Lyrics for Tessellate as interpreted by tapes-n-tapes

Tessellate Lyrics
All the boys who called their mothers on that day
Were no tough bunch but they had the nerves to go and say
That all your secrets were drowned
With the pioneers who were flooded from this town
They packed their bags only moments too late
With the pounding waves crashing up against the weakened water gates

Because dire times call for dire faces
So lovely dancer, call and answer
Trade our places in the night
We're running barefoot, you and I
Dead lovers salivate
Broken hearts tessellate tonight

And all the kids who cut their knees on that old schoolyard fence
Were holding out for posterity and self-defense
We beat them down again
There's no fun in playing cowboys for pretend
We showed them what the backs of our hands is for
The divide is clear in the coming year
The rich will take the poor

Because dire times call for dire faces
So lovely dancer, call and answer
Trade our places in the night
We're running barefoot, you and I
Dead lovers salivate
Broken hearts tessellate tonight

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indierockess
09-02-2007

Rated 0 
i can't believe i'm the first to comment on some of these songs. they're simply amazing musical compositions and lyrical works. i hope to cover this song for an upcoming performance.

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arcadeintokyo
10-08-2007

Rated 0 
I'm completely obsessed with TPC and this song I love it both versions. Yay I can't wait for the new album. Seeing them live again this month so excited.

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indierockess
03-25-2008

Rated 0 
i lied, i also love Tessellate, Harrowing, and Sixties just as much as In A Cave and Graves. Hell with it, i just adore this album. :)

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SummerAntics
04-26-2008

Rated -1 
"So lovely dancer, call a dancer" I think

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Technophobia
04-30-2008

Rated 0 
I really couldn't overstate how good this song makes me feel. So I won't try. Haha.

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abgcunited11
05-08-2008

Rated 0 
This is my favorite song, along with Sixties Remake on the new album.

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Kazz
05-09-2008

Rated 0 
"We showed them what the backs of our hands is for"

I love this line so much, because it's implying a pimp slap

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mtdewjunkie
05-14-2008

Rated 0 
do you think this has anything to do with hurricane katrina? i guess it's kind of a stretch, but "tesselate" means to form multiple identical shapes, so broken hearts tessellate tonight could mean that there's a lot of them. and then the "weakened water gates" meaning the weak levies (sp.?). and "the divide is clear in the coming year, the rich will take the poor" meaning how the poor people didn't get the help they needed, which was a big issue. i dunno, i just saw some similarities, love some input!

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Angryinch
05-14-2008

Rated -1 
its about sniffing coke and running from the cops because there looting while other people are starving you know the way G roll

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throaty_silver
05-18-2008

Rated 0 
really well done

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perehudoff
05-22-2008

Rated 0 
For sure it's the coke thing. haha. No way. You can take anything you want from any of their songs. None of them have a specific meaning, which is fab. Mainly their stories that Dave came up with.

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aliciasaidso
05-22-2008

Rated 0 
i have the acoustic version, beautiful all around

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mytwohands
06-07-2008

Rated 0 
i love this song. so beautiful. im trying to understand the cocaine reference though? i honestly don't understand what it's about ...

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YouOnlyLiveOnce
06-09-2008

Rated 0 
yeah, i dont really understand the cocaine part either, i thought it was more of a (broken???) Heart)
love song, but does anyone know any alternative meanings

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musicology1o1
07-02-2008

Rated 0 
Sounds weird, but I think it's about President Bush, and his career so far as president, and how they feel sympathetic as they are from the UK. A people who for the most part hate America.

"There's no fun in playing cowboys for pretend"
"The rich will take the poor"
"with the pioneers who were flooded from this town" (original philosophies and ideology of our founding fathers not in consideration any more)
"Cause dire times call for dire faces"

At the same time, I also think they talk about Hurricance Katrina.

