I can't wait for the new album.

Love love love this song!
Just a few months from now. :D

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I have no idea what this song is about but I love it. At first I thought it was about falling in love with someone for the first time (Here comes a feeling you thought you'd forgotten..) but the lyrics at the end make it seem like a murder (Those lips and teeth that asked how my day went/Are shouting up through cracks in the pavement). Maybe about both? Anyways, great song and can't wait for Contra.

I have no idea what this song is about, but the music is wonderful. So excited for the new album!

This song seems to be about finding love and it "dying." The beginning is about exotic things and places, like horchata (a drink), pincher crabs (on a beach somewhere), and Masada (a part of Israel, I believe). "Winter's cold is too much to handle" by himself, so he has someone with him. This could explain that they're with each other more for comfort than for actual love. "Here comes a feeling you thought you'd forgotten" is the feeling of love. Everyone's been thru that feeling where they can't find anyone else and they're alone.

Things get bad.

The balaclava is a ski mask, an international sign of a criminal. "Years go by and hearts start to harden / Those palms and firs that grew in your garden / Are falling down and nearing the rosebeds / The roots are shooting up through the tool shed / Those lips and teeth that asked how my day went / Are shouting up through cracks in the pavement" This should be self-explanitory. They had a "garden" of beautiful firs and rosebeds but it's falling apart and turning ugly. Those same lips that he loved are soon the lips he "buried," or murdered. He broke up with her. "Oh you had it but oh no you lost it / You understood so you shouldn't have fought it. " She saw it coming but she still disagrees and protested.

That's my take! AMAZING song! I like it more than anything on the original LP!!

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According to the bastion of knowledge that is Wikipedia, horchata is a drink of Spanish or Valencian origin that is traditionally "served ice cold as a natural refreshment in the summer."

This little bit of knowledge, reinforced by the rest of the verses that the beverage is featured in, suggests that the speaker is in a warm climate (pincher crabs, reluctance to wear a balaclava, "winter's cold is 2 much 2 handle, et al.)The speaker seems to be running away from something/someone in a colder realm.

The "murder" interpretation is interesting -- especially with the last line "you understood so you shouldn't have fought it." Not sure if that's what VPW is going for, but it makes for a chilling listen.

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mmm horchata is so yummy especially homemade maybe im biased but i just love everything these guys record no matter what! whens the new album coming out?

btw you can get a free download of this song on their website!

Haha after reading these comments I just had to put a word in.

I think this song is about vacationing somewhere warm in the winter, after the parents have died and you remember how they used to be there with you and now you're older and doing the same things they did, just without them. The house they left you has a garden that's falling into disrepair because you don't care to keep it up. "Shouting up through the cracks in the pavement" well, step on a crack and break your mother's back.

Mom and dad used to ask how your day went.

That's all, no murders, nothing crazy.



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the first few times i heard the song, i thought he was saying "you shouldn't have farted" instead of "shouldn't have fought it" :)

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For me this song is reflecting being young, and in a relationship with your life time partner. Like experiencing exotic and new things, but now, its time to settle down and start the “adult” stage of a person’s life.

In December drinking horchata
I'd look psychotic in a balaclava
Winter's cold is too much to handle
Pincher crabs that pinch at your sandals

Here, a person is trying to reminisce about his/her youthful days but drinking an “exotic” drink like horchata in the beginning of winter. He/she looks “psychotic,” because obviously it’s the drink is out of place for the type of situation he/she is now in their now settled adult residence. Winter becomes unbearable, and wishes for more of his/her traveling days to new places "pitcher crabs".

In December drinking horchata
Look down your glasses at that Aranciata
With lips and teeth to ask how my day went
Boots and fists to pound on the pavement
Here comes a feeling you thought you'd forgotten
Chairs to sit and sidewalks to walk on

The part of: “With lips and teeth to ask how my day went/ Boots and fists to pound on the pavement resembles how being in young and in a relationship is like. For most couples starting out, constant communication is something beginning couples have. Asking questions like “how is your day?”and “how are you feeling?” basically being intuitive of your significant other’s life. Then these questions and answers become routine, which I guess “Boots and fists to pound on the pavement” comes in, because these sessions of Q and A become aggravating and annoying to a person.

Next the part: “Here comes a feeling you thought you'd forgotten/Chairs to sit and sidewalks to walk on” is basically the part of the beginning of a relationship and having innocence. The “feeling that is forgotten” could mean many things like traveling to new places when you’re were a child and have amazed and fun it was. Or it could mean rediscovering or reminiscing what love really is with your partner is. The chairs and sidewalks part could state how easy it is in beginning. A foundation is set for a person, and as time goes on that foundation is lost.

You'd remember drinkin horchata
You'd still enjoy it with your foot on masada

Rembering being young again.

