Life Like Weeds

I'm surprised no one has commented on this song, as it's one of Brock's best. Amazing direct lines like "Eyes need us to see/Hearts need us to bleed" and brilliant metaphors like "In this life like weeds/You're the dirt I'll breath."

I'm still trying to get a full grasp of the meaning, but to me it's a song about the obstructions in life. It seems to be saying that there are going to be obstructions in our life, things that we just can't change (our hearts are just made out of strings to be pulled). But it still reminds us that these obstructions are going to make us into what we are (In the faces you see, you'll see just who you've been).

Basically, it says to me that there things we can't change, no matter how much we want to, but how we deal with it is what makes us who we are.

I'm surprised only one other person has commented. I'll tell you what I think. The most significant lines to me are the following:

"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"

and

"I know where you're from, but where do you belong."

I think the song is all about figuring out who you are, what you want and where you belong. I always loved it, but it gained huge significance this summer, as I spent it in Norway and a lot of things changed in my head. Its one of my top 10 songs of all time.

this is the most beautiful song i have ever heard. i love this song.

I think this is a very beautiful song that deals with love and the cyclical nature of life/death. The concept is just a metaphor. Weeds=People. It's like saying "if I was a weed, you would be my rock," which is a positive thing I think. Saying someone is your rock typically means that that person is what keeps you anchored, grounded, someone you can depend on. "You're the dirt I breath" is saying you are what keeps me alive. It's about someone he loves. The first part of the song reminds me of being aware at your own funeral. Your dead and thinking to yourself "I could have told you all that I love you." This represents remorse and regret. Death also ties in to the idea of "Life like weeds" because when we die we will literally become dirt which weeds will grow out of. This has a double meaning. The one I just described and in the sense that life will continue on after you die and that even though in this life you may only be a weed (metaphor for someone who's shunned, viewed of as not being beautiful, a misfit) something beautiful may still come from you. This song actually reminds me a lot of two songs by a different MM, Marilyn Manson. First "The Nobodies" "Today I'm dirty and I want to be pretty, tomorrow I know I'm just dirt." Similar death references and also in the video it shows Manson buried up to his neck in dirt with a flower growing out of his head (something beautiful growing from something ugly i.e. dirt). And secondly "The Man that you Fear" where he says "Pinch the head off collapse me like a weed, someone had to go this far." Again the weed references and meaning something unwanted.

There are some excellent points discussed by you two. I have similar but somewhat different views as to what it means. Life is too short to say things you don't mean, and too short to needlessly impress those that you meet. We all need truth and we all need honesty from each other, because in the end, all of our exaggerations are merely dirt in the air. All of our uneccessary lies will fill up our hearts and the air we breathe, but will never replace the truth and will never determine that which we truyly are. I think Modest Mouse has had a continual foundation of staying true to themselves, never 'selling out' as it were, never catering to a certain crowd, and never caving in to reviews or reactions just to please people. I think this song communicates that even in the end, truthfull bad news is easier to breathe in than the wasted breath of someone else's gossip and lies. Life is so difficult and trying without human beings adding to the confusion with shallow ' noise'. We all need to find our identities in this life like weeds, we need each other to be the space and air to breathe, not dirt and rocks to stand in our way.

this is my favorite mm song. i love how in the beginning he says "just a rock to me." as if the person is dumb and worthless, like a rock. though at the end, it changes to "you're a rock to me" symbolizing someone who is stable and important in the life of weeds (difficult life) and someone you can turn to.

this song is so beautiful it makes me cry.

I absolutely love this song. It is my favorite Modest Mouse song and it's pretty much one of my favorite songs of all time, if not my favorite song of all time. Of course, it means different things to different people, but I'll give my intrepretation. This is the FIRST song that's actually given me a real acid like feeling, like the music itself is speaking to me. It's not just the words, the music too plows ineffable thoughts into my brain, and here's my intrepretation.

"And in this life like weeds, you're just a rock to me"

Just as others said. Life Like Weeds is a representation of how everyone is secretly competing against each other, like weeds. We outgrow each other, and though everyone displays love and affection to each other, it really just makes us feel better and much of human interaction is a mere act. We are all secretly competing against one another in dominance, like weeds.

The musical rift at this part also gets my imagination going. It reminds me how, maybe during his depressive years of realizing this horrible truth, that he continually fakes his way through the days in a smooth like fashion. I'm talking about the musical rift right before "I could have" it's like the music is flowing in this, I'm going through each of my days and it feels like the same, shitty feeling everyday, but I'm marginally enjoying the insanity anyway, and everyone's great anyway. Eh. It's tough to explain my thoughts.

"I could have told you all that I love you"

His cognitive strategies, basically by living his life like a competing weed, keeps him from expressing the truth that he secretly loves everyone, despite competing against them because he has to seem and act "cool." It would be uncool and awkward if he told one of his best friends randomly out of the blue one day "You know. This is life's big picture.. and you there... you're alive... we're in this together. I love you" It's awkward and cheesy, because of living his life as this symbiotic weed, he never expressed his feelings and continued to present a "cool" image growing up as this certain type of guy that didn't need anybody. Deep down, in his confused and confuzzled soul of not understanding life, he really did wish in the end that he could have told everyone that he actually appreciated them. Sounds cheesy. But man, that's powerful stuff.

