrivores ("Parasites") will consume what is left of you and recyle your carbon-based organic molecules. ("Parting of the Sensory").

Parasites does a nice jobe of illustrating that our thoughts are really just a series of neural pathways made up of organic molecules that eventually are decompsed biologically/chemically. Its been this way for all organisms for all of recordable/measurable life history "and all your thoughts, they rot,"

...and its really prevalent in Parting of the Sensory "Dehydrate back into minerals A life long walk to the same exact spot

Carbon's anniversary The parting of the sensory It's old, old news to read The parting of the sensory"

Turning to the spiritual opinions...the following line reiterates Brock's frustration with the whole creator/diety belief "we're all the punch line to the joke that they won't let us in on."

It seems like Brock is really close to agnosticism (which is why I personally relate with a lot of his stuff). To me its evident in the fact that he actually mentions characters like god and satan but never chooses a concrete stance either way. His parallels with some core biological and scientific concepts show up in the overwhelming concept that no one really knows shit anyway. It isnt very practical or even possible for humans to let this influence the actions contained in our realities and day-to-day lives, however, when one contemplates and ponders abstract concepts such as these its difficult to not arrive at such conclusions and still seem logical. (Sorry if that seems to offend anyone, I still practice live and let live and fully endorse choice in belief, whether it be science, spirituality or some combination of the two.)

Not only does he mention them {god/devil} but he frequently expresses anger, confusion, and eventually apathy surrounding their creations, actions, and motives: "we're all the punch line to the joke that they won't let us in on" ("Parasites")

"Who the hell made you the boss? We placed our chips in all the right spots but still lost ("Parting of the Sensory") Any shithead who had ever walked "" Could take this ship and do a much finer job "" This fit like clothes made out of wasps "" Oh, fuck it, I guess I lost" ""

"Who the hell made you the boss ("Parting of the Sensory") If you say what to do I know what not to stop If you were the ship then who would ever get on "" The weather changed it for the worse ""

Just my belief/opinions....so many MM and UC are open to lots of interpretations...which is why I find the man's writing/performance style so captivating, genuine, and downright freakin awesome.

"I figured out what I'm good for Making anything look better" -from "THings I Don't Remember", that about sums up his style for me. ;)

don't know what this song means, but i know modest mouse did an early demo of the song entitled "the parasites will be excited when you're dead".

I really like this song, both by Modest Mouse and Ugly Casanova... it seems to me to communicate a bit of an existentialist outlook. "and all your thoughts, yeah, they rot." seems to say that it really doesnt matter what you think, or what you do, as you are going to die anyway. "we're all the punch line to the joke that they won't let us in on." seems to say that you really cant understand life or what is really happening. It might be very depressing to some people but I find it liberating... overall I think the song is saying you should enjoy life becuase its short and when you die, nothings going to matter anyway...

What about the second half of this song, in the 15 minute version? That's the good stuff

does anybody know what cd "parasites are excited when ur dead" is on by modest mouse. Ive got like all their cds and im still not able to find it.

it was recorded as I demo, its not on any album released by a label as far as I know.

i love this song, for some reason it makes me happy. the whole song kinda says that it really doesn't matter what you think or do, and that no matter who you are there's going to be people that talk about you ("we're all the punchline to the joke that they won't let us in on"), and that when we all die we're basicly bug food ("the parasites are excited when you die, eyes bulging entering your head").

It's a wonder that before Ugly Casanova (and Modest Mouse) that no one wrote a song about parasites crawling through your insides after you die. You'd think that this would be a common topic for songs. :-)

'god and satan gamble when you're dead, beams of light one's bright the other's burnin instead'

don't know how you got sprite and bourbon out of that, but i'm sure it has something to do with Isaac's lisp.

My interpretation: There is no afterlife. God and Satan have fooled us into believeing there is life after death (We're the punchline to the joke they wont let us in on). In the end, we just rot, our bodies, and our minds, and our souls.