The Lusitania was a British ship sunk at the beginning of World War I, and the Maine was the ship whose sinking was catalytic in the beginning of the Spanish-American War. The slogan, "Remember the Maine! To hell with Spain!" became a rallying cry for anti-Spanish sentiment.
There are references to electricity run throughout the song. The title is a play on words; it refers to electrics arcs (a discharge of electricity through air between two electrodes) and Coulombs (the unit for electrical charge, named after Charles-Augustin de Coulomb), but also brings to mind architectural arcs and columns.
This gives new meaning to the lines, "Let the arcs spit from my fingertips/Till we'll become a hazard in the rain./Yeah we'll get charged out in the rain." They're a "hazard" because the metaphorical electrical charge running between them is conducted through all the water.
The "60-second hum" is a reference to the Mains hum (yet another play on words--the Maine sounds like Mains). The Mains hum is the sound electricity lines make, which oscilates at 60 Hz (Hertz=cycles per second).
This song is freaking amazing.
The Lusitania was a British ship sunk at the beginning of World War I, and the Maine was the ship whose sinking was catalytic in the beginning of the Spanish-American War. The slogan, "Remember the Maine! To hell with Spain!" became a rallying cry for anti-Spanish sentiment.
There are references to electricity run throughout the song. The title is a play on words; it refers to electrics arcs (a discharge of electricity through air between two electrodes) and Coulombs (the unit for electrical charge, named after Charles-Augustin de Coulomb), but also brings to mind architectural arcs and columns. This gives new meaning to the lines, "Let the arcs spit from my fingertips/Till we'll become a hazard in the rain./Yeah we'll get charged out in the rain." They're a "hazard" because the metaphorical electrical charge running between them is conducted through all the water. The "60-second hum" is a reference to the Mains hum (yet another play on words--the Maine sounds like Mains). The Mains hum is the sound electricity lines make, which oscilates at 60 Hz (Hertz=cycles per second).