Monday, October 26, 2009

Finally.

Okay, so usually I like Bad Sandwich to be a bit of a respite from punk rock…a place to come read about dick jokes and pussy farts and just kind of escape the mindless claptrap surrounding Taking Back Sunday, Dan Yemin and Justin Sane and Davy Havok and Tom Delonge and all that. Right? Sure. It’s never been about the music here, folks. It’s always been about the felching. That’s our motto, at least.
SO, today is where I break form completely. I’m in a band. Some of you probably know all about this. We’re called the Lawrence Arms, and while we’re not as popular as, say, Eric Clapton, we’re a lot more popular than, say, your band (unless you’re in the Alkaline Trio or Against Me! [and even then you’re still mondo gay]), AND we’re coming out with a record called Buttsweat and Tears on Fat Wreck Chords next week. In the spirit of promoting said release, SPIN.com is putting a free download of one of the songs on the internet. The song is called Demons and I think it’s pretty cool.
We made this the focus track because it’s the bonus song that’s not on the vinyl version and only available on itunes and we figured that we shouldn’t penalize the people who were cool enough to buy the 7” by giving them one less song. Everyone should be able to have the five songs if they want em, right? Right. So yeah.  We decided to pass out the bonus track for free because we’re cooler than all other bands. That’s right, other bands, we’re talking about you. Nice haricuts. Sweet matching outfits. Nice sustainable careers. Bleh…
Stupid bands.
Anyway, this song is only available on the online version of Buttsweat and Tears and will not appear on the physical release, AND despite what some people have inferred due to some comments I made before playing this song at a bootlegged acoustic show with Tom Gabel earlier this year, this song is NOT about my experience at his wedding. Not at all. I actually wrote this song while thinking about my friend Sean Nader and the time he showed up at his buddy’s (afternoon) wedding reception drunk, shirtless and ready to fight. Now, he wasn’t alone. I’m pretty sure his buddy Jimmy was also there, shirtless and yelling “who wants some of this?” at anyone who was unlucky enough to be close by, so…well, there’s that, but yeah. I mentioned Tom’s wedding at that show because he was there and it was the most recent wedding I’d been to at the time, despite the fact that my behavior, while probably not exemplary, was hardly memorable. Just a wedding reference, folks. Now, this song, “Demons” is about more than an isolated incident of drunken shenanigans and humiliation. Do you want to know what I think it’s about? Nah. Stupid. My intentionality is totally unimportant and will only color your viewing of the song and negatively affect it all and undermine your own interpretation. I’ve said it before: Artist intentionality is 100% irrelevant. Never mind.
Bye.
Later…
Uh..
Oh. Still here? Okay. Well, to me, the song is about the desperation that people succumb to in order to cling to their youth and the general despair and malaise that informs their  desperation when faced with the irrevocable truth of fading glory. Whether it’s an aging skank sucking wangs to keep her name out there or some old washed up dinosaur rocker becoming impotently enraged at his sudden irrelevance and picking fights with people he doesn’t know for no reason in hopes of staying in the public eye, or whether it’s me, trying to behave like I did when I was twenty one, even though I’m thirty three with a kid and all sorts of bruises and aches and I can no longer hang like I used to, or nader, shirtless and picking fights at a wedding. That’s the demon, right?. The specter of youth and the inevitability of coming face to face with its disappearance and your perceived subsequent irrelevance no matter how hard you try to ignore it. It’s a tough thing to look in the mirror and see. That’s what that song is about to me. The demons of youth and the trappings of adolescent personalities and how those things don’t necessarily make for adult personalities and also, and perhaps most importantly, this song is about how even when that shit fades, there’s still time and room and a place to look over at someone across the room and just absolutely fall in love, for the first time or all over again. How there are still nights of amazing whiskey shots and laughter and kisses and fights and sure, shit’s not the same, but it shouldn’t be. Change is important and you gotta change. Without it, you’re no better than that pathetic cokehead buddy of yours that still lives in his parents house.  You gotta look ahead, no matter how hard it is to never look back.
I saw this slideshow on the internet a while ago, of a guy who took a picture of his face every day for five years. It really highlighted the brutality and unflinchingness of the passage of time. The completely reckless disregard that time has on the bodies and spirits that it inevitably ravages. That movie was a huge inspiration for this song.
Of course, it’s all up to personal interpretation, so I’ll leave it to you guys to make your own opinions, but here’s the lyrics. Listen and enjoy!
 
 
Demons
 
I got too drunk at your wedding and my voice got loud and I said some creepy things and I staggered around and even though your best man had to kick me out it was a pretty good time either way.
It seems a fight broke out and an old man was yelling, cuz no one was buying all the bullshit he was selling and he threw all his keepsakes on the ground and walked away, cursing hard to bring back yesterday
 
And the dying aint gonna stop just because you walk away
And you can cry for everything that you’ve lost but you ain’t never gonna bring back these days.
 
I hate the Mondays and the Fridays cuz they always define the endless march of pushing ruthlessly to the light. Well, if I’m gonna be dying then I’m gonna get high and scream until I’m not feeling the pain.
Let’s burn a bridge for the fuck of it and kill this night with some beers down at the pits, with whiskey lips and we’ll try to love for the moment and forget for the night that life doesn’t usually feel great.
 
Where we gonna go now that everything’s shut down? I can’t go home, so where do you wanna go now? Let’s bring it back around to where everybody’s singin that
the dying aint gonna stop just because you walk away
And you can cry for everything that you’ve lost but you ain’t never gonna bring back these days.  You ain’t never gonna bring back these days.
 

