This blue dot of sickly light
That is daytime in your embarrassed town
Burns a hole in the fading yellow ribbon
On your fading wine colored Cavaliere

the mine has fallen down on you
As you dug a well of death
Milk and sugar water
In brief sympathy with them

when we see the hate in your eyes
It doesn't make us better men
The mine has crushed your brother
As he ruined our rotting sky
A white blast of black hot powder
As you lapse into a real boy

the mine has fallen down on you
As you dug a well of death
Tears of sugar water flow
In briefest sympathy with them

should you be ashamed for more than that?
Than that your daddy raped you silly
Leaning my head on the refrigerator
Crying for the stupid world we share

walla walla walla walla walla walla walla hey







Lyrics submitted by Cygnus...Vismund

Bishop, CA Lyrics as written by

Lyrics © ROUGH TRADE PUBLISHING

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Bishop, CA song meanings
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13 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment

    Hitting on the irony of death personified to an individual versus the activity that person was doing, the song is about how we feel bad for the people who die engaged in the very activities that are killing everyone on a slower, more global scale. Adding to the irony is we feel bad for these people briefly and then it drifts away yet what they were doing is killing everyone and we can't figure out why we're all getting harmed.

    lowrentkickeron June 04, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    This is the best song ever live.

    axemrangerson October 18, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    This cd is so fucking great. I've seen xiu xiu twice in less than a year and they are so great live.

    sadponygorillagirlon November 02, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    i think that the vidio is apt, the song is so dynamic and intense that any naritive or more objective images such as them playing, would be too distracting, i would do things a litle diferently though.

    kickme8xon February 04, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I think it's another song that can be linked to rape. Someone being held captive or imprisoned in a basement or something like that. Maybe a father holding his children as prisoner's in a dark, cell-like place. I think the first verse really points the song in this direction.

    Coowon August 19, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    The final verse certainly leans towards the rape interpretation, but I think LowRentKicker is closer on this one.

    I absolutely LOVE the way the voice gets muffled when he starts singing about the mine collapsing!

    Havenspearon March 06, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I think it's more literal than lowrentkicker's take on it (but more disturbing). I think it's about a dad who keeps his children as sexual prisoners. "This blue dot of sickly light that is daytime in your embarrassed town" is the lack of daylight and humanity they receive. "when we see the hate in your eyes it doesn't make us better men" is referring to the dad who's stuck in this system and it's reaping little rewards but he still keeps it up. The mine's crushed your brother and it's falling down on you - you're brother's will has snapped and you're heading in the same direction. The last verse is Jamie's reflection and how hopeless this "stupid world we share" is.

    *I also don't think it's 'mind' but mine, again, but my friend is borrowing my CD so I can't check.

    Coowon December 07, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    Okay I don't know if these lyrics were taken from a lyric book or something, so I could be wrong, but I could swear that it's "the night" your daddy raped you silly, not "than that."

    Aquarius121on December 29, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    This one seems to have a meaning, that for me is a bit harder to crack.. let's see..

    "this blue dot of sickly light that is daytime in your embarassed town" -to me, the blue dot seems like all that you can see of the sky from the bottom of the well, where you're imprisoned

    "burns a hole in the fading yellow ribbon on your fading wine colored Cavaliere" -"Yellow ribbon" has been used for various purposes, notably, for the support of the hostages of something called the iran hostage crisis, calling it the "cavaliere", too, points to an imaginary hero whom the hostages wish to free them from the well.

    "the mine has fallen down on you as you dug a well of death milk and sugar water in brief sympathy with them"

    -The town mentioned before might be thought of as being in the subjects (who is talked about as 'you') 'ownership', so the 'you' isn't living in the town in the bottom of the well.. and the mine falling down on him, means that he didn't succeed to keep his hostages alive and well being, thus 'well of death'..

    I might be far off, but the rest seems to follow from this interpretation.

    "the mine has crushed your brother" -might mean that his brother found out about the mine, and got killed or anything

    EuropeanJazzon December 30, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    just a fun note, "wala" apparently means "I swear" in arabic. Doubt it's relevant, but still.

    Anyway, this song is fucking brutal and is what I love about Xiu Xiu.

    atrison February 23, 2011   Link

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