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Pet sounds filling pet peeve void's
Black and white TV with the sound turned down
Is it mono or stereo?
Lending aneurysm satisfaction in the
Fruitless gaze of your Mona Lisa lazy smile
Trick ourselves in portable stanzas
Black Russian throated on this
Guillotine cancer
How steep we are
But there's just no telling
Just no telling
Savion is under heel clicking
Morse code through movie stills again
The sky had blackened with carrion birds
Pinstriped suits and cigarettes tapped danced
Through the tepid burlesque
Their mouths were parched with excess thirst
Bridge and chorus candy curse
Still they snag through the strep throat verse
Pet sounds filling pet peeve voids
Black and white TV with the sound turned down
Like breathing blood through lungs of czar's child
If I had a dollar for every plot that you made
In this bed of nails you make
How steep
How steep we are
Black and white TV with the sound turned down
Is it mono or stereo?
Lending aneurysm satisfaction in the
Fruitless gaze of your Mona Lisa lazy smile
Trick ourselves in portable stanzas
Black Russian throated on this
Guillotine cancer
How steep we are
But there's just no telling
Just no telling
Savion is under heel clicking
Morse code through movie stills again
The sky had blackened with carrion birds
Pinstriped suits and cigarettes tapped danced
Through the tepid burlesque
Their mouths were parched with excess thirst
Bridge and chorus candy curse
Still they snag through the strep throat verse
Pet sounds filling pet peeve voids
Black and white TV with the sound turned down
Like breathing blood through lungs of czar's child
If I had a dollar for every plot that you made
In this bed of nails you make
How steep
How steep we are
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First, there is the direct nod to the great Beach Boys record Pet Sounds.
Concerning part of the chorus, I always thought it was "savior is up the hill / drinking [inaudible] through movie stills". Savion Glover, as I only just learned by reading Upsetter's post, is a famous tap dancer. The Savion name-drop and other clues lead me to think that the movie TAP is what's on the muted black & white Tv. I've never seen TAP, but after some very brieif research, I am beginning to think that the film may likely offer further insight about the song. I can't say for sure what the parallels are, but going out on a limb I think that Roger Ebert's review of the TAP may touch upon some of the potential connections.
Finally, there is the item of Russia. Its only a suspicion, but I have the feeling that somehow the song is indebted or inspired in part by the films of Sergei Eisenstein. These are silent films, classics from way back that deal with Russian history and the Russian revolution.
Also, somewhere in the song is a girl.
Basically, from these central ideas, I wonder the song was somehow a reflection/mediation from ATDI about how they viewed their own music.
I definitely feel like that is a great start on what this song could POTENTIALLY mean. Only Cedric really knows.
Okay first verse....pet sounds filling pet peeve void's
black and white tv with the sound turned down
is it mono or stereo?.....this sounds like what once you found attactive in your partner you are now hating. The rest sounds like that are beginning not to see eye to eye and find it hard to communicate and get on the same page.
lending aneurysm satisfaction in the
fruitless gaze of your mona lisa lazy smile
trick ourselves in portable stanzas.........
now this section sounds like they are trying to patch this up, make it work, by using cliche lines...I love you, you are my one one....plus it's mona lisa kinda frowning so maybe these interchangeable lines are just trying to keep her around...maybe she is the on annoyed with him.
black russian throated on this
guillotine cancer
how steep we are
but there's just no telling
just no telling
so its a love bird getting chopped..sounds like the love is dying....the how steep we are...I think is refering to how long they have been in arelationship and how much they depend on each other for survival....they don't know if they can actually liveon their own and may have to make things work.
Savion is under heel clicking
morse code through movie stills again.....basically their picture perfect dream love is on the rocks and they need to figure out how to work things out or its over.
he sky had blackened with carrion birds
pinstriped suits and cigarettes tapped danced
through the tepid burlesque
their mouths were parched with excess thirst
bridge and chorus candy curse
still they snag through the strepthroat verse
this kind sounds like they are at the worst of their fight, he is trying to buy her love and use fancy things to get her back...but thats not what is needed...she wants an emotional bond that just isnt there anymore.
the last line I think means yet he still tries to keep getting her to re-love him.
breath blood through the lungs of czar.....umm lungs dont want blood in them...so I think this means he is giving her love but in the wrong way...she needs and wants love but not the way he does it....much like czar's son needed blood but not in his lungs....that would be deadly...so maybe his love is killing her.....she is probably trapped because she doesnt know how to live alone.
If i had a dollar for every plot that you made
in this bed of nails you make....basically saying he tries so many ways to make this work but its only making things worse.
Why is it called Translantic foe??? The lover feels distant from the other...really hates them and basically wants them out of their life....but I am assuming this relationship is only together because one doesnt know how to live alone and get out of it.
morse code through movie stills again"
As someone else pointed out, savion is a reference to "savion glover", a famous tap dancer. The heel clicking/morse code thing is about communication to me. On the one hand, it seems to speak to all the times when communication can be so difficult: it can feel like trying to perfrom an impossible dance just getting a point across.
On the flip side, I think of it as when we succesfully communicate without even trying. Just as a tap dance might inadvertantly send a morse code message, there are little moments when genuine actions can communicate our deep feelings in ways words cant - a kiss, a dance, a quiet moment. The "movie stills" line is ti me a reference to a single moment, like a single frame from a movie.
All in all, the chorus says to me that communication can be hard, but its worth it for those small moments whent wo people really can connect with each other.
"the sky had blackened with carrion birds"
Obviously a reference to something unfortuante, tragic, or difficult that the two face together, Maybe its relationship problem, a death of a loved one, drug addcition, depression, or something else.
