"All of This and Nothing" is a series of weekly posts, each about one song I really love, by an artist I haven't featured in the previous This Year, Portions For Foxes, or Better Things series. It alternates between Obscure and Famous songs; feel free to argue either way if you're so inclined. See the introduction for more.
Some songs are meant to be taken literally; I'm usually not fans of those. I love metaphors, quirky language, strange flights.
You said, "Do you believe what you're saying?"
Yeah, right now, but not that often
My favorite Modest Mouse song, by a long stretch, is the rattling, thumping, banjo-fueled Satin in a Coffin, a song about being dead, or pretending to be dead, and all that might mean.
Are you dead or are you sleeping?
God, I sure hope you are dead
It can be about anything killing you, or anything you worry might be killing you - relationships, substances, work, just living in the world. It is about any, or all, of those things, if you want it to be in the moment.
Well, everybody's talking about their short lists
Everybody's talking about death!
And that banjo, along with singer Isaac Brock's increasingly loud and tormented yells as the song goes on, are just perfect. This is a short song, but it goes exactly where it needs to.
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