Winter's cold is too much to handle
Pincher crabs that pinch at your sandals
Here comes a feeling you thought you'd forgotten
Chairs to sit and sidewalks to walk on
Ooh you had it but oh no you lost it
Lookin back you shouldn't have fought it

I’m going to concentrate more on the last part of: “Ooh you had it but oh no you lost it/Lookin back you shouldn't have fought it.” This could mean a relationship is becoming more and more stale, and that “love” is now becoming lost. It also, makes a point of never letting go of your youthfulness and innocence. As people become settled, they lost that edge to them and become quite boring.

In December, drinkin horchata
I'd look psychotic in a balaclava
Winter's cold is too much to handle
Pincher crabs that pinch at your sandals
Years go by and hearts start to harden
Those palms and firs that grew in your garden
Falling down and nearing the rose beds
The roots are shooting up through the tool shed
Those lips and teeth that asked how my day went
Are shouting up through cracks in the pavement

Beginning with: “Years go by...through cracks in the pavement,” the settling has finally sunken in. Those times of being young and in love are gone. Thus, leading our couple’s hearts “to harden.” The young love “palms and firms,” are now “fallowing down and nearing the rose beds” is nearing is time. The foundation of their relationship is now breaking with “roots shooting up” and “cracks in the pavement”. “Those lips and teeth asked how my day went,” now you can notice its now the “ask” is now “asked” and now the couple has very little interest in each other’s lives. Now their relationship is now “going through the motions” and doesn’t resemble at all the beginning of their relationship.

Here comes a feeling you thought you'd forgotten
Chairs to sit and sidewalks to walk on
Oh you had it but oh no you lost it
You understood so you shouldn't have fought it

Here comes a feeling you thought you'd forgotten
Chairs to sit and sidewalks to walk on
Here comes a feeling you thought you'd forgotten
Chairs to sit and sidewalks to walk on

Man, I need a horchata after this one.

To me, the meaning of this song is fairly simple...

It is about a man - perhaps after a breakup, or perhaps he's just been lonely ("Here comes the feeling you thought you'd forgotten") - on vacation who meets a woman and they have a summer fling-type of thing, but it turns into something more serious ("Years go by"), despite the fact they probably know it won't work out in the long run because it started as a fling ("You understood so you shouldn't have fought it [it=the eventual break-up]"), only to break up after "hearts start to harden" and they lose interest in communicating with each other ("Those lips and teeth that asked how my day went/Are shouting up through cracks in the pavement" --> the woman is struggling to have her voice heard by the man, but their relationship is broken past the point of small talk [asking how his day went]).

This song means getting a feeling you thought you last permanantely. Like hanging out with an ex boyfriend/girlfriend again, just to catch up. It is such a free, refreshing, happy song.

The taste of horchata conjures up places and things from his past, but ultimately memories of these things are only longings for a time that just can't be brought back.

I agree wholeheartedly with GentleDogs. This song isn't a narrative, it's meant to evoke a feeling of nostalgia. It's all about memory - doing something you used to do somewhere else, with someone else, and the memories it evokes. It shows how life changes so fast.

I definitely agree with the last two posts; Horchata = Vampire Weekend's madeleine.

San Diego, this is what this song reminds me of.

I feel like there are no references to murder towards the end of the song. I believe the song is about someone who was fallen in love but in the end, it turned sour....but when he is somehow reminded of this lost love, all of the old feelings return. So when he is saying "here comes a feeling you thought you'd forgotten." i believe thats what he is referring to. And when he talks about the lips and teeth are shooting up through the pavement, i think its a metaphor comparing the lips and teeth to weeds....or feeling that you want to get rid of, but they keep coming back.

it's about moving to a warm place (California is most of the inspiration for this album) from a cold place, the irony of enjoying a cold drink in december, and realizing that the move to this place initially seemed great (horchata) but ultimately didn't solve the bigger problems (things fall apart, inevitably).

Did anyone else think Horchata sounds like Hot Chowder or Hot Cider?
I think that was hilarious.

But anyway, i think this is pretty much their best song ever.

"With lips and teeth to ask how my day went
Boots and fists to pound on the pavement."
Best lines, in my opinion. : )

Look down your glasses at that aranciata is wrong it should be orxata

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http://www.mediterranean-food-recipes.com/horchata.html

When he says "Looking back you shouldn't have fought it" anyone hear "farted"?

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Masada is a place in ancient Israel (a mesa) where there was a mass suicide (result of a Roman siege).
To say that "You'd still enjoy it with your foot on masada" is like saying that you'd would have fun even in a Turkish prison.

I think what everyone has said is right, especially the one about being young and the death one. To ellaborate on the death theory, I think the girl commits suicide. The feeling you'd forgotten. She doesn't feel anything anymore...