I agree with the majority here saying it is about pretentious assholes who look down on everyone else. It's just funny because the vocab he uses in this particular song is much more extensive than other songs on the album, so he kind of puts himself on a pedestal while at the same time trying to bring down people who put themselves on pedestals. fucking awesome though.

i love this song!! when i first heard it, it made me laugh. especially this part:

"Well let me tell you this, I am shamelessly self-involved
I spend hours in front of the mirror, making my hair elegantly disheveled
I worry about how this album will sell
Because I believe that it will determine the amount of sex I will have in the future
I self medicate with drugs and alcohol to treat my extreme social anxiety"

i love how "sex" is emphasized

say anything is so awesome. a great band.

I see almost everyone fronting this song now. It's kind of ironic considering it's mostly people that fit the description of the wannabe elitist/pretentious music fan that this song rips apart. How weird is it that most of their fans probably fit the description? Still, great song, even better band. Max is truely a gifted songwriter. He dares to break the mold and still gets all the fans for it, that is something special.

I know a girl who is perfectly described by this song. This has nothing to do with the "punk/emo" musical styling...it's about fashion and facade--the scenester/hipster junkies who would rather be dumb and look good doing it than ever hold an intellectual conversation. Also brought forward are the front runners of the "unseen scene"--the writers, the artists, the musicians, the philosophers--the pedestal is not just for the ironic. Does anyone else think that the last line of the chorus was just thrown in there jokingly? It takes the depth of this song to dizzyingly new levels of superficiality, but I think that might have been intended in admittance of max's own multi-faceted nature.

i have to say, if you think about it, most emo, preps, punk, nerds, etc have the mental state of mind. Even though this song talks about typical non cormforist of the emo kids, the first paragraph have this panel of judges that seems to guides people what they thinks it hip or not. Many so called "stereotype" have this outlook of we have to be our own type, that so called "type" is really the thing that they think is what is "hip" i have to say, living in new york, emo does rule here, most people have at least one emo friend. it quite werid and awkard.

This song is about elitist hipsters in general, the kind that condescend to emo kids and scene kids. Yet, at the same time Max is indicting elitists, I personally think he comes out as more pretentious and elitist than the hipsters he criticizes. Not everyone who shops at thrift stores or looks "pseudo-bohemian" or uses analog equipment is a snooty elitist. He then gets defensive and tries to make himself seem genuine and not so pretentious by stating his own unpretentious ambitions. I dislike elitists as much as anyone else, but this song is just plain mean-spirited- you just simply can't attempt to tear someone apart like he does because of material things like he does. It reminds me of the scene in Good Will Hunting in which Matt Damon walks into Robin Williams' character's office and just starts talking tons of shit about him because of the paintings and other items he sees in there.

This song is about everyone except me.

*sticks nose in the air*




Haha, not really. But I can list 10 people off the top of my head who it would accurately describe. And I wish they would listen to it.

This has nothing to do with any of these "Emo" "Punk" "Indie" labels.
And it has everything to do with these "Emo" "Punk" "Indie" labels.

There is a dramatically increasing theme with "All the COOL kids..."
Everyone spends too much effort trying to become the #1 Best Person Who Ever Lived. Why? I don't know, maybe because they got the notion that if they perfected the ultimate style then everyone would have to like them. They go on several themes, and they probably aren't 100% aware that they are just following a trend when they wanted to break out and be an INDIVIDUAL. They stock up knowledge on Art, History, Philosophy, Politics, etcetera. They start to dress differently. And they try to listen to music that they think no one else has heard of before. For a while it seemed like my best friend and I were having some kind of "race" or "contest" to come up with better music. I was initially sucked in by this trend cuz all the cool kids I knew were acting like it and subconciously that sucked me in.

But I kept thinking things like "WTF you guys, why does everything have to be bad? Why do we pick out the negative and make fun of it, instead of just enjoying things like we used to? Maybe because we aren't children anymore. But that doesn't mean we can't be carefree like childhood." And I couldn't handle the constant judging [although they never gave me shit for anything because I was already somebody naturally sort of related to something they were trying to become] and the fact that they always needed to base their opinions on something they read on [insert totally hip website].

This song describes the situation perfectly. And while I don't see it being about Emo Kids, I guess it could make sense with any situation of Posers and people following trends to be something they have to mold and shape and perfectly craft themselves to become something they want to be. And that kind of thing really annoys me. But just because we were something before these other people doesn't make us better than them. You can't rate a person like you would rate a movie or a CD [that you downloaded cuz ___ said it was fabulous and only listened to it once but now you have it in your collection and then people will see it and be like, "Hey, ___! Awesome band." and then you can say "Yea, they're pretty cool."]. But YOU CAN NOT RATE A PERSON. Everyone has their own defining qualities and traits, and they make that person who they are. Genuine qualities that someone has in them is not something that can be copied to modify your own lifestyle. Why not? Because there is a difference between something [Natural or Original] and [Adapted or Copied].

I think that it is cool that they're gathering all this information on the Arts and History, but fuck, what they should do is listen to some Bob Marley and "Judge Not".

And they have to wake the fuck up and remember that it is much cooler to be an individual by your own set of style and beliefs than it is to be an "individual" [cough] by what "All the cool kids" say is cool.

I can think of at least 30 people this would accurately describe. And me for a month or so accidentally. But they will probably never listen to it because
a) it's labeled an "Emo" band and they won't listen to it
b) if I have it on they will switch it off and put on their own music. Don't tell me what to listen to. And especially don't tell me that You have more eclectic taste than I do when You can't stand to listen to any of my music if that isn't "indie". Don't tell me that Rancid is fucking horrible and that I can't listen to Green Day or Atmosphere, then put on something new but sickeningly familiar. Oh, and I can't listen to Death Cab for Cutie either? Why not? You used to like them, until that one girl who you think is the music genius of the world mention that she thinks they're "gay" and that their music "sucks a lot cuz its so depressing."

