I'd like to add my personal interpretation to this song:
"I am an arms dealer fitting you with weapons in the form of words. And I don't really care which side wins, as long as the room keeps singing that's just the business I'm in. This ain't a scene, it's a goddamn arms race!"
An arms race is two or more sides of a war participating in interactive or competitive production of better weapons. It's a sort of call-and-response to keep topping what the other one just produced.
This phenomenon also occurs in music business, when bands produce songs inspired by music dropped by another band, trying to better what they did.
For example: the Beach Boys made Pet Sounds in reaction to hearing The Beatles' Rubber Soul, but then the Beatles created Sgt. Pepper's as a reaction to Pet Sounds. Or, like @Jayybuchanan said, Fall Out Boy made this song in response to P!atD's "I write tragedies not sins".
There can't ever be a winner in these things though. In a nuclear arms race everyone loses (because we all die), and in a musical arms race everyone wins, because there's more music!
I get how this can be frustrating for a musician though. They might feel pressure to keep creating something better than their peers in the scene time after time, and journalists or fans can make it seem like it's a matter of life or death; of winning or losing. Hence, the comparison to an arms race.
So to me, what they're saying in this first verse is: "take a chill pill, we're just here to have a good time." Like, Pete Wentz literally said once: "Fall Out Boy was never supposed to get this big. We just wanted some pizza and to play songs fast." That's what he's saying in this verse.
"I'm not a shoulder to cry on, but I digress."
To be fair, I don't understand this part. I feel like this isn't digressing at all, it fits rather well with the rest of the theme (the theme being to get off of their case).
It might mean "we're not emo! we're not here to make angsty teens feel better! we're here to be the best band we can be!" It might also mean "don't come running to us about this scene being so competitive."
"I'm a leading man and the lies I weave are oh so intricate."
A leading man is the main actor in a movie or play. To me this means they feel like they're playing a big part in their music scene, but they're not quite sure if they belong their; if they should be in the lead for that particular scene. They're starting to feel caged or like phonies.
"I wrote the gospel on giving up (and looked pretty sinking), but the real bombshells have already sunk (Primadonnas of the gutter)."
First off, I freaking love the visual of 'prima donnas of the gutter'. I adore pete's writing so so much.
I feel like with this, they're saying "yeah, we used to be a wreck and made a great album because of it, but that sort of thing doesn't have a future." I might be digging to deep with this, but the "real bombshells" to me means "even greater albums/bands" and "have already sunk" sounds like they have gone off the deep end in some way or form. And it's true: in the past we have seen lots of bombshell musicians drowning :'( I'm terribly grateful Pete didn't go this route - but I digress.
"At night we're painting your trash gold, while you sleep."
They feel like they pick apart the trash songs other sucky bands produce and use it to make their own much better songs, and people are not even noticing them doing it.
"Crashing not like hips or cars - no, more like p-p-parties."
Have I mentioned how much I love them? Anywho, might be my dirty mind, but "crashing hips" sounds to me like having sex; "crashing cars" seems a way to say "being careless with yourself, breaking/ruining yourself," while "crashing parties" means to turn up uninvited.
So to me this bit means they're not in this scene to get wrecked or laid; they're here to have a good time.
"Bandwagon's full, please catch another."
Jumping on the bandwagon means to hitchhike along with another one's succes without having to do anything yourself. They're frustrated with the flunkies.
"All the boys who the dance floor didn't love, and all the girls whose lips couldn't move fast enough: sing, until your lungs give out."
I want to interpret this as loving, cause I'm a dweeb. So I take this as if they're saying "hey fans, we can still see you through this recent fog of people only liking us because we're supposedly emo, and we love you so so much!" :))
Thanks for coming to my Ted talk <3 I really like bands.
I'd like to add my personal interpretation to this song:
"I am an arms dealer fitting you with weapons in the form of words. And I don't really care which side wins, as long as the room keeps singing that's just the business I'm in. This ain't a scene, it's a goddamn arms race!"
An arms race is two or more sides of a war participating in interactive or competitive production of better weapons. It's a sort of call-and-response to keep topping what the other one just produced.
This phenomenon also occurs in music business, when bands produce songs inspired by music dropped by another band, trying to better what they did. For example: the Beach Boys made Pet Sounds in reaction to hearing The Beatles' Rubber Soul, but then the Beatles created Sgt. Pepper's as a reaction to Pet Sounds. Or, like @Jayybuchanan said, Fall Out Boy made this song in response to P!atD's "I write tragedies not sins".
There can't ever be a winner in these things though. In a nuclear arms race everyone loses (because we all die), and in a musical arms race everyone wins, because there's more music!
I get how this can be frustrating for a musician though. They might feel pressure to keep creating something better than their peers in the scene time after time, and journalists or fans can make it seem like it's a matter of life or death; of winning or losing. Hence, the comparison to an arms race.
So to me, what they're saying in this first verse is: "take a chill pill, we're just here to have a good time." Like, Pete Wentz literally said once: "Fall Out Boy was never supposed to get this big. We just wanted some pizza and to play songs fast." That's what he's saying in this verse.
"I'm not a shoulder to cry on, but I digress."
To be fair, I don't understand this part. I feel like this isn't digressing at all, it fits rather well with the rest of the theme (the theme being to get off of their case).
It might mean "we're not emo! we're not here to make angsty teens feel better! we're here to be the best band we can be!" It might also mean "don't come running to us about this scene being so competitive."
"I'm a leading man and the lies I weave are oh so intricate."
A leading man is the main actor in a movie or play. To me this means they feel like they're playing a big part in their music scene, but they're not quite sure if they belong their; if they should be in the lead for that particular scene. They're starting to feel caged or like phonies.
"I wrote the gospel on giving up (and looked pretty sinking), but the real bombshells have already sunk (Primadonnas of the gutter)."
First off, I freaking love the visual of 'prima donnas of the gutter'. I adore pete's writing so so much.
I feel like with this, they're saying "yeah, we used to be a wreck and made a great album because of it, but that sort of thing doesn't have a future." I might be digging to deep with this, but the "real bombshells" to me means "even greater albums/bands" and "have already sunk" sounds like they have gone off the deep end in some way or form. And it's true: in the past we have seen lots of bombshell musicians drowning :'( I'm terribly grateful Pete didn't go this route - but I digress.
"At night we're painting your trash gold, while you sleep."
They feel like they pick apart the trash songs other sucky bands produce and use it to make their own much better songs, and people are not even noticing them doing it.
"Crashing not like hips or cars - no, more like p-p-parties."
Have I mentioned how much I love them? Anywho, might be my dirty mind, but "crashing hips" sounds to me like having sex; "crashing cars" seems a way to say "being careless with yourself, breaking/ruining yourself," while "crashing parties" means to turn up uninvited. So to me this bit means they're not in this scene to get wrecked or laid; they're here to have a good time.
"Bandwagon's full, please catch another."
Jumping on the bandwagon means to hitchhike along with another one's succes without having to do anything yourself. They're frustrated with the flunkies.
"All the boys who the dance floor didn't love, and all the girls whose lips couldn't move fast enough: sing, until your lungs give out."
I want to interpret this as loving, cause I'm a dweeb. So I take this as if they're saying "hey fans, we can still see you through this recent fog of people only liking us because we're supposedly emo, and we love you so so much!" :))
Thanks for coming to my Ted talk <3 I really like bands.