My hearts stopped pumping but my blood is still alive.
The rain hits the ground and the trees they dry it up. (Swallows drop in and dice the sky)
My eyes wake up but my brain is sleeping fine. (Tracing lines of cursive on the horizon)
One more thing for you and I to do before (Cuttin' cat faces in the pine)
We shut our eyes, and that's blame (Cuttin' cat faces in the pine)
Me and I'll blame you, and we're both right.
Cuttin cat faces in the pines
They say his teeth are wood and they want my pictures of him. (Mark the path back to the point of departure)
The rain hits the ground and the trees they dry it up. (2 by 2 and 4 by 4, the pines, they lay down)
We're wood screws, all of our lives
Yeah, we're wood screws, all of our lives
The rain hits the ground and the trees they dry it up. (Well I laid down with the southern rage)
My chain hits the wood and the wood it turns to dust. (Swallows drop in and dice the sky)
I picture you as if you were a pine (Tracing lines of cursive on the horizon)
My hearts stopped pumping but my blood is still alive
We're wood screws, all of our lives (Cuttin' cat faces in the pines)
Yeah, We're wood screws, all of our lives (Mark the path back to the point of departure)
Well my heart stopped pumping but my blood is still alive (2 by 2 and 4 by 4 the pines, they lay down)
And I lay down with the southern range
I lay down with the southern range



Lyrics submitted by mahargrepooc13

Track duration: 03:37


Cat Faces song meanings
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  • 0
    General Comment:im pretty sure its Wormwood not We're Wood. im also pretty sure that Issac didnt write this song, John Orth did. hes from Florida and Wormwood grows all over down there. read some Poppy Z. Brite.
    Flag antihero1938on October 06, 2012   Link
  • +2
    My Interpretation: At the end of the song, when Isaac sings "and I lay down with the southern range" he alters this with "and I lay down with a sudden rage".
    This is important for the meaning of the song; it's a song about realizing (suddenly realizing) what life is.
    "My heart stopped pumping but my blood is still alive, the rain hits the ground and the trees they dry it up, my eyes wake up but my brain is sleeping fine": All lines about everyday-life. We are zombies at work, but the world keeps spinning. Life goes on, whatever we think and believe.
    "One more thing for you and I to do before we shut our eyes": There are always things we "have to do". Got to take out the trash, got to clean the kitchen, got to watch america's fucking talent shows. And then, finally, we can go to sleep. (Finally we can die, just have to do this first...)
    "Let's blame me and I blame you, and we're both right": There is no objective truth in life, only our subjective views. People always blame each other, and most of the time no one's right (or wrong).
    "Cutting cat faces in the pines": I see this as leaving your mark. Feeling all to mortal, yet trying to do something that'll last "forever".
    "They say his teeth are wood and they want picture of him": I see this as "regular people" always trying to expose those who're "different".
    "(mark the path back to the point of departure)" "(tracing lines of cursive on the horizon)": Meditative loneliness.
    "And I lay down with the southern range (I lay down with a sudden rage)": Like I said; realizing that this is all there is to life. It could also be about how much we destroy the world every day ("my chain hits the wood and the wood it turns to dust").
    "We're wood screws, all of our lives". All wood screws have an aggressive thread for grabbing and holding the wood. So once again, we're destroyers of nature.
    Flag ltdCon October 29, 2010   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation: Although flesh ages and slips away from bone, the speaker's blood, still flows. It flows not through the human body, but through the Earth, through the soil and through the bodies of other creatures. A concept similar to one found in 3rd Planet: "Even though our blood is just like the Atlantic..." Throughout the song, the speaker parallels himself to a pine. The process of deconstruction and rebirth that his body will undergo is that which the pine also goes through, from being cut down (death), to being sawed apart (decomposition) and finally being used to build a house (rebirth). It is important to note that he does not lie down on the southern range, but with it; He accepts his mortality and seeks not an afterlife in heaven, but a new life after his death on Earth in a new body. He seeks not an afterlife, but to "Mark the path back to the point of departure"; He wishes to return to where his life started after his death in a circle, instead of living a life that ends and transitions abruptly into eternal paradise. He also says: "Cuttin' cat faces in the pine". I think it likely this is an expression of love for this cycle of life (Cat faces must be an interesting way of saying hearts).
    He mentions swallows twice and I am not entirely sure of his purpose. Perhaps when they are "Tracing lines of cursive on the horizon", their cyclical migration is also being compared to life's cyclical nature, but that seems a stretch as not all swallows migrate. It could be that when "Swallows drop in and dice the sky" (if you watch swallows feed, you will see that they seem to cut the sky), they are being paralleled to the trees soaking up the rain thereby drawing sustenance. I don't know.
    The speaker also also includes: "We shut our eyes, and that's blame (Cuttin' cat faces in the pine) Me and I'll blame you, and we're both right.". Maybe he is talking to a manifestation of the Earth, be it another person or a microbe, blaming it for his future death without anger.
    For the lines "They say his teeth are wood and they want my pictures of him." and "We're wood screws, all of our lives", I have still not found explanations that satisfy me, but perhaps examining the spider web of possible meanings all my life is better than being sure.

    I don't claim ownership to any of the ideas in this interpretation, some I came up with myself and others I gleamed from the interpretations of others; Don't hesitate to use them if you wish.
    Flag Walkon September 23, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I always imagined (for funzies) Isaac saying "wormwood screws, all of our lives..."; thus alluding to C.S Lewis' daemon in his 'Screwtape Letters'.
    Flag foolbecomeson May 21, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:i get the saddest feeling when listening to this song. it doesn't help that a long relationship just ended, but i've always felt this had the sound of heartbreak in it, even if i'm not sure what all the lyrics mean, the mood is clear, and fitting for the moment. sigh.
    Flag sortileguson March 08, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:"cat faces" are a result of the marks left on tress after they have been tapped for turpentine
    this song is probably just a metaphor for how issac feels that he is like a "cat face" pine, hes all used up
    and feels useless
    Flag topicalrushon December 15, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:haha someone said issac is from a logging town... he's from issaquah washington... its a freakin suburb. i would know because im from the town east of issaquah that used to be an actual logging town. so yeah, he's not from a logging town
    Flag tortlesruleon October 23, 2008   Link
  • -1
    General Comment:ALL OF YOU SHUT UP. you are dumb for even trying to guess what it means.
    Flag modestmousenirvanaon August 30, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:It seems to be about two people who hold animosity toward each other even after they die.
    Flag timothyrealon July 20, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I've got my playlist on random, and Cat Faces finishing then fading into Mice Eat Cheese (by Modest Mouse) is soooooooooo good. It sounds like they were made to follow one another. Anyways, just wanted to mention that.
    Also, Isaac Brock is a genius, and this song is gigamazing.
    Flag El_Loboon February 05, 2008   Link

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