Twin Cinema

Tis guy is known to write in quasi-gibberish lyrics and find significance later, but this song just makes me think of the glory of the theatre. You go to a movie and you become a part of this world full of charging armies and deception and intrigue, and even though you've seen it all before it still astounds and surprises you every time. Then you leave the theatre and real life is just dust in the light of this great story, day after night. So you return to the theatre and even though you know you have things to do, this story is so great you go anyway. There's no protecting from voices in your head telling you you've seen it, you need to live, but you slip through the cracks in society and simply continue the cycle of neglect.

Or it's gibberesh with awesome vocals and guitar, I seriously have no idea.

To me, this song is about how our own lives, at times, equal the drama/comedy/horror of the films we see. You know--that moment in a film where you understand what the character feels because you've been through it too ("They've shown this on both screens"). There's also a hint of how other people like to comment and judge our life choices, much like they comment outloud (annoyingly) right in the middle of the film ("in soft seats are stills projecting no protecting from voices in the back of your double feature"). Whatever the true meaning, I love this whole record.

This song is about the Roxie Theatre on 16th St in San Francisco, CA.

As I work in a movie theatre, this song has a sense of personal meaning, outside of however it could be interpreted. I love it.

i like this song, but dont know what it means... its killing me!

Just saw them play in San Francisco a week or two ago, and they closed their encore with this song. Carl intro'd it by saying he used to live in SF but ended up moving to New York, where he ended up meeting the love of his life, even while he was still in a relationship with someone in SF. He described the song as having to do with the dawning realization that he had to end the relationship with the person he had left behind on the west coast.

As a side note, while he hadn't been very talkative throughout the rest of their set, he started to light up during this introduction, and ended up goading the crowd a bit with a twinkle in his eye, saying things like "Sometimes you just have to break up with your San Francisco girlfriend. You know, that whole thing about 'I left my heart in San Francisco' - that's bullshit. Leave someone else's heart in San Francisco." It was pretty great.