Disappearer

this song has been popping up on my ipod during runs lately and i think i have a new perspective:

i think he is trying to describe a concept that he grasps momentarily, but is ineffable, indescribable, and as he tries to describe it, in this song, it slips away from him. hence it is a "disappearer."

also - the lyrics suggest that this is a concept, or a dream thought, that he has had before, and has slipped away before.

of course some of the lyrics are there simply because they rhyme and sound cool - so you need to filter out that stuff.

at first i thought the lyrics were just nonsensical - but they aren't. i keep hearing this on my ipod and thinking about it. it is kind of like right when you are falling asleep and you have a very brief and fascinating thought. then you wake again and try to recall it and it slips away and makes absolutely no sense at all.

the video shows them driving in a car - a fleeting thought while driving, on tour . . .

or maybe it is about getting drunk at a bar called "western starland" - who knows?

Sounds like he's talking about aliens but it reminds me of allnighters!

Moik: "it is kind of like right when you are falling asleep and you have a very brief and fascinating thought. then you wake again and try to recall it and it slips away and makes absolutely no sense at all."

i thought i was the only one to think about things like this. but i really love what you came up with with this song. those are the type of thoughts that you try to capture but you never really can so sometimes you just let them slip by. but as you can see they tried to hold onto that idea just long enough to write it into a song, and i guess they managed.

In the lyrics I see three very wise men and probably one wise woman in a car heading west on the streets or highways of predominantly christian America in a semi-meditative state you get in sometimes as a passenger on a very long trip. All kinds of thoughts and feelings come up into consciousness, some very briefly, some disappear bypassing the memory completely. Zen knows of a feeling of being on the edge of satori (or at least kensho), when you might need a push to really "fall into it". The push however doesn't come and the only thing that remains are these lyrics and a powerfull contrasting driving sound of this song that I enjoy so much playing out real loud in my car. The sound however tells me, that the eastern star the wise driver in the car is following might as well be a Texaco star or directly a western star truck.

The themes seem to be spiritual vs. mundane experiences and the (in)ability to reach epiphany or enlightenment.

I am not positive but I think Thurston wrote this riding in a car/bus(?) and he looked over and noticed a "Western Star" truck ...and it just kinda wrote itself... I will have to ask Thurston next time I see him...haha

i agree - the song seems like it is made up of thoughts from a long never-ending drive. also - in the video suggests this, sort of.

Paul Dempsey, of Something For Kate, described this song as 'one of the most cinematic songs I have ever heard' ... and I couldn't put it better myself. This is one of my favourites from Goo.. although that whole album is absolute genius. A wonder to listen to. :)

this song creeps me out when i walk alone throughtstreets at night but i still love it although it makes me paranoid. it is such late night music i agree good for late night driving

this song could nearly just be about signs, road signs, neon signs woow any signs, pretty atmospheric for a song about signs though.

custard haha i think is says "east coast and on"