The Front Bottoms song meanings
Flashlight: itâs about someone having a hold over you. this is a recurring theme throughout a number of songs on our album. Our favorite line from the song is âI can hear your dog whistle from my bedroomâ
Maps: This song is pretty self-explanatory. Itâs about the idea of not knowing whatâs next. Accepting the fact that your life wonât be as comfortable as everyone makes it out to be when youâre younger. Itâs about finding out life is a longer road than you had expected. Favorite line: âLet me be a raft on a blue sea Iâll blend right inâ
Looking Like You Just Woke Up: This was the quickest song we wrote. It happens to also be the shortest on the record. Same idea as from Flashlight - just someone having a hold on you. (One of our good friends fell in love with this girl that still had a boyfriend and so in order to make time with the girl, he hung out a lot with the boyfriend and her. He slowly found out that the girl he thought he loved was kind of a bitch and he found that maybe the one he really loved was her boyfriend. They have somewhat of a romantic relationship now. And they are living together.) The vibe of this song comes from that situation. Favorite Line: âIt probably wonât get easier, just easier to hideâ
Mountain: This song is actually about buying drugs in Pennsylvania. The line was originally âI bought weed. A big bag in Pennsylvania. Iâm gonna light it up when I get home to Jerseyâ We changed it because none of us have bought drugs or smoked ganja. ever. Favorite Line: âTheyâre gonna ruin my whole summer. Stop taking pictures with your phone. Stop taking pictures with your phone.â
Rhode Island: we met a kid at a punk rock festival we played in Rhode Island. He didnât do much talking and we called him the Zombie Kid because he was passed out in a pile of sticks. The next day when he came out of his coma, he was asking us about directions on the best way to get passed NYC on a bike. His summer plan was to ride from his home in Vermont to Florida. All that he had with him was a backpack full of drugs. No joke. Drugs. Then we shook hands and he went on his way. On that same tour - two months later - one of our last shows were in New York City, and guess who we fucking see? Zombie Kid. Backpack empty. We asked him what happened and he said he made it down to South Carolina and had to turn around and come back. favorite line-âShe says you gotta promise not to break not matter how far you are bent, she says you gotta shift my position and try to get comfortable againâ
The Beers: Itâs about the same deal. Someone having a hold over you, so much so that youâd be willing to put yourself in danger, to change yourself in order to make them like you. But the song is all over the place and thatâs just a small part of it. Favorite Line: âAnd itâs an aerial view from your house to my roomâ
Father: I put myself in someone elseâs body and I wrote this song about my life.
Swimming Pool: The voicemail in the breakdown is from one of our friendâs dads to our friend about some dumb shit about a girl. He saved it and we added it later on to our song. Months later, the girlâs mom cornered me in the grocery store and asked me if we could take that voicemail out of the song. But weâre punk rock so we left it.
Favorite Line- âThereâs comfort in the bottom of a swimming poolâ
The Boredom Is The Reason I Started Swimming: I got stranded in Germany one time and I missed Thanksgiving. Side note: On Thanksgiving, I ate a hot dog with some weird potato shit on it in Amsterdam but it was still mad good. As I was walking around Berlin, I found this circus of freaks - it was more or less a sideshow act but it was free so I went in. I met a dude who was a gangster drug dealer, he let me stay at his house and was actually super nice. He cooked me food and went to Amsterdam with me. But while I was staying in his house he explained to me the rules of the streets in Berlin. Everybody pays, everybodyâs head is in the noose, everyone is part of the program.
Bathtub: Thereâs so much in this song. Take it for what itâs worth. Favorite line: Please take me off speaker phone, this is a private conversation.
Legit Tattoo Gun: This song was originally called âMJâ because when we put it out we gave it two different names on two different websites. If you know this song as âMJ,â youâre way more punk rock. At one point, I was making out with a woman who was making out with a lot of other people. It was a mutually beneficial relationship. Favorite Line: âI am not a dirty god, I donât have a dirty bodyâ
Hooped Earrings: This is about a friend of mine that asked me to be there with her when she came out to her mother. Favorite Line: Curly hair donât look good cut short.
