Modest Mouse – Night on the Sun

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  My Interpretation:Wrote this out while I had an epiphany regarding the meaning of this song - January 4th, around noontime. I was tweaking on Vyvanse and propylhexedrine during literature class (as I'm the scum of the earth, scourge of mankind), but nevertheless, this is, and will always be, my notion about this track. Here is exactly what I wrote, unedited, unaltered, no censorship. Here we go:
  
  "Night on The Sun" is about reclusiveness. The title alone depicts the concept of an imposed (sometimes self-) loneliness. The line, ["Turn off the light cuz its night on the sun, & your hopelessly hopeless, our hopes are all for you"] that permeates the song details the idea of closing yr curtains, and the reactions of those around you. Isaac is trying to say "your friends give a shit".
  The idea of ["freeze yr blood & then stab it into me"] is reflecting how a recluse wants someone to come his way and help him out of his depressive pitfall {*Empathize w. him}. He then proceeds to write ["I eat my own blood & get filled up, I get filled up on me"], another piece that shows a reclusive (or at least avoidant) lifestyle - The narrator quits needing other people as company (hearken back to the -phenomenal- chorus of Baby Blue Sedan - "I'm never lonesome when I'm by myself"), and proceeds to make do with only himself and his mind for company, whether it be with drugs, terebii, Japanimation (Brock's waifu is Witch Hunter Robin), or anything.
  Last few lines of the song are both the most powerfully sung, and poignantly meaningful ["Well, there's one thing to know about this town, it's 500 miles underground! (It's alright...), well, there's one thing to know about this globe, it's bound & it's willing to explode (It's alright)"] The climax ends with something like "ain't nobody who wants me underground, which proves the Narrator (Isaac) accepts his friend's help. Good end?
  
  ----fin
  
  For the record, this is probably one of my favorite songs, by my favorite band. Still don't have -the- favorite, but this is definitely on the list.

  Flag Atno000on January 26, 2012   Link

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    i think you're spot on

    Flag toastcheeon September 18, 2012  
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  General Comment:Modest Mouse got their name from Modest Mussorgsky, a 19th Century Russian composer whose best known work is "Night on Bald Mountain" (which was later popularized by the Disney film "Fantasia"). Mussorgsky's song is based on an ancient myth known as "The Witches Sabbath", a Neopagan ritual performed by witches, demons and the devil who would meet at midnight and hold a Black Mass that involved human sacrifices, wild orgies, and the abducting of infants and the drinking their blood. These sabbaths were performed at different times throughout the year based on the astronomical positioning of the sun and the moon - all based on the crucifixion eclipse that occurred the day Christ was crucified as described by the Apostle Peter in Acts 2:20 that "the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood"... now you see the connection here?
  
  Modest Mouse = Modest Mussorgsky; "Night on Bald Mountain" = "Night on the Sun"; the solar eclipse signifying the "night" on the sun; the sun as a representation of Jesus; the drinking of blood; holy communion... etc.
  
  This is all supported by Brock's admission that although "not really religious at all", he likes to "toy around with the whole Biblical thing," because it's interesting.
  
  The rest of the song just reflects the band's atheistic, dysteleological world-view that we're all going to eventually die some day (including the earth) and that life has no purpose.
  
  

  Flag DKVilleon April 23, 2011   Link

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    modest mouse got their name from a line from Virginia Woolf's "A Mark on the Wall" from a line where she explained how the poor were "modest, mouse-like people"

    Flag seabaiton May 16, 2011  

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    Yeah, that's completely wrong. Seabait is right.
    
    "I wish I could hit upon a pleasant track of thought, a track indirectly reflecting credit upon myself, for those are the pleasantest thoughts, and very frequent even in the minds of modest mouse-coloured people, who believe genuinely that they dislike to hear their own praises."

    Flag Canceriddensealon February 14, 2012  
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  My Interpretation:To me, this song seems oddly optimistic - when I hear the 'There's one thing you should know about this town / It's 500 miles underground / And that's okay!' line, it just seems like a very positive and life-affirming lyric. I'm probably wrong but that's my interpretation anyway. I suppose it's good that it and so many other Modest Mouse songs are vague in meaning - they can relate to any situation you're in, and that's another reason Modest Mouse are my favourite band.

  Flag BlueCadet1993on March 16, 2011   Link

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    BlueCadet1993, I know what you mean. Basically he's saying that in spite of all the bad shit in his life and/or in the world, he's saying it's alright and that he hasn't lost hope. Or something along the lines of that...
    
    That's the beauty of Isaac's writing. Sometimes I'm pretty sure I know what he personally means in his songs, but we can't know for sure. But either way, he writes in a way that it has a meaning, or multiple meanings, to a lot of people. That's the best kind of writing and Isaac is able to do that in almost all of his songs.

    Flag JTXon March 27, 2011  
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  General Comment:To me, this is about a person who IVs drugs. The music makes me think of opiates, as it's very mellow, but I know Brock was into meth. Regardless of what drug it's specifically about, the drug helps him escape his problems. He explains why he uses the drugs, because the town he lives in is 500 miles underground; basically saying it's hell and no one wants him around. But when he's on those drugs, "it's alright".
  
  It's called "Night on the Sun" because, if it is indeed about heroin or any other opiate, you get this warm (the sun) sensation all over your body and you often nod off and can't keep your eyes open (night),
  
  This is my first comment. Modest Mouse is my favorite band. Isaac Brock might be the best lyricist ever. They're very clever and the metaphors he uses are genius. Most of the songs also have more than one meaning, just like this one.