"And in the places you go, you'll see the place where you're from"

Throughout life, you constantly want to move, seek change, because you are never satisfied with the current moment, you are a competing weed, always seeking improvement.

He seems to be narrating this as if he were at the end of his life. This statement reveals that he just learned the revelation right before you die, that in reality, the answer of where he should have been, the answer was always right in front of him, but because of being a competing weed, he never saw it. Now he gets it. The places you travel to, is your origin, your home, not the improving change.

"And in the faces you meet, you'll see the place where you'll die"

Hard to explain. But the people you act to blend in usually wind up being your downfall, because you defied your original true self because the ego took over. Your death, and fate, is ultimately determined by who you choose to act and blend with throughout your human existence.

"And on the day that you die, you'll see the people you’d met"

You find out who truly mattered to you once you're about to die. You'll suddenly realize how fake you were your whole life to impress.... who? Again, another revelation and life "clicks" once you're about to die. But it's too late...

"And in the faces you see, you'll see just who you've been"

The easiest one to clarify. People constantly seek who they "really are" and their identity. But it's right in front of them. Ever wonder how you make people feel truly and who you are? Check their faces.

"I wish I could have told you all"

A tragic line. He doesn't get to finish the sentence, he wishes he could have said it, but always stuttered his words and could never admit his true feelings.

"In this life like weeds, eyes need us to see"

As others have stated, our bodily functions need us, we don't need them. I don't exactly understand the theory behind this, but it's cool nonetheless and it supports the "puppet" image he gives through this song.

"Hearts need us to bleed, in this life like weeds You're a rock to me"

These lines, despite giving the image of the bodies using us, the tone of his voice gives the idea that he's done trying to understand life. You live, you breathe, you die, and it's another thrown out assessment of the pointlessness of life that Modest Mouse always conveys.

The rock to me, meaning, these other people are always pawns to him, they are mere vessels, and he treats them as such because to him, we're all just complex carbon, no more important than the rock itself.

"I know where you're from, but where do you belong?"

Self-explanatory, we constantly seek a new place, never knowing our origin or where we belong, but don't find out until before our death. What I love about this song is how realistic the narrator sounds, notice how it sounded like he had all the answers in the first verse?

Guess what, in life, even when you think you know it all, you don't, and it's like the narrator's feelings keep changing and his thoughts are swindeling realistically. He's not contradicting himself, he's showing his confusion in a clever way.

"In this life like weeds, you're the dirt I’ll breath"

After you die, you become part of the earth, he's expressing his mental agony at this concept of life and how messed it up it is. We live, we die, we breathe others remnants.

"In this life like weeds, you're a rock to me"

Already explained.

"All this talking all the time and the air fills up, up, up Until there's nothing left to breathe 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 All this talking all the time and the air fills up, up, up Until there's nothing left to breathe Up until there's nothing left to speak Up until the better parts of space "

And here we are, the ending revelation. My favorite part of any Modest Mouse song. I love how the song starts off him knowing the answers, the second part, him questioning once more, thus representing his realistic confusion as vessel, a pawn, a weed, and it coming full circle with him clarifying what life really means, no matter how depressing, in literal terms.

Regardless of figuring out everything, our minds are vibrant strings that process information based off of neuron transmissions. it's not knowledge, so to speak, but human knowledge. True knowledge is not known outside of humans, because our strings are set up this way. In other words, you can never know the answer to anything, since our brains are just made out of puppet strings, no more, no less, nothing outside of that realm of consciousness.

Same concept with the heart, only feeling.

The talking part meaning, words don't mean anything. It doesn't transcend us. We talk to waste time until our deaths. The words are a mere distraction from the big picture. The words float on meaninglessly, void and onwards into space.

Musical part after this is perfect. It expresses the weirdness and creepiness of the whole system. We talk... for nothing? And it just goes onto space, floating on infinitely, picture how messed up that is and weird, and then listen to the weirdness of the music that occurs afterwards. It's a frightening image.

That's about all I have to say. And even this post was meaningless taking the context of the song literally.

I agree with quite a few people who commented on this song. I believe that "And in this life like weeds, you're just a rock to me" in the very beginning suggests, that this person of whom he is speaking of is more than just a careless, destructive weed, but she's a rock to him. She knows what she's doing confident and grounded.

But responding to the people touching on the change from "You're just a rock to me" to "You're a rock to me" is correlated to the change of tone in his voice. At first he's fed up at himself, maybe ashamed of not tell her that he loves her. And then later, becoming calmer, almost mourning, kind of excepting his mistake for what it is.

Just my take. I really appreciated all of the comments on this song!

There are a million things I could say about this song, but I feel like a lot of it is stuff that I can't fully grasp, or put into words. I always noticed that in the first line, Isaac says "In this life like weeds you're just a rock to me." This gives the impression that the rock is pointless, or maybe instead of meaningless the rock is seen as a sort of obstacle, symbolizing a person who is getting in the way of his already chaotic life. Later, Isaac says "In this life like weeds, you're a rock to me." The music behind this line sounds less harsh, and emotion sounds different behind the line, like the rock symbolizes stability instead of pointlessness. It always amazed me how something as small as taking out the word "just" can change the meaning of an entire lyric.

I think ddr06001 pretty much already said this, though.