Bend to Squares

"Before your fingers came unwired..." slitting your wrist (cutting the wires)

"Quite a slip (a loosened grasp)" losing the grasp on life and passing on.

"Weights down so that you could move forwards " lost the weight of burdens in life to move on to death

its suicide.

i really didn't think this song was about suicide but you guys bring out good points.

consider this instead: i always thought this song was about the "rat race." conforming to a nine to five. "bend to squares" means to fit your life around a calendar. "bend to squares five to six times" is a work week. "what a way to cut lengthwise" is describing how a time-crunching school/work can take the life out of living.

any thoughts on "With two fingers a rock glass, Time passed and that was that" ? i'm not even sure those are the right lyrics.

I think that to me it seems like selling into a trashy lifestyle. i could be wrong tho, cuz when i saw death cab, they were all drinking so they might not be condemning it. who knows. here goes. "Gravitated towards a taste For foreign films and modern plays " kind of seems like maybe the social drinker, like a glass of wine. classy. "But that machine could only Bend to squares five to six times Before your fingers came unwired..." that system can only last so long. it's like what they teach u in DARE - at first u get a sensation, then after a while it takes longer and longer to reach that same "high" and then u have to drink/do drugs to be urself. "Weights down so that you could move forwards Pinch to snub that restless nerve" u need it to function, and like those people (i have some friends like this, sadly, and im only 16) who have to drink like alone in their rooms cuz they r depressed.
"And knock the wind from one last urge" or like those ones that drink so they can be wild and like hook up with random people at parties, cuz they have low self esteem. "With two fingers IN a rock glass," like a drink, on the rocks. ? maybe. "Time passed and that was that Quite a slip (a loosened grasp) " like, time goes on and u lose control over it. "... what a way to cut lengthwise..." ur ultimately killing urself with such a habit. if these songs are biographical at all, it makes sense bc of styrofoam plates - about an alcoholic father. i wanna hear what u guys think tho. im rly curious.

Why does everyone that openly proclaims themselves an emo think every song in the universe is about suicide? They aren't all. It could be. I'm just saying I hear that too much. I think Samuel, Been24, and the rest are on a good track. Suicide is not very DCFC, lately. Mostly, I think it reflects the urges of modern culture to edge toward what seems "sophisticated" and "high-minded" as an escape form the work week and normal monotony. Not solely that, but it is a trend nowadays to be into movies that seem deep at first glance, if you catch the drift of that statement.

To me it sounds like its a song from the point of view of someone who has tried to do the things the way that they have been

told to (either by parents or parent figures, or by bosses, or even by societal standards) and finally they are just like "Screw it!

I'm throwing these 'weights down so i can move forward!'

The basis for this song relates to bending squares, or folding a paper. You can literally only fold a paper 7 times before it is no longer foldable. That machine can only bend to the square 5-6 times. Or, you can decide to be/do all these things, and never quite reach the end result of completely folding.

I think it is a reference to giving in to alcholism completely as evidenced by cutting the folds lengthwise, to completely throw away the efforts of bending to the squares completely. It's about giving up, whether with suicide or whatever, both images fit the progression of the lyrics.

this is such a good song.

death cab for cutie is so amazing. this is a great song.

"Ooh, ooh, what a way to cut lenghtwise"

I love this song for that sentence alone.

it's just too beautiful for this world...