Replaying Maritime’s “We, the Vehicles” - listening back to the whole thing: “We are powerful despite our injuries” — my first introduction to the band was watching them perform live and I was thoroughly impressed, something about the honesty and sincerity in the singing and the lyricism moved me, and it also helped that the songs were very melody-forward and easy to shuffle along in time with. Underneath the melodies there are lines that carry a sentiment of timeliness and timelessness:
Young alumni, modern cocktail drinkers, the strappy shoes don’t match the Thursday drunks- phones will come alive, because they’re tired of being tied inside the night, and now the future’s wired but love is no big deal; it’s the falling you feel
Is that poking at the notion of going out to be seen, to make connections, to be free? I still feel a sense of restlessness and ennui that feels corporeal to me now as it did then (the phone/smartphone era would not come to be for at least another year, afterwards the future started to feel a bit more existential.) Partly restlessness, and the positive freedom (the freedom to), yes- the other part that colors in the shapes is the exodus from the suburbs, the negative freedom (the freedom from);
Men in white undershirts tend to their endings- Get as tired as the suburbs that they’re defending- We were dying to get out, God knows our neighbors, walks under the floorboards- Heckles with suggestion that we’re all souls, But he’s sold out In the maze of barns we search the silos Is it so strange that we find no islands? We are exposed No one will remember you tonight or ever (here)
The young person’s intention to be alone, to be an island, to be onto themselves a singular entity. When we grow older, make our own mistakes, and we become unique. Maybe distinguishable from each other, but remembered? If no one will remember you tonight or ever; so then aren’t we free to become anything that we want? Maybe even try to do something worth remembering, perhaps. The time is always right if you’re not sure. The moment is now, and it’s not for forever. Not particularly inspirational in that Coach Taylor way - ‘Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose’ but encouraging nonetheless. (Love ‘Friday Night Lights’ and need to see that show again, still.)