Thrice
The Voices That Are Inside You Speak Low And Surrender
Jan 4, 2010
Words by Sean Moeller
Illustration by Johnnie Cluney
Sound engineering by Mike Gentry
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All The World Is Mad
original version appears on Beggars
In his book "Heretics," G.K. Chesterton says this of H.G Wells, which I feel ties in with this song on multiple levels: "He is still slightly affected with the great scientific fallacy; I mean the habit of beginning not with the human soul, which is the first thing a man learns about, but with some such thing as protoplasm, which is about the last. The one defect in his splendid mental equipment is that he does not sufficiently allow for the stuff or material of men. In his new Utopia he says, for instance, that a chief point of the Utopia will be a disbelief in original sin. If he had begun with the human soul--that is, if he had begun on himself--he would have found original sin almost the first thing to be believed in. He would have found, to put the matter shortly, that a permanent possibility of selfishness arises from the mere fact of having a self, and not from any accidents of education or ill-treatment. And the weakness of all Utopias is this, that they take the greatest difficulty of man and assume it to be overcome, and then give an elaborate account of the overcoming of the smaller ones."
Some have already criticized this song, thinking it a defeatist's manifesto of sorts; anyone who is familiar with my lyrics or outlook on life would seek a better explanation for why I'm digging into this dark place. As Chesterton implies, this topic is not a terminus, but examining it is foundational for building a coherent and holistic worldview. Those then that agree that "something has gone terribly wrong," must find out why, and what, if anything, can be done about it. - DK
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Come On Up To The House
unreleased
Tom Waits cover
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Circles
original version appears on Beggars
Riley always has the most demo parts to sort through. I put three of his parts together and out came this song. He little added bar at the end of the second measure in the verse was weirding me out at first, but ever since I starting singing over it, I wouldn't want it any other way.
Lyrically, the song deals with our fascination with "progress" which we seem to loosely identify with change. But true progress requires a set destination, something I feel most of us rarely have in mind when we use the term. I have to reference Chesterton again as the last line of the song is a paraphrase of this quote: "Progress should mean we are always changing the world to fit the vision, instead we are always changing the vision." -DK
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Beggars
original version appears on Beggars
I wrote the chords and melody to this song on my mandolin, with the idea that it would build on each verse. But the dynamics and feel of the end product definitely was the result of experimentation with the band, and I like the jazzy guitar foundation much better than what I had originally envisioned. Teppei and I kept tripping out on how awesome the feedback squeal is before my guitar comes in on the third verse. So perfect and unplanned. One of the things that you miss when everything is chopped on modern records.
Martin Luther's last written words, written on a scrap of paper, were "We are beggars: This is true." I used those words as a springboard for the lyrics of this song, exploring the idea that we all take credit for far more than we should, and therefore should be grateful for far more than we are. - DK
The contents for the soundtrack to the movie adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize winning novel "The Road," were likely chosen quite a while ago, long before the Irvine, Calif., band Thrice released its latest record late last summer. It's a real shame that such decisions needed to be made prior to hearing the phenomenal "Beggars," a record that is chock-full of songs that strip the meat from bones, affection from cursed hearts, heat and passion from abandoned lips, life from eyes and hope from tested souls. It's a world that lead singer Dustin Kensrue and the rest of his bandmates have made to reflect the pre-post-apocalyptic landscape that could have led to the barren, depressing and frightening one that McCarthy wrote into color with such plain, but poignant language. There's deadness and blankness in the fires of the pupils of the eyes as they survey a land that's been ravaged by the very awesome and sad capacity for destruction, hate and hurt that we humans are burdened with. We have more than enough of that stuff to wipe ourselves out twenty times over and then some. There's nothing to say that this pre-post-apocalyptic flash isn't the one that we're looking at right now, the one that's trudging guiltily by us outside the windows, streamed into our living rooms by the television waves that are just doing their job of keeping us connected. In this setting - one that moans lowly and is pitched in a bleak sort of afterglow -- there's nothing for anyone but the words that come out of their mouths, the little touch that they can find in places few and far between and the dirty, torn up clothing that they let rest over their sunken spirits. Thrice, which has been around and making great records for well over a decade, has reinvented itself on "Beggars," giving us this perspective of despair and a gritty sound that's more in line with the Delta Spirits, Felice Brothers, Cold War Kids and other neo-soul, blues bands that have been cropping up in recent years and less like the brethren of tattooed, emo-core bands that they rose up with way back when. Kensrue sounds as if he has blood in his throat as he sings the title track from the new album, as well as "All The World Is Mad," and there's a feeling that he believes this sad truth with all of his being, as if he's resigned to embrace this ugliness. It's as if there are empty hearts and glazed eyes just wandering the streets, punching their cards, eating any emotions that they might have normally had and just playing it out until the moving pictures just drop off from the edge and nothingness takes over completely. The scenery and all of the disgraced humanity just spits in these songs, they have lost any will to ache too much, just a little as if it's all too little too late. Kensrue sings about progress not matching the visions in our heads, left with the fudged and smeary muck that can't be undone. There are spirits throughout these songs that are beautifully rendered and given to us under porch lights, low lights of faint summer evenings, left out in the night when no one else is there to care for them. It's as if these spirits have been chewed from their warm homes and they've been thrown out into the winter night, doomed to a certain frozen death in just a short matter of time. It's as if we are witnessing the end of it all and the breathing is becoming thinner, we're not capable of cracking our eyes open much more and we're just seeing what's gonna happen next. It couldn't be much worse. Kensrue sings, "All things hang as if by string. If there's one thing I know in this life, we are beggars all," but all the begging in the world isn't going to fix a thing at this point. The seas are stormy forever from now on.
Thrice Official Site
Vagrant Records
