You'll discover that casual friends kept
Notes in their pockets to remember your name.
And all these places we went to see sights
Just gave them excuses to get to the game.

[Chorus]
There's a look in the faces tonight that's untrustable
As the hope that you'll never return in a while.
But you're always on time, so

Sleeping soundly; the back of the car felt more like a home
Than I would have ever have thought.
And through the evening the engine kept on
Until we hit Chicago and decided to stop.

[Chorus: x2]



Lyrics submitted by jephque

Track duration: 03:49

"Little Fury Bugs" as written by Benjamin Gibbard

Lyrics © EMI Music Publishing

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Little Fury Bugs song meanings
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29 Comments

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  • 0
    General Comment:Reading through these interpretations I think we're all spot on. My original interpretation was that this song has to do with fake friends and the dark undertone of nightlife. I think the song's feel gives it away even more than the lyrics, the song just kind of reeks of false personalities and fake gestures. You can tell that Ben Gibbard is foreign to the sometimes fake world of social life, and probably felt a sense of disgust and betrayal.

    However you wanna interpret it, this song always stuck out to me on the record. It's just so slow and dark. I definitely related with the feelings expressed here to. I ain't scurred but I thought this song was a stick-out on the record yadig it was cool though.
    Flag conortiffinon February 06, 2013   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Okay. so i have a new take on the song... i originally thought it was about him and this girl that he met in title track and they were traveling together for some reason... maybe a chance encounter and they decided to meet im not quit sure how my mind came to that conclusion, but then i read down about fake friends analogy of BugsyValentine... and it blew my mind so i had something to ad about the confusion of the lines

    "Sleeping soundly, the back of the car felt more like a home
    Than I would have ever have thought
    And through the evening the engine kept on"

    well my take on that is that he is so messed up by this girl through the album so far and the breakdown was the employment pages and the aftershock was for what reason... "So slick with your sarcastic slew with phrases like i thought you knew" pretty self explanatory.

    sorry getting side tracked SO my take on that verse is that he is trying to kill him self it is that bad... he had a hose through from the exhaust to the back seat where he went to sleep in hope of not waking up. anyway thats what i got from it maybe a little extreme but yeah.
    Flag MontroseKisson May 11, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Okay. so i have a new take on the song... i originally thought it was about him and this girl that he met in title track and they were traveling together for some reason... maybe a chance encounter and they decided to meet im not quit sure how my mind came to that conclusion, but then i read down about fake friends analogy of BugsyValentine... and it blew my mind so i had something to ad about the confusion of the lines

    "Sleeping soundly, the back of the car felt more like a home
    Than I would have ever have thought
    And through the evening the engine kept on"

    well my take on that is that he is so messed up by this girl through the album so far and the breakdown was the employment pages and the aftershock was for what reason... "So slick with your sarcastic slew with phrases like i thought you knew" pretty self explanatory.

    sorry getting side tracked SO
    Flag MontroseKisson May 11, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I agree with most of the points here but do actually see it in a different light.

    I'd personally say that Ben is trying hard with a girl's group of friends, but that they do not care for each other, and will not become friends, but Ben doesn't feel like he has anyone left.

    The lines in the chorus:

    There's a look in the faces tonight that's untrustable
    As the hope that you'll never return in a while
    But you're always on time, so . . .

    Seem to me to be the sense of the inability of Ben to leave the scene, regardless of wanting to, because the girl he has fallen for is there, and so the vicious cycle continues.
    Flag Vieralon November 22, 2011   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:i'm willing to bet this song is about the feud between lou barlow and j mascis, given the title which references "little fury things" by Dinosaur Jr. and "bug" which was their last album with barlow on it.
    Flag bab808on November 20, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:This song serves as a painful reminder that I'm not particularly happy with either of the houses I live in, whether at 'home' or at university. I just don't feel like the right fit.

    Great song, though...
    Flag nehemiah553on January 04, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:ok well it seems there is ALOT of confusion bout this song. but some very good points made. excuse my spelling if its becomes too "texty" i just hate spelling everything out. so anyway, evryone seems to b forgetting that this the whole album is about this one girls. and if u read other explanations and listen to the album it makes perfect sense...... title track starts with him meeting her, and then the employment pages is when they are fighting and he sleeps on the couch.... "i rearrange the furniture as you sleep", etc. and then he becomes bitter in "for what reason" and 405 is him him just reflecting on the relationship and realising that it was never meant to last... "i missed the exit to your parents house hours ago"...... so all the explanations about his friends being fake is correct. id like to offer the suggestion that he left these casual friends when he met this girl and he came back and things are a little cold as they offer fake condolences but don't really care much. and the drug reference is brilliant. cos it make perfect sense that he would turn to some form of intoxication to get over his problems. i think the title refers to the crappy way he lives. dust bugs? of course to support his habit he would be losing money and therefore sleep in the back of his car. that's just my take on the song and the album up to this song. hope im not bein a noob but yeah that's what i think of this....
    Flag BugsyValentineon December 12, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:i love this song.

    i took it as meaning, like his friends are only his friends because they can get some benefit through them. i'm thinking they want to get ahead in the music business, and they know he can get them connections. ("all those places we went to see sights just gave them excuses to get into the game")

    There's a look in the faces tonight that's untrustable
    As the hope that you'll never return in a while
    But you're always on time, so . . .

    his friends look untrustable because they're so fake. he doesn't even trust them enough to know if they'll ever speak to him again. frankly, he doesn't want to continue his friendship with them anyway, so he's bummed that they're always on time and keep showing up.

    the back of the car feels like home to him because no where else feels like home. he can be alone, because at home, those people always bug him.

    i don't know, that's just how i took it. beautiful song. i love the bass.
    Flag woahhelloon July 16, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:"Sleeping soundly in the back of the car felt more like a home than I would ever have thought." that feeling when you're so tired you don't want the car to stop just so you can keep sleeping, with the monotonous sound of the car through the night, on a road trip. its a beautiful thing.
    Flag alelizbenon May 10, 2008   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:At the rick of sounding like a dumb ass, this song reminds me of a drug deal type thing. In the first verse it seems like it, like the person you're buying from could be the "casual friend" who really didn't care about them much, just wanted them to buy.. I dunno. And that maybe could explain the part about the places that they were going gave them excuses to "get into the game"?
    Also, the untrustable faces and how they traveled to Chicago, and the "hope that you wouldn't return in a while.."
    I don't fucking know, I think I've been doing too many drugs.
    Flag fakefrownson July 09, 2007   Link

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