  Flag JTXon December 26, 2010   Link

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    eye opening

    Flag austin1523on July 10, 2012  
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  General Comment:I think he says hopeful on the Eveywhere album but on the Night on the Sun EP he says hopeless because I never heard hopeful...either way it is a beautiful song and I love the long version on the EP. Does anyone else notice how modest mouse likes to have a super good instrumental jam sesh at the end of a lot of their more lyrical songs.

  Flag fuentcenton October 25, 2010   Link

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  My Interpretation:Okay...I have not read all 93 comments. So, forgive me if I am posting something, someone else has already covered. However, I have been racking my brain on this song, and FINALLY feel like I have almost figured it out. Not that the suggestions above aren't good points to ponder, or that my perceptions aren't completely crazy!!! So, here we go...
  'Freeze your blood and stab it into me...'
  I feel, here, blood is representing one's self or beliefs, and he is painting the picture that whomever he is talking to or about is trying his or her hardest to push their beliefs/self on him.
  HOWEVER
  'I eat my own blood and get filled up on me...'
  Here, he is saying he is already full of himself, in the emotional sense of the phrase. So, he is his own person, basically. (however stubborn or narcissitic, he does or does not realize the statement to be)
  MOVING ON
  'Well, there's one thing to know about this town; It's five hundred miles underground; and that's all right...'
  Here, he feels, he is living in hell. (underground)
  'Well, there's one thing to know about this globe; It's bound and it's willing to explode...'
  Quite literal menaing, here...
  'Well, there's one thing to know about this town; Not a person doesn't want me underground..."
  Here, underground obviously means dead. Everyone is out for themselves and could not and would not care if he was dead...kind of adding to the point of the to previous lines.
  'There's one thing to know about this earth; We're put here just to make more dirt, and that's ok.'
  Here, he is realizing that WE are not the picture, rather a tiny part of what makes the world.
  WHICH BRINGS US TO THE BEGINNING LINES
  '...'cause it's NIGHT ON THE SUN.'
  This can be taken any number of ways...BUT I FEEL it's being said with a sarcastic tone, as THE SUN never has a NIGHT.
  It never has a darkside, because it is a ball of light.
  HOWEVER
  'Turn off the light...'
  ...doesn't go very well, with my above theory. it could have something to do with humans killing the planet, with our whole energy wastefulness...which could tie it into the second part of the line. (Night on the Sun)
  'You're hopelessly hopeless. I hope so, for you.'
  Pretty self explanatory, here...the main theme of the song...or at least the reason he is songing the song.

  Flag sailingallaloneon October 12, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:This song is about IV drugs, probably heroin.Turn out the light cause it's night on the sun-Meaning still light but sleepy from shooting heroin. Freeze your blood and then stab it into in two, stab your blood into me, and blend- is pretty straight if you ask me. Eat my own blood and get filled up- don't need to eat when you take opiates, as long as junk is in your blood you will feel content. And there's one thing to know about this town, it's 500 miles underground- metaphoric for being addicted to heroin. And there's one thing to know about this town, not a person doesn't want me underground- meaning that whenever he goes back around the scene, the people he knows are still using and enable him to. And it's okay, and alright- cause everything is chill when you are on heroin. Song seriously puts me in a trance though; and if i'm not high, it gives me a lightweight buzz :).

  Flag nativesolon July 02, 2010   Link

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  General Comment:A night on the sun would be very hot, freezing things on the sun could be quite difficult and to stab someone with the lights off would be tough to actually hit them. Stabbing your blood and blending into each other is a symbol of letting each other know who you really are and know who you really are, and all these factors make it difficult to do that with someone. The person is hopelessly hopeless because he feels they do not understand what it means to be real with someone. Eating his own blood is his confidence that he knows who he really is, gets filled up with himself and depressed that he has no one to share it with. About being underground and the globe exploding being alright, no one is near his level and he feels secluded 500 miles underground, but it's alright because he's done nothing but be himself, bound and willing to explode is referring to another possible outcome, himself taking out his anger on everyone and that's alright because it's how he really feels. Not a person doesn't want me underground supports that he feels secluded and anyone who can really understand him will surely befriend him. We're put here to make more dirt is him saying even if I stay this way forever everyone else who doesn't get me and myself will be gone eventually.
  

  Flag hmbargeron June 25, 2010   Link

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  General Comment: Most song writers say whatever the song means to the listener, meaning it really doesnt matter what they meant, you are the one listening. I think sometimes people think too much into it. It doesn't seem like MM tries to hide what they are thinking
  I think night on the sun is about how pointless things can be. like: turning off the lights on the sun would be pointless. He also talks about getting filled up with his own blood, full of himself, "stab your blood into me" is saying something like he is wanting to see things from another point of view, he wonders if he is the only one who sees it like him. saying "you're hopelessly hopeless" cause you don't see what he is saying. Almost a misery likes company type of thing

  Flag cja75on June 01, 2010   Link

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  My Interpretation:the way that i see the theme of this song is the idea that misery loves company
  someone mentioned how the blood sharing is a heroin reference and whether or not it is I see it still to mean people try to push their hopelessness on you.
  And again someone said the town could be a reference to hell hence being underground and whether or not that is how he intended it, again people still want him to stay to dwell and share in the bullshit. I originally thought the line referred to him getting famous and theres a good chance thats how he initially wrote it before putting it to better use but I just love how this song can have so many different ways of interpreting it that all bring you back to the same idea

  Flag blinkonatnz41on April 14, 2010   Link

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