36 comments:

planespotting said...

Classic. Great lines.

Thanks for posting the lyrics ... I'll be downloading it all tonight, motherfuckers.

Matt Ramone said...

The whole thing is aces.

You should pull a Dead to Me and start playing white reggae with a hint of Nirvana.

Scott Juniper. said...

Amazing. Just amazing. It'd be more amazing if you posted and explained all the songs.

Ted Yang said...

I said it in the last comments just in time to get cut off - but Fat's got colored.

Candice said...

thanks for the shout out. I'm assuming that I'm the aging skank you were referring to.

Matt Ramone said...

"It'd be more amazing if you posted and explained all the songs."

I can do this for you in one shot:

"Getting old sucks and I drink a lot, some would say too much."

There ya go!

Scott said...

Great show Saturday.

Absolutely great post. I just sent this to about 5 people on IM:
"this song is about how even when that shit fades, there’s still time and room and a place to look over at someone across the room and just absolutely fall in love, for the first time or all over again. How there are still nights of amazing whiskey shots and laughter and kisses and fights and sure, shit’s not the same, but it shouldn’t be."


The album was up this morning on Amazon if anyone was getting impatient... I listened to it 3 full times before i even ate breakfast and left for work.

Jesus said...

I just fell so much more in Love with that song after fully reading the lyrics.

It's always so insightful and weird to talk to artists about why and how they come up with songs like they did. And it's always so much better when you get an explanation, something you can hold on to and maybe one day relate to.

After an AM! show in Vancouver a couple years back I got talking to Tom about songwriting and lyrics. I asked him out of curiosity where he got the inspiration to write "The Ocean" off of New Wave.

His answer suprised me a little, but I don't think it was the whole truth.

"Well, I was in France a little while back. And I bought this weed, this crazy crazy weed. And I smoked it. And it was really good weed. And the rest just kind of flowed, y'know?"

...No. I don't. True story though!

Bridgett said...

Am I the only one that can't actually download the song from Spin? Hmm? Just pulls up a player at the bottom with a song called DOWNLOAD MP3. Anyone?

Anonymous said...

Player move making the digital only track available to all. Don't know how many other bands would do that...

Unknown said...

i had a problem too, firefox crashed when i tried it, and that wasn't the first time on spin. so i got out the old internet explorer and it worked.

great song. i think.... actually we should have known that it would be the digital only song for free.

big e said...

Oh man...party at the pits. that brings back memories....hope thats an etown shout-out.

Glen said...

It's true, they have the color, just ordered mine...

https://www.fatwreck.com/store/detail/236

Great post. "sure, shit’s not the same, but it shouldn’t be."

Doogers said...

Two words, Whiskey Lips!!!

timziegler said...

Awesome. I've been thinking a lot about this lately. Lately, as in the last 5 hours, when I read "The Short and Happy Life of Francis Macomber" on the train this morning.

I realize that I've never become a man and unless I'm cuckolded on an African Safari big-game hunt, I probably never will be.

Unknown said...

Not that I am complaining or anything but.... I have been wondering how Amazon has been able to get away with all of this bullshit such the early release of the record and the 30 second clips last week.

Jimmy Collyer said...

I couldn't make the show but is there going to be a way for me to get my hands on one of the kickass shirts? maybe in a combo that comes with the record.

Jacob William said...

So, now I have a purple translucent 7" AND a bonus track? Sweet deal.

Owner Operator said...

i can't get it cos i'm not in the US... fucking weak as fucknig. not cool at all...

word veri: consid

FranklinStein said...

Good gawd I want to bang you!

Mark said...

This was the pre-written entry, wasn't it?

Ted Yang said...

Owner Operator...gimme your e-mail and you may or may not (depending if the person reading this has the ability to take any sort of legal action or not) be given the track. You can post it here or on one of my "blog entries" (aka TV shows that I was trying to embed away from the annoying, noisy webpages I found them on).

Candice said...

franklinstein- back the FUCK up. i saw him first.

Unknown said...

That kinda chaps my ass that the colored vinyl is somehow on fat now. I waited for HOURS to get that shit.

Sean said...

Hey, I'm the one that recorded that bootleg acoustic Cafe 11 show... hope you didn't get pissed at that... I know a lot of people love it!

Also, The Redness in the West acoustic is so fucking good.

And to Candice: you can bang me.... even though I can't grow facial hair for shit... oh, and where are those pics from the show?

Mark said...

Robin: I'm pretty sure the people who got the colored 7's at the show have exclusive colors. Fat has different colors than those, as far as I know.

Ted Yang said...

Sean, based on your picture, I would say you can grow facial hair.

Candice said...

sean- head over to www.thesockdrawer.org

i posted everything there!

Mark said...

Excellent pictures. BK in A.W.K shirt is sweet.

Shane said...

I am so excited for this album. It's hard to believe how long it's been since Oh! Calcutta! was brand new.

Also, I was just looking at a setlist from the last Lawrence Arms show I went to...October of 2007. That's really been too long.

Owner Operator said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ryan said...

Great show, Great EP, leaves me wanting more....bastards

Nico said...

What the fuck happens at about 1:03 in the song?

christa! said...

Great post. I've been feeling old lately and this makes me feel like slightly less of a loser. <3

mad_adam said...

The new songs are so unlike anything you guys have recorded before. I always look forward to what facet of your sound you are going to explore next. Thanks for a great album, amazing 10th anniversary show, and a lifetime of regrettable decisions and poorly timed erections.

Sophie Nicola Evans said...
This comment has been removed by the author.