Okay, guys... What the FUCK were they thinking with the recording of this song? It makes me sad to know that there's such an awesome song hiding under the garbled, horrible recording. Damn shame.

Okay, guys... What the FUCK were they thinking with the recording of this song? It makes me sad to know that there's such an awesome song hiding under the garbled, horrible recording. Damn shame.

Despite the distortion of his voice, I still love this song. It is one of the best off this album, and while it wouldn't fit on their first album I think the quality of the music is comparable. You have to realize that Clap Your Hands will always be attempting to come up with new and experimental ways to play music, and you just have to embrace it.

The demo of this song is ten times better than the album version. Less "produced" and faster... like their old album, and no annoying cowbell in the background. Same for underwater (you and me). The potential of this song was amazing and they destroyed it.

Well, it's funny that you guys mention how crappy the recording is on this song. I was reading an interview in Under The Radar, and Alec Ounsworth, the lead singer, is very isolated from the band, he did not even want a band, but that's just how things turned out. he basically only uses them because they can play some instruments that he can't. Anyway, he said that he would NEVER put an album or song out without him feeling accomplished. He said that there is a reason for everything he does, no excuses. If he wants a song to be out of key, that's what's gonna happen. He's very adiment about having a song turn out PERFECTLY to what he invisions it in his head. So, I guess that answers your questions about what was up with the recording. Anway, I think this song is about how this is their second time around and people are expecting so much out of him and his lyrics really meaning something, and how he's just like, I'm here for the music and pleasing only myself. There's no hidden message or whatever. That's what I think he believes. As for there not being a "hidden message", I'm not sure. i just got the album last week, so I still have to read into it more.

Seeing how much of this album lays little new ground, the experiment that is Some Loud Thunder acts as one of the few actually inspired moments on the album. Much of this album feels like their first only less inspired, less powerful and less engaging. This song works. Frankly much of the lyrics seem to reference things that draw your attention: Loud Thunder, A Cannonball as Big as the ocean, et cetera, et cetera. Exactly what these mean to the overall theme of the song, well, beats me...

I really enjoy this track for what it is - a garbled, but wonderful mess.

I cannot help but think that this was partly done as a part 2 to "Clap Your Hands!" on the former LP (i.e. - novelty-type song), but also as a deliberate trick.

Let's face it -- CYHSY are pretty great, but two things that distinguish this band from other indie acts are Ounsworth's vocals and his obtuse (inventive) lyrics.

I think this track purposefully distorts his lyrics and his vocals because Ounsworth KNOWS that these are the two distinguishing "trademarks" of the band (as if to say a huge PTTTHHHH to those expecting the CYHSY sound right off the bat, and to those who maybe want to just rock out sans those qualities).

Brilliant move if this theory is correct. More self-knowledge than realized.

Also, forces (and tests) the listener to keep going forward with listening to reveal the album's hidden charms.

I dance to this song every day almost. I can't understand what he's saying though.

I get the feeling there are a handful of characters here, and the album follows a main character from start to finish.


Our hero pours his heart out to a woman (emily jean stock)
But she turns him down (mama, won't you)
He meets another in the war (me & you watson) overseas
But they are separated when he's shot (love song).
He goes crazy, has psycho nightmares (satan said dance)
On his medical leave, he sees the futility of war, regrets the fighting, and misses home. (goodbye to mother and the cove)
So, once he's back, he mouths off to get himself discharged (arm & hammer) so he can be with her again.
But they're not welcome in the states anymore (yankee), like the Vietnam troops experienced hate
They decide to spend their lives in a boat on the sea (wet dynomite, underwater).
He reflects on his life there (five easy pieces), he's conflicted about the things he's done.
Visiting a (maybe a war buddy? maybe his own son feels so distant?) family, he has flashbacks. This song may come before 5EP)




I think the distortion is symbolism; it's symbolic of authority, or dissent to authority. The whole first song might be from the POV of a President, a war general. Maybe it symbolizes an uncontrollable force like a march to war. I don't think this song involves the main character. There's some violent imagery, which I believe is symbolic of terrorist threat, and how such scare tactics motivate negative reaction.

The war invades the life of our character in Emily Jean Stock. This is symbolized with the expanded drums and loudness between the verses. Maybe he is being pursued by the Army here. I think going to war may have scared Emily, and that's why she rejects him, even though media says the war is going well. He rejects her in return when he meets someone else (I will call her Amanda, see Arm & Hammer) in Love Song ("drop dead, Stock")

I think that Satan Said Dance is a hallucination or dream of the character. We hear the crippled elephant music during Mama, and of course again after Satan. I see that as showing that Love Song + Elephant are linked, and this is interjected in between.

Yankee is probably even more of a lash-out against war than Arm & Hammer is. I think the title "Arm & Hammer" represents the disconnect between a government (the arm, which swings) and it's military (the hammer, which is the acting force). It means that the government might not have a true or unclouded knowledge of what it's hitting, because it doesn't make direct contact with the enemy (nails).

I think that "Wet Dynomite" was written to be on this album, but was scrapped in favor of Underwater. These songs definitely go together. The "not one thing left to say" bit is referenced again in Sword Song, and they both mean no longer referencing the past.

Underwater is a song of peace, antithesis to Some Loud Thunder. Just to note, the arpeggio melody at the end of this song is hauntingly similar to the Sword Song arpeggio (different keys, though). Another note, the eBow melody fits well over Some Loud Thunder.



My tracklist fits "Me & You, Watson" between "Mama" and "Love Song"; "Wet Dynomite" between "Yankee" and "Underwater"; "The Sword Song" either last or 2nd to last, I can't decide yet.

i thought it was "did you WONDER" it makes more sense and it rhymes better with thunder

i thought it was "did you WONDER" it makes more sense and it rhymes better with thunder

Has there ever been a more defiant lyric in the universe than:

Whoa the misanthropi topical arrangement
that is met with a shark bite
by the terminal patient-
that's me.

So great.

the lyrics of this song are so good. you can't deny it.

It's about how music on the radio and TV sounds compared to "underground music." It's a commentary on the loudness and distortion added to bands in post-production, as opposed to the original sounds of bands.

Every time I hear this song, I wanna throw my ipod across the room. lol. Frustrating, because I feel they ruined what could have been a great song, with all that distortion.

^ I think eventually someone will cover it and people will "rediscover," this song...

I don't understand why people have such a problem with the distortion. I don't mind it at all, and this remains my favorite Clap Your Hands song.

^ I'm with you. Though, this is not my favorite song.

I think this song is a response to CYHSY's sudden fame and overwhelming expectations. He's saying that he's just talking at this point. He is admitting, essentially, that he is looking for inspiration.

As the song progresses, he thinks of a few stories and tells the listener that he believes the ideas could be something someday. He is just digging through the quarry of ideas in this song, making holes for the world to see.

I don't think there's anything more to it than that.

I think it's pretty obviously self-deprecating, and about himself in relation to his new album. Especially the part about making holes in a quarry. A quarry is already a big hole. So he's down underground where he can't be seen, doing what's already been done. It's pointless. He's got nothing new to contribute, nothing to say, and no one cares to see his work anyway. He never has had anything original or worthwhile to say, he says, like one of those punk kids breaking bottles in the park in the name of anarchy or some other half-baked, trendy new philosophy. So when should he finally stop this meaningless thunder and "gracefully retreat?"

That's what I got out of it, anyway.