Teeth Like God's Shoeshine

I've read a lot of the comments about Isaac Brock's lyrics on this website, and I've noticed that a lot of people seem to think that Isaac is a Christian and that he writes Christian lyrics. I just wanted to point out that although Isaac was raised in a Christian household, he is an atheist, and has referred to the Bible as "a crock of shit" in the past. I just wanted to get that out there. It's good that you're interpreting the lyrics and applying some really good thoughts to them, but you shouldn't project your own beliefs onto another person's.

I think this song is about the overall decay of society. The orange julius line is just showing how people are wasteful and are focusing their lives around consumerism rather than finding and doing thigs that really make them happy. the line: from the top of the ocean to the bottom of sky i get clausterphobic is just saying how this is everywhere and pretty much unavoidable because everyone is so caught up in this lifestyle even if they dont think or realize they are. think about all the shit you have you dont need. its kind of like that quote "the things you own end up owning you" (fight club) ... just that you can base your life on making money and buying things but that wont end up making you happy. also i think this song also adresses how eventually this corroding society that only cares about money and leisure will collapse eventually (the malls are the soon to be ghost towns)... well thats my take on this song, its probably my favorite song at the moment, what do u guys think?

I cant write english very well and it's a shame because i'm listening to that song right know, and i understand everything so clear for the first time

Mr Isaack catch my attention and via his music, puts my mind right against his lyrics. and it hurts and feels good.

i wish i coul write about the way i see this song, "my meaning", but i can't.

I think this song is about this song is about greedy power hungry american corporates. Don't get me wrong, I am american, but we are fucking GREEDY! From the bottom of the sky to the top of the ocean meaning the whole world, so they want to market the whole world. They are probably old friends who are corporate rivals, and they attack a man in Buffalo, Montana... or something to get more money. When people go to pay the rent they see that it costs to much, and prices are rising. BTW, burning people in effigy means embarassing them or a likeness or clone of them. When they get to the calming part where it slows down he says "The televisions gone," meaning they probably had to sell every single thing to pay the rent or to buy Necessitys. It is probably about the depression, cause the words match it and so does the meaning. When they say "Do you need a lot of what you got to survive?" meaning most people have money so do you need a lot of money to survive? Yes. The malls are the soon to be ghost towns meaning that prices are so high or many people lack money so they cant afford the shit they want and need, when it speeds up it means rebelling against the system and money and blah blah... My guess... Could be wrong...

Prolly no one will ever get this song.

Not no one, not now, not ever, anyone.

so So-long, farewell, goodbye!

lol, i love quoting the song

I think this song is about trying to find someone who you can eat cheese with in total silence.

At long last i have figured out the real meaning of this song!!

Verse 1: This song is in fact about the corporate marketing and advertising takeover of society. The first verse of the song implies that it is everywhere you look and it gets so overwhelming it can make anyone feel a little claustrophobic.

Verse 2: A man meets with an old acquaintance who he used to know, but know longer does because time changes people.That's why he calls him old friend and stranger at the same time. (Well, keep in mind you're an old friend, stranger). This old friend is talking about a possible business deal that has a low chance of failing ( I am not allowed much danger) which inspires the investor to give all his money to the business deal. He then says that (if you burn me in effigy then I'll burn you if effigy). This means that if the investor desecrates what remains of his money or livelihood then he will do the same in return. Brock than follows this interaction with a wild excuse from the old friend/stranger/business man about how the money disappeared because of some unlikely scenario involving a sheriff and a rattlesnake. The business man then turns the blame on the investor by saying it was his choice to invest and no one forced him to. The business man was such a smooth talker that the investor agrees by accepting his losses (hell yes the money's been spent). He later realizes after leaving the business man that all of his money is gone and he doesn't even have enough left to pay the rent.

Verse 3: Some people are so intent on selling (see: "bankrupt on selling" by Modest Mouse) that they would give anything for material gain. Even their conscience. But then Brock says you shouldn't do that even if you could because it's not really worth it when it in the end.

Verse 4: The TV was sold just so they could go out and buy more popular things that help them make friends through materialistic showing off. People who do this are the source of this materialistic mania , but Brock asks is this is worth it as well. Do you really need more clothes, friends, money, etc. to survive? Is all this madness really all that necessary.