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musicalchairs
07-08-2008

Rated 0 
a tessellation is when there are a bunch of identical pieces that fit together perfectly.
so i'm pretty sure that the "broken hearts tessellate" part means the pieces coming and fitting back together.
in other words, the broken heart is fixing itself back together

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grocks23
07-08-2008

Rated 0 
Tessellate, while it means the fitting of identical shapes, also is the fitting of pieces in a plane that have no overlap and no spaces. If think about the heart in a plane sense, there is only the outer edge, there are no lines running through the middle cutting it into concise shapes. but when it is broken, the pieces fit together perfectly, but now they are forever their own pieces, no longer a union.

i think this idea, coupled with the line, "dead lovers salivate" are meant to be sort of ironic statements. a heart is never the same after it's broken. and a lover can no longer "salivate" or desire who they did in their physical life. i think that in general the song is talking about how when things happen, there will always be change, and it will always be noticeable, whether in the pieces of a heart, or in how someone no longer "salivates" for you. and this for me, is able to be tied into the verses, in the boys who get the nerve to tell off their overbearing mothers, or how the poor cannot overcome, for whatever reason it may be.

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Archy91
07-12-2008

Rated 0 
musicology, firstly, TPC are Canadian, not Brittish. Also, being from the UK, we are not "a people who for the most part hate America"

The UK generally is against President Bush, mainly because of the War in Iraq which has claimed the lives of so many Brittish soldiers, but for the majority of the population, there is no issue with America itself. Really the only country in the UK which harbours any hatred for another country, it would be England with their hatred of the Frenchand the Germans. The Scottish and the Welsh don't tend to have any strong feelings regarding other countries' people.

But on the topic of the song, I don't know what it is actually about, but I don't think it's about anything mentioned here. Could be wrong though.

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warfish
07-18-2008

Rated 0 
Dead lovers salivate is something that dead lovers can actually do and also usually means a super strong craving. Broken hearts tessellating means that they are fitting together perfectly with no spaces in between (how squares and hexagons do, but circles don't) I think the lines together mean that of two lovers, one died and is yearning for the one still living. The other, meanwhile, has moved on with life and gotten a new lover, perhaps who has also lost someone, and they are perfect together.

And I think this song is about US life/politics on a wider scale. When the boys called their mothers to say that secrets were drowned as pioneers were flooded from the town was when Watergate happened. The scandal was uncovered, but the speaker feels the politicians who did it were pioneers and that it takes nerve to say that that was the end of the secrets in Washington (this town). They should have gotten out earlier which would have minimized damage. The next verse is the rich people, the man, beating down and lording it over the ordinary people and getting away with it. Then they sneak off in the night and have a good time in the chorus, though that could apply to either the politics or the lovers and still be bad. I don't know how the politics fits in with the dead lovers part, though, except that they both show people being untrue. I think that's what the song is saying mostly, that people are untrue with love and politics as examples

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StormStrader
01-09-2009

Rated 0 
What's tessellating is the broken hearts, together.

"dead lovers salivate" - It's like they always want more or something. Not that exactly, I just can't put my thoughts into words.
"Broken Hearts tessellate" - Same thing, the broken pieces of two people hearts will tessellate together.

I think...

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Groove62992
01-12-2009

Rated 0 
This song is great, but why are all their songs so short?

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bohemianrocker16
01-15-2009

Rated 0 
Dave Monks is an amazing poet, which I think is his true profession first and foremost before being a musician. I wish I had the inspiration to write such compelling lyrics. They're meaningful and melodic, yet catchy and simplistic.
I wish I could meet him again and so I could tell him how much his music inspires me to be a better writer/performer

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bohemianrocker16
01-15-2009

Rated 0 
by the way, I like all of their songs, and almost all have come to me at different times when I've been going through parrts of my day. All of them have some particular meaning and unique quality to them. They are a really great band all over and I really enjoy their songs.

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superkelser
01-20-2009

Rated 0 
i think that this song is about a heartbroken but horny guy at a stripclub.
because its dire times since he was dumped, so he goes to a drastic place and sees a stripper. its a dire action in order to meet his needs. this explains the "lovely dancer". he wants to trade places wit her in order to not be heartbroken. he is a "dead lover" since he was dumped, but salivayes with lust. and the broken heart tessalating is his piecing together and recovering.

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l8rmimo
02-25-2009

Rated 0 
reminds me of the messy night i had out and when me and my mate did a runner after he munted in the cab

i dont care what the real meaning of this song is but to me this is what its about! lol

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