Old Music Tuesdays: Every Time I Die (@everytimeidie)

Every Time I Die (@everytimeidie) is a metalcore/punk/Southern Hardcore band from Buffalo, New York, started in 1998. They’ve released an EP and seven studio LPs to date, the most recent being From Parts Unknown, released July 1st. (It’s awesome; you can buy it pretty cheap by clicking the Amazon link.) I had the pleasure of meeting the band in 2007 when they appeared on Fuel TV to promote their new (at the time) album, The Big Dirty. They’re all really down to earth guys and are very appreciative of their fans. I attended a concert about two weeks later, and the bass player (again, at the time) remembered me and waved. I felt like I was too cool for school.

The song I’m sharing is called Underwater Bimbos from Outer Space, taken from their 2012 album Ex Lives. (It’s probably one of the most disturbing music videos I’ve ever seen, so if you have a weak stomach, you might want to skip it.) Keith Buckley (@deathoftheparty), the band’s vocalist and lyricist, is a former English teacher, and as such has some of the weirdest and best lyrics in punk/metal today. Every song tells a story, and he’s no stranger to writing with allegory and metaphors.

This song could take a few different meanings, depending on whom you ask. Keith said that he wrote this song about questioning his own preconceptions. He has indicated that he constantly compares his own life to his peers and this song is about fighting that tendency. I’m not going to question the author’s motives and intent, but I think some listeners have come up with some pretty interesting ideas about what this song is about. One commenter on SongMeanings.com thinks the song is about the futility of revolution and insurrection, and the hypocrisy of those in power who make dissidents into martyrs after they die fighting them. I think this is a valid interpretation, especially when you consider the music video and the album cover. (The cover is a photo of an ETID-teed youth struggling against a riot cop.)

Another commenter made a pretty solid argument that the song is about the state of the indie music industry, specifically the punk and hardcore scenes. It’s pretty long and dissects the lyrics line by line, so if you’re interested, click here and scroll down to the fifth comment or so. You can’t miss it. That’s the sign of great art to me; that the viewer/listener/reader can bring his own interpretation to a work so that it speaks to him on his level. What do you think the song means? What do you think the video means?

Enjoy the song and buy the new CD by clicking the Amazon link. Thanks for reading!

Lyrics

I want to be dead with my friends.
I want to be dead with my friends.
A wide eyed, brilliant, dynamic rest.
I want to be dead with my friends.
I want to be dead with my friends.
Where the iron sharpens the iron.
Where the iron sharpens the iron.
Where the iron sharpens the iron
sharpens the iron.

I want to be dead with my friends.
I want to be dead with my friends.
A vulgar, loud, unforgettable end.
I want to be dead with my friends.
I want to be dead with my friends.

Let boredom cease the beating of our purple hearts.
Against this, even gods fight violently in vein.
What chance could we have stood?
We were the last of the lost,
But now we are the first of the fashionably late.

Loved ones decompose
And you’ll gather ’round the bones.
But most of us are wholly ghost.
All of us were wholly ghost.

We made the scene when we made a scene,
And though it was brief, it meant everything.
Oh what a pity, now they’re bound to make us saints
Oh what a pity, now they’re bound to make us saints.

Against this, even boys fight violently in vein.
What chance could we have stood?
We were the last of the lost,
But now we are the first of the fashionably late.

I refuse to be the only man
Put to rest in a mass grave.
I refuse to be the only man
Put to rest in a mass grave.
I refuse to be the only man
Put to rest in a mass grave.

You were all there with me.
You were all there with me.
You were all there with me.

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