| Smog – Vessel in Vain Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| I saw this movie based on Relapser's recommendation. It is very good indeed. The song makes for a great intro. | |
| The Walkmen – All Hands and the Cook Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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sounds like a spat between two neighbors stemming from the narrator's yard work. Sounds like it got out of hand. Narrator seems pissed b/c he did a lot of work, and his neighbor only complained after he'd finished all the work. Seems like water the yardwork was, it won't be an issue after it rains. |
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| The Walkmen – Four Provinces Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Lyrics seem a little off to me; I have: I'll see you tonight down at Sophia's place It's always a good time The polished mohogany Gin and cigars Yeah, come on then Hey, Leah Am I getting through Here's one more silver lining for the weekend Hey, Leah Am I getting through The candles in your eyes are still burning The next time I see you at Sophia's place We'll fall right back in line They'll tilt up your glass In the mere so clear Well, c'mon then and be a good friend Hey, Leah you'll see There's one more silver lining So c'mon then and be a good friend Hey, Leah Am I getting through Your shining eyes are brighter than the moonlight Every bone in my body Broken one time or two Every hour of the long day Rather spend with you Every year that I'm living Got to stick by your side Sun goes down Moon comes up Sky is black and blue Here I stand Honey, where are you? |
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| Sublime – Freeway Time in L.A. County Jail Lyrics | 13 years ago |
| ^ this song, see also the Hukilaku song by Bing Crosby and Them Belly Full (But We Hungry) by Bob Marley and the Wailers. I think this is a representative song for the band because, if you look into their music enough, they borrow from everyone. All kinds of reggae, sam cooke, the dead, a ton of punk and classic rock bands, etc. And they take all these disparate kinds of music, and then make it their own - I can just see someone bored, shuffling up and down a cell block, thinking of bing crosby songs in his head. | |
| Belle & Sebastian – The Boy with the Arab Strap Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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@ seeyou You, sir, are an idiot |
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| Grizzly Bear – Deep Sea Diver Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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Sorry to keep going on, but something else just occurred to me: While the "pearls" may make the narrator's toes curl, they are also something that comes from the sea floor - where the narrator is. Maybe he's referring to the hypocracy of a typical "WASP" life style - while the narrator may not want to be a Christian, he's more familiar with those tenents (tenets? my spelling is for shit) on which Christianity is based. Jesus was a poor outsider, who did not have the wealth or social acceptance that the typical home, dog, and car owning Christians does. |
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| Grizzly Bear – Deep Sea Diver Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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There may be some additional religious weight; the superstition of 13 as an unlucky number has been said (by some) to stem from Judas as the 13th apostle who betrayed Jesus; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triskaidekaphobia. Jesus also instructs his apostles not to cast "pearls before swine" - meaning do not give that which is valuable to those who cannot appreciate it. Christ and divinity are also frequently referred to as a "pearl"; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pearl_(poem). Perhaps this means the narrator is especially not interested in being a Christian, another thing typically associated with white, middle class, Americans. |
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| Grizzly Bear – Deep Sea Diver Lyrics | 13 years ago |
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I’m a deep sea diver with my fins And underneath your currents I do swim A baker’s dozen, thirteen pearls And when I try them on my toes do curl Cuz you, you’ve got all I want The car, the house, the dog Just keep it away Just keep it away, oh yeah Just keep it away Just keep it away, oh yeah I’m a deep sea diver losing air And around you laps I swim but you don’t care This song seems to be about a relationship where one person has things the narrator does not. While others have said its about divorce or a break up (I actually thought it was about a grown child who desires while at the same time is repulsed by his parents' middle-class lifestyle) it is obviously about a relationship where there is some distance between the parties. I interpretted the word "want" in the second stanza to mean "lack" rather than "desire," as in "you have all the things I don't have - the makings of an stereotypical happy adult." From the line "my toes do curl" I got that the narrator, while seemingly attracted to these things (dog, house, car) doesn't actually enjoy having them - I've alway heard the expression "...makes my toes curl" as referring to something that you don't like, or find horrific. The repetition of "just keep it away" seems to reinforce this. The narrator refers to himself as a deep sea diver, I think, because he feels alienated (thanks Azmar) from all the surface dwellers - people who are happy with a middle class lifestyle - and while these are the things that make people happy, they are not in fact the things that he wants. He feels like an outsider, but at the same time does not want the things that would bring him inside. He also feels that, as an outsider, the people at the surface don't notice or don't care about him, because he is simply too far below to be of any importance. This image is particularly poignant because, as a deep sea diver, he is in fact the same type of animal as those at the surface - he uses fins to navigate the alien environment and needs air to live - but doesn't want to be at the surface with everyone else. He's only comfortable in a place that is dangerous to him. I also like this image b/c it calls up all the things we associated with the deep sea - darnkness, cold, strange animals like angler fish - made all the more relevant by coupling it with distant, muffled, monotonous music. |
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| No Age – Loosen This Job Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Surprised no one has written anything on this song yet. Its probably my favorite on Weirdo Rippers, more for the vague sentiment it gave me rather than any close reading of the lyrics. It conveys a feeling of dissatisfaction with time and place, but more importantly, with the fact that the narrator can't even escape the time and place. There are so many records of his life - credit scores, rental histories, job histories, criminal records, SSN, etc. - that he can't drope everything and leave his life behind, which seems like one of the biggest drawbacks to the information age. |
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| Tapes N Tapes – Lines Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Can't believe no one has commented on this song yet. I really enjoy it, both because of how the song builds on itself and because teh lyrics get me all ramped up and I don't know why. I think that a certain sentiment is reflected in the words - the idea that the polite silence and tact in a coversation or relationship is something that was hard won but now slipping, that tensions are growing, and that a conflict is rapidly coming to the fore. The specifics, though, befuddle me. "Water soaked in pine,"? I also like the belicose turn it takes towards the end... the threat of real violence, rather than ambiguous conflict, matches well. |
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| Yo La Tengo – Stockholm Syndrome Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I'm pretty sure the pedophile comment must be a joke. Or the most ridiculous overinterpretation of a fairly simple theme and song that I've read in a while. | |
| The Mountain Goats – Orange Ball of Hate Lyrics | 15 years ago |
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Typically I think of the image of an impending storm as signifying an oncoming trouble or conflict, one which the narrator sees (the weather vane, wild win, etc.) but she refuses to acknowledge, even to the point of leaving the window open and getting caught out in the rain. I think this frustrates the narrator, saying she has rocks in her head. It seems whatever the impending conflict is (not wanting to live in New England?), and however pessimistic about their chances to work it out the narrator is, he still loves her, which makes the song sadly sweet, and completely doomed, which seems to be sort of a theme of TMG. Great song. I second how great that line "I don't want to live in New England..." is. |
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| Bon Iver – Flume Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| For the most part I'm with fickyvid, but given what everyone is saying regarding the womb metaphor, I would assume the feathers on the flume could be from the wings he's losing as he moves from a pre-birth angelic state to a human state. | |
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