The Geeks Were Right

This song is most definitely NOT about some silly little acid trip - I think most Faint fans would agree that most of their songs are not as one-dimensional (if not silly) as that.

As was said before, this is a glimpse into a "robo-future" as someone called it - how life will be lived out in x number of years if we continue to let technology replace different aspects of our lives.

The whole song is great, especially lyrics-wise, but, the part that seems most poignant to me is the part about the "egghead boys". We get The Faint's wonderful satire in this little portion, when he mentions how "that's what the girls like," which goes on to become a metaphor not just for silly little high school girls falling for the geeky boys years later, but for all of human society becoming so entranced by technological advances.

Not only is this machine-laden world taking over modern society, it's virtually eliminating the importance of past artistic endeavors (aka the Bach lines, in which "eyeballs bulge" when people hear his music). The parts about REM sleep I think have to do with the narrator traveling back in time (through his dreams) with his chain saw in hand. Elevator = time machine, as everyone mentioned. The line "If I could bring things back, they'd feedback wild" pretty much goes to mean that if he [the narrator] could bring parts of the past forward with him in time to show these techie-junkies, they'd be hysterical, either with rage or excitement, or maybe even both. The narrator's usage of the chain saw also seems to represent the raw savageness of the past, rather than the excessiveness of the future (chemical wars and plastic islands at sea, etc.). He chooses to embrace the past and use it wisely in order to shape the future.

"Watch what the humans ruin with machines" is a beautiful line - it captures the song's meaning completely.

OkRadioHead pretty much nails the symbolism, but every other post I read (had to stop after a while) is missing it.

It's a contrast in extremes seen in elevated states –such as dreaming, twilight dreaming, daytime hallucinations, etc– between the surreality of subjective consciousness versus the power of objectivity (too much it would seem) to rigidly measure and mechanically dominate the imagination.

Such power is extremely alluring both on an individual and socio/cultural level, and in subjugating subjectivity it unleashes destruction on the world.

Given to visions, he sees both of these extremes and expresses a preference for imagination over objectification, (suggesting that succumbing to the latter is not just a mental weakness but culturally a fatal flaw) saying [that] if he could bring back all that he sees in dreams (first few lines are obviously dream imagery) it would be wild.

Certainly more wild than the alternate future he sees when he presses fast forward, where we have unleashed machines that take over the work of oppressing our minds and wreaking havoc on the world.

The song's title is a reference to the original geeks, who warned of all this, before the term's meaning became inverted to mean exactly the opposite: an obsession with mad participation in this mechanized insanity.

okradiohead. i agree with everything you said with the exception of the fact that he presses fast forward in the freight elevator(time machine.) which would mean he is in the present (or past, depending on how you look at it). and glimpses into the future and thinks that if he brings back the things he sees from the future they would feed back wild. and i also think that the idea that he is still in the present is supported by the lines predator skills, chemical wars, plastic islands . watch what the humans RUIN (not RUINED) with machines. all things that although were in the past, are still occuring now he's seeing what will eventually lead to that robo future.

ok its not an acid trip, i read the bio of the album and this song isnt just about an acid trip or trippy thoughts or whatever, everythings ligit. okradiohead summed it up pretty nicely. bravo.

i think that he's not physically travelling into the future, but he's doing so in his dreams because he says "WHILE I'm in deep REM sleep Or twilight zones I take a freight elevator". and dreams occurring during a REM sleep are more vividly able to be recalled than usual sleep, which is maybe why he thinks he has seen the actual future because he can remember it so clearly, and it may just be the actual future or it may just be his own vision created by his imagination.

and i'm not sure if this part is correct or if i'm too over-analysing, but the dream motif is also perhaps reinstated in "If I could bring things back They'd feedback wild". WILD, or a wake-initiated lucid dream is when a person is awake but then slips into a lucid dream-like state. so when he 'visits the future' in his dreams, he is aware of the fact that he is dreaming and so is somewhat able to control his actions in his dream, and in doing so tries to bring back the new technologies but when he does is only met with the fact that the items only exist in his dreamworld and can't be moved into the real world?

also another reference "In dreams that bend To let me cut through time" as in the dreams bend/break the regular standards of dreams by thrusting him forward in time?

and then in between that is what everyone else had said about how the exploitation of technology is leading us into a grim future.

oh and i also agree with Miserable at Best, for every single song on here there's always at least one person who has to say that its about drugs! i think people need to look deeper into songs rather than just disregard abstract lyrics as the nonsensical ramblings of a drug-induced high.

I think the first chorus is the future we think we'll have or should have with one guy using a chainsaw that runs on rain and is more pleasant to listen to (Bach) than a loud gas powered one. It is also partially solar powered because its eyes shut when the pink sun drops (a sun that looks different because of mankinds past mistakes.) The second alternate chorus is a team of woodcutters and loud chainsaws (choir) and can stretch out bach (the sounds of the saw are stretched because its louder, deeper, and interupted by the saws violent vibtations thus making its notes deeper.) Dry eyes roll and wet eyes cross are older people being fed up with these technological advances because its ruining the planet but younger people are amazed and bewildered with what people say the future will be like. (as you age your eyes get dryer.)

Its pretty much like this First chorus theres a guy whos cutting a tree with an eco friendly chainsaw who looks to the future and learns the geeks were right

Second chorus is alot of woodsman cutting trees with gas powered chainsaws.He looks to the future to find the geeks were right.

Geeks being scientists and all, they either predict a future of shite or a future of awesome stuff. The wasteful will be forced to rely on more conservative means of power until the earth repairs. But when it does it will be abused with technological advances ( cool future.) Then, when these advances are too much for the world to bear they have to go back to preservation. Our current world starts in the second, more wasteful stage. We are currently becoming more Eco friendly every day. Sadly this will go on until were all dead.

No comments yet? Can't wait for the new album :P

New album will be epic.

minus that chunk in the middle of the song, the first/last verses are pretty cryptic...but I think they stick with the whole oppressed-spirit-in-mechanical-future thing, speaking of natural qualities and additions to now misused or unused body parts and perverted environment-fuckers: eyeballs in healthy, now forgotten grass, a chainsaw that runs off of rain instead of gas. There is also mention of the classic composer Bach (I assume) which makes those eyes surprised or fearful and (the possibly "big" as in expanding) sun going down causing eyelids to open up: fuck the sunlight. I think these images are the time-travelling dreams of someone living in the shitty robo-future: He gets to grind his teeth (anger at the mess) and somehow peek backward through time in his dreams, when things weren't as plastic.

But "teeth" could be referring to the teeth of the chainsaw, which would imply that the chainsaw choir is his regressed anger, multiplied "in dreams that bend" his reality.

Whereas the freight elevator that he travels forward in could imply that his instinct dream-brain hasn't lost all hope and is looking for that change back to "wild feedback". But this isn't resolved in the song.

It's vague and abstract and it's new Faint and I fucking love it.

scratch that, it's the dreams of someone now, clearly. Idiot.