Gronlandic Edit

physics makes us all it's bitches.

"You've got my back, 'cause I don't want to panic." fucking fantastic. in my opinion, that personifies the mindset of anyone that uses religion as a crutch; basically, giving your heart to a god is easier than admitting there isn't one. ..and he fucking nails it!

I'm like 100% positive that THIS is what it's about but still open to others ideas tell me what you think:

The song's is about how everything dies in the end.

He says he wants to hold the divine in mind and forget the fact that all the beauty's wasted.

By believing in some kind of god or afterlife or hidden meaning to life he wouldnt have all the anxieties of the pointlessness of being alive.

T h e n: he says lets fall back to earth and do something pleasant.

Back to earth, from these horrid little thoughts of worthlessness, hang out with a friend and forget about the meaninglessness

And t h e n: when he talks about faking its totally about him, he's saying that he is performing and putting on a show when he plays and in doing so is faking like pretty much anyone that performs music, he's not the same person on stage as he is at home. BUT he says during the set, when he's playing in front of the dancing crowd, he forgets that everything is going to die and is able to enjoy himself.

AND finally closes saying i guess it would be nice show me it could be nice. as a cry for help from someone to comfort the dreadful thoughts of meaninglessness in this gigantic apathetic universe lol.

Here's my attempt at interpretation of this song. I hope it goes well...

"(The surrealists were just) Nihilists with good imaginations"

Kevin talks specifically about the cultural movement that we all should be relatively familiar with by now, known as surrealism in which artists (in whatever form) express philosophical beliefs, specifically the process of thought through works of art, and most of the time these operate outside a moral framework. The idea that life has no universal truth, is a nihilist view of the world. Nietzsche critiques this idea and identifies two forms of nihilists: active- those who see nihilism as inaction, and consciously make decisions outside a moral framework because life has no universal truth, and passive Nihilists- those who argue that this life is just a "phase" if you will... Nietzsche argues that Christians are the ultimate passive Nihilists.

"I am satisfied Hiding in our friend's apartment Only leaving once a day To buy some groceries Daylight, I'm so absent minded Nighttime meeting new anxieties So am I erasing myself? Hope I'm not erasing myself"

Barnes quite possibly could be referring to drugs in this stanza as a form of inaction, but at the end says that, as Nietzsche argues- nihilism "Erases" the meaning of life to the individual. they no longer desire to seek great things.

"I guess it would be nice to give my heart to a god But which one, which one do I choose? All the churches fill with losers, psycho or confused I just want to hold the divine in mind And forget all of the beauty's wasted"

Kevin Barnes wants to be a passive nihilist, because that is easy for him, but at this point he can't... forget, for lack of a better term, all of the things that he has learned, and go back to the easier life. He's figured things out, and he doesn't like it.

"Let's fall back to earth and do something pleasant We fell back to earth like gravity's bitches (Physics makes us all its bitches)"

There is no afterlife, so now we are all just forms on the physical earth, no heaven to reach. Thus physics would hold us to this earth forever.

"I guess it would be nice to help in your escape From patterns your parents designed All the party people dancing for the indie star But he's the worst faker by far But in the set, I forget all of the beauty's wasted"

Parents often times pick the religion for their child. Children are raised in ignorance. Kevin critiques this idea a bit here, i think. As he moves through the stanza we hear a critique of the music industry, in my opinion. Artists write lyrics to cater to their audience, not for self gratification. That's a guess. But at the end of the day it's fun to listen to. They all have the potential. that's the wasted beauty, but it goes to waste.

Being a physics major, I feel like I'm probably enjoying "physics makes us all its bitches' on a much higher level than most everyone else. Especially while doing homework.

I don't think your exactly right allhailsparta. People seem to think every song is about sex, drugs, or break ups and people can't write about anything else outside those realms. I think some of the others users that posted before have a better grasp on the meaning of this song.

“Well, it's more a feeling that God is going to do horrid things to me if I partake in certain activities. I don't really worry about it that much, but it is always somewhere buried back in my mind. I realised early on that it was just a bunch of bullshit. I can't understand how people can really believe in organised religions.”

“I went to Catholic school for a long time, and I was also forced to attend church services every Sunday during my childhood. I found it dreadfully boring and I didn't believe a word of what they were teaching, other than the golden rule. I could see all of the hypocrisy and phoniness involved in the church and it made me sick. Now I can appreciate the theatre of it, but it's still too perverse for me to handle. I guess it made me a bit more cynical about adulthood and the ‘normal’ people of the world.”

“It helped me see very clearly what I didn't want to be as an adult. I can't stand most religions because they over-simplify things in this extremely childish sort of way. It is an escape from the insanity of life, but it's an unhealthy escape in my view.”

that's from an interview with kevin barnes on wirelessbollinger.com

doesn't explain much about the song though, other than the one part, obviously.

"Grønland" is both the Norwegian name for Greenland, and the name of a neighborhood in Oslo. I believe he's referring to the latter.

All the songs on Hissing Fauna require like, at least 50 listens. So much going on in each one.

Isn't that a capella song part a Beach Boys melody? Or the Who? I can't place it and it's driving me nuts.

"the surrealists were just nihilists with great imaginations"

this is very important, because it seems to indicate that he's struggling in his artistic endeavors to find some sort of value/quality/beauty.