Verse 5 Chorus: The man with teeth like god's shoeshine is the business advertising head that creates these trends until they fade and are replaced by new ones. This cycle continues till we die, but in the end orange julius is just thick syrup. In other words it's just cheap crap that runs our lives.

Verse 6: First off this verse is very powerful and amazing!! Love it!! Taking them all for the long ride means that the corporate heads are getting everyone hooked on their products for years to come until they spread throughout mainstream society and become a part of everyday mainstream life. According to the last to lines of this verse (Take them all for the sight of their happiness, From that deep hurt deep down inside) this spread of products uses an well known advertising tactic used on children that plays on human emotions to draw from social insecurities to make you believe that this product will bring you the happiness you lack.) This is why the corporate heads should be ashamed of their crowning achievements ( those being the mass marketing of their products), because they are brainwashing people for their own selfish gain. The people are so brainwashed that there is no one left to tell these marketers to faces that they should be ashamed of themselves.

Verse 7: Some people care so much about the number of "cool materialistic things" they have that all they do is think about them and how many they have and cool they are because of that. It can get to a point that people put this before their own health an well being. When you die none of this matters. When you die you realize that these thing were not really the best parts of life all along.

Verse 8: Chorus

Verse 9: the phone goes off indicating new opportunities. The narrator from verse 2 needs to go back to his roots and work to make life what it used to be. He needs to back to the beginning to find out what really matters in life. What is really the best of it.

Verse 10: same as verse 6, but with even MORE emotion (as if that were even freaking possible).

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoy my interpretation of this song and that it helps you enjoy modest mouse even more.

name a better band then modest mouse.... you cant its fuckin simple..... snohomish in the hizzy

I would just like to say that, in my very biased opinion, Isaac Brock is the best songwriter alive, possibly ever. I am prepared to defend that statement.

This is by far my favorite Modest Mouse song and I have all the LPs.

You are all over thinking it. Look at the album as a whole. It's all about a trip. A Lonely guy even on his way to the West, if you will. A guy who wants to break away from where he's at. "no allowed much danger". So he buys a car from a used car sales man with very shiny teeth who sells him a lemon.

In the album he drives around goes to a lounge sees a girl tries some heroin, has an epiphany about god, and wakes up 'doing the cockroach', which is waking up on your back in a convulsion like state. In the lounge he also meets Cowboy Dan an figures out hes just Trailer Trash, and keeps on driving. He runs Out Of Gas, gets drunk and starts drunk dialing. He meets a trucker at the bar and turns out he just screws him over and he finds out that everyone is on their own but it's ok.

Every time I think I could pick a favorite MM song, they shock the hell out of me. This song is just...brilliant. Rough and somber and beautiful.

I think that tackledspoon put it best--the song is about life. It reminds me (as many Modest Mouse songs do, now that I mention it) of the culture of Fahrenheit 451, which was a reflection on a culture that consumes and moves forward at a speed that leaves little time for cultivation of the important things in life. I think, out of every telling symbol in the song, this is the clearest:

"Oh, if you could compact your conscience. Oh, and you might." Here, he's sort of saying, 'Well, you know, you would compartmentalize your conscience if you could, if it would make things run smoother. You would abbreviate religion and love until it was bite-size.' (Think the John Lennon//Jesus comment, he wasn't saying "We're better than God", he was saying "You worship a band more than you worship a figure you believe to be your savior. Don't you find that appalling?") We live in a culture that never slows down, in a world where to waste five minutes of someone's time with an idea of something whole is worse than shooting them dead.

"Oh, if you could bottle and sell it you might've done. Oh, and you might." This is more of that same thing, that 'You'd sell your soul if you could.'

"Oh, if you could compact your conscience and sell it--save it for another time. You know you might have to use it." I just love this line. He's saying, 'Don't be so quick to give up on what makes you human. You're going to need that when this whole gilded cage world of ours falls apart,' and I just love how he portrays that.

I find this to be immensely important to understanding one of the many meanings of the song: "You should be ashamed to be so proud of what you've done." He's saying, 'Why are you proud of these things you've done in your life? The way you've used people because you're selfish, or greedy, or just trying to fit into a world that's moving on without you, moving towards its own inevitable destruction."

I just love Brock's socio-political commentary. It has always been so astoundingly astute.