"pinstriped suits and cigarettes tapped danced
through the tepid burlesque"
Well burlesque is a kind of theater, and when it arose as an alternative to the family focused Vaudeville, it was viewed as raunchy and racey. "Tepid" just menas mediocre or lukewarm. So they have all these things going on around them, like the "pisntriped suits and cigarettes", but to them its just not as genuine as their love, so it comes off as bad, raunchy theatre. Its fake.
"their mouths were parched with excess thirst
bridge and chorus candy curse
still they sang through the strepthroat verse"
Even as they realize that there are these problems they have to face, they keep persevering. Parched step throats and they keep singing. Beautiful!
"if i had a dollar for every plot that you made
in this bed of nails you make"
The bed of nails is the precarious position thyeve put themselves in together - the relationship, being in love. The "had a dollar for every plot" just means that theyve made all of these plans together: all of these hopes and dreams they share. What the singer is saying is that through all the trouble they keep dreaming of their happiness together.
"like breathing blood through lungs of czar's child"
This could refer, as someone said above, to resuscitating a victim of a gunshot. But also remember that the Czars child was a hemophiliac - the condition where you bleed constantly, and the Czar fought hard to keep this child alive (Rasputin was hired to care for the hemophiliac child with his magic). This is like the "guillotine caner" line: a reference to a terminal illness, but a resolve to keep struggling, keep "breathing".
This leads me to the title 'Transatlantic foe" . Some compare this to the Societ Union, which I buy. During the Cold War it seemed we were at constant war with the USSR and that our existence was at cosntant threat -it could all end at any moment with nuclear war. This is like the position of the lovers in the song. Trouble with each other, disaster all around them - all constantyl threatening what they have. But despite this they carry on and perserve, just like the people of both countries had to do in the Cold War.
Ultimately, this is a song to me about being so deeply in love with someone that you forget all of your troubles with each other and with the rest of the world and resolve to perserve and be happy together. Absolutely beautiful. The way its sung gives it so much convictiona nd honesty... right now this is my favorite song.
"pet sounds filling pet peeve void's"
This means two things to me. First, "pet sounds" makes me think of the pet names people have for each other in a relationship, or all the other little endearing things that attract us to other people. "Pet peeve[s]" are of course the little things that annoy us about others. So the pet sounds filling the pet peeves void would seem to be saying that the nice little quirks and charms of the partner in the relationship make up for any annoying tendencies they might have... all the conflicts seem insignificant when compared to the little joys.
The second meaning is if you take "pet sounds" as a reference to the classic Beach Boys' album of the same name. Then it gives me the image of two people just listening to music together and forgetting about the things they dislike about each other.
Leave it to Cedric to pack so much meaning into one line.
"black and white tv with the sound turned down
is it mono or stereo?"
Again two meanings. Similar to the fist image, I see two people lying together in the glow of the TV, but obviously whats on isnt as important as whats being said or whats being shown - hence sound turned down, black and white, etc.
I also see it as a metaphor for the relationship in general. Sound turned down, black and white - you just get the idea of two people who love each other so much that whats said and whats done arent as important as the bigger picture - theyre together.
"lending aneurysm satisfaction in the
fruitless gaze of your mona lisa lazy smile"
Such a great line. Think of someone who has an aneurysm - they are essentially paralyzed, or stupified much of the time. Fruitless means something that is unproductive. So the singer is just enraptured, looking at the girls' "mona lisa lazy smile" knowing its not productive, but he's still satisfied. He is rendered paralyzed and helpless like an aneurysm victim just looking at her.
"trick ourselves in portable stanzas"
Portable makes me think of something that is easily moved. In this sense I think the "stanzas" are lines from love songs and poems. Have you ever had the experience of loving someone or even just having a huge crush on someone, so that every time you lsiten to a love song you think of how the words apply to them? You know the words arent really about you and them, but you can imagine it anyway? I think thats what he means by "trick", and the stanzas are "portable" because they can be moved around both in their meaning and in the sene that they are applied to new people.
"black russian throated on this
guillotine cancer"
Black russian throated: This refers to a kind of bird, the "dark-throated thrush" - they have black throats and are found in taiga regions of Eurasia (read: Russia). "Guillotine cancer" - obviously supposed to represent something fatal. Maybe the idea that the relationship could end in disaster? Also I guillotine could be read as something that causes one to "lose their head" as love makes people irrational sometimes, "cancer" being soemthing that spreads and can weaken you: he feels weak at the knees around her, the love grows stronger and spreads through him, etc.
So the meaning to me is he is head over heels in love in this "guillotine cancer" fashion and it has made him blind to the idea that it could end poorly. So even headed into this momentous relationship with the possiblity of getting hurt all they can do is be as happy as songbirds because they are just so happy right now.
"how steep we are"
GREAT line, because steep can have so many meanings and ALL of them work perfectly with this song!
1. "having a sharp inclination" - basically, a steep mountain or cliff. Something dangerous. See the above about the dangers of falling blindly in love.
2. "at a rapid or precipitous rate" - they are headed into the relationship faster than they expected. It all seems so fast as they fall in love.
3. "ambitious, difficult" (as in "a steep undertaking") : they know the odds may be against them in being together and succeeding in their relationship, but they are willing to try anyway
"but there's just no telling
just no telling"
again, acknowledging that the future is unclear. they might end in failure - but there is also no telling if they might have a shot at being happy together forever. thats why they have to try!
Ok, this is getting long. I'll make another post to continue with the song.
Emo was a thing of the 80's and ended around 92. Its over with now. When you people call bands emo you are insulting the real bands that REALLY WERE emo.
This is gonna stay one of those "just call music for what it is" things but I like classifying for some reason. So believe me emo is over and someone needs to start a new name for this bullshit. I know exactly what hes talking about and I know what youre talking about. But its just whiny bitchy produced punk.