Fuck the Hipster Elitist Trend, I do what I want. Getting out my old clothes again and realizing that I don't care what they think about me was the best thing possible. It just hurts a lot more when these people were your close friends and not the preppy people the last time this sort of thing happened. O god this comment was so long... I hope someone chooses to read it. Because that is exactly what this song is about.

good job on fucking up the lyrics.

"I self medicate with drugs and alcohol to treat my extreme social anxiety."

that's what it is. yepp.

It's just about eniter scene's being corrupted by fashion. It's not about "emo kids". What does that even mean nowadays? You're not a fucking 13 year old.

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I want to like this song and it is one of my favourite of all time , but i fear that if i agree with what he says, i'll be as bad as them. But before i even heard of SA i stopped hanging out with these group of kids because i coldn't stand some of them. Now just doing what i enjoy, football, not tying to be different to impress or for attention. This is why SA appeals to me so much, with a lot of their songs.

I think it's pretty obvious what this songs about, i mean he does describe it in pretty high detail....it's just about how these days you get the hypocrits who spend all day whining about conformity...the state of the "scene" etc, and how max is just honest about himself, and how he can "do just fine" with his car and his guitar, and that "you'r free to whine, but it will not get you far"

oh and he did get admitted to a secure institute, he was found freestyle rapping on a corner somewhere, beleiving hed been gone for years, go look it up on the say anything website...or their old blogs on myspace

i think the song is very well written. you can interpret it a bunch of different ways. to me the song sort of mocks people who try too hard to be different. it's ironic how so many of them wind up being the same. a true individual will wear what they like. who cares if other people are wearing a certain thing, or have a certain taste in music or literature. if you enjoy it... listen to it, read it, wear it. eventually the trendy people will move on to the next trend. i find it ironic when people change the things they listen to because suddenly other people start listening to it. isn't that sort of making you a slave to other people's opinions?

Read the booklet. This is Max's attack on the industry, the final song, the big kabang. Yes, its not only about just the "emo kids" or the "elitist hipsters", but all the bands that become hypocrites by preaching against major labels and then succumbing to them.

As for "My car and my guitar" part, He's just saying thats all he needs to spread his message. He wants to "taste the breeze" of every great city. Every place where theres a huge "scene", he wants to destroy. "When I'm dead, I'll rest", he wont stop until hes dead.

i'm surprised that nobody has came to the same conclusion that i have on the last part of the song. he is putting himself on the exact same level as those who he is criticizing by justifying his actions in contrast with them, and is subtly recognizing that he is just like them. it's not necessarily about "emo kids" or "scene kids"; it is about the human race in general and how we're always trampling over one another for our own purposes and attention and how it is so ridiculous but unavoidable.

My Favorite lines is:
Proud of my life and the things that i have done
Proud of my self and the loner I've become.

I'm glad Nikkibob brought that up.

For everyone that is saying, "I can think of ten people who this would relate to!!!" I'm sure they feel the same way about you.

I think that Max wrote this, clearly to show his own anger at other people, but he is referring to himself as well.

this verse seems REALLY clear to me:
You spend your time sitting in circles with your friends
"Pontificating to each other forever competing for that one moment of self aggrandizing glory
In which you hog the intellectual spotlight
Holding dominion over the entire shallow pointless conversation"
Oh man, oh man does that put it to words. It's SO easy to see throught these people. Not that they're insecure, they think they're grand, and they try to enforce that belief on everyone, ..one person really comes to mind here, she is forever "pontificating" on POINTLESS things.
But basically this song just puts a frustration of mine into words. (not that we're not ALL guilty of seeking attention every once in awhile)

Argh, this is just a huge uniting of the terrible fucking grammar in the English speaking world. You people are fucking stupid.

Moving on,
I think this song is about the conformity amongt bands these days, and kids too. Everyone wants to adhere to the set of standards, set by the majority of kids. It IS about emo/scene/punk kids, but also about much more.

this song is everything in my head poured onto paper.

i'd say its about hipocrisy in general.
[ty]

A friend of mine put this onto a mix CD that she made me. This is a very weak "attack" on any sort of trend. It makes me angry to hear this song, not because any of it applies to me (I am a totally normal guy, I do not believe in emulating a particular style), but because the guy just sounds like an elitist ass. How do you attempt to knock people off of their elitist pedastal while still behaving elitist yourself? And the "accusations" he makes sound totally insincere! The part where he mockingly talks about worrying wether or not his album will get him laid, his gimmicky voice hardly makes him sound like he's truly above any of that. Music=sex. I admit this, the best of people admit this, but inherently through the demeanor of this song, this guy himself denies this.

Does this band call themselves Say Anthing so that they don't have to?

You want a good hyperactive, panicy sounding band, try Les Savy Fav. At the very least they don't fill their choruses with "woah".

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I LOVE this song because:

1) It talks about how stupid the scene is.
2)There are tons of good lines, like "Despite your pseudo-bohemian appearence" and "Go analong baby, youre so post modern"

Oh, and I really like the singers voice too. =]

basically everything you want to say to everyone in high school. this song is hilarious and a lot of fun.

but trust me, the irony doesn't escape me. in mocking these people he's become the hypocrit himself...and i like whoever pointed out that he uses very pretentious words in this song in particular.... "self-aggrandizing" much ?? ;)

It describes the fucking kids who think they're hippies around here.