Building Nothing Out Of Something Tabs:
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Intro:
E|------------------------------------------------||
B|------------------------------------------------||
G|-6----------------------6-----------------------||
D|---7-6---6---4/5/4--------7-6---6---4/5/4/5/4---||
A|-------7---7------------------7---7-------------||
E|------------------------------------------------||
Repeat that a bunch through lyrics.
this is the part of me that needs medication
this is the part of me that believes in heaven
....thinks outer space is all dead
....wishes it was with it
....'s trying to be funny
....loves my parents
...thinks that ants are cavemen
....thinks all humans are ants
....learns from sitcoms
.....means nothing
Chorus:
D G
E|------------------||
B|------------------||
G|-7---12-----------||
D|-7---12-----------||
A|-5---10-----------||
E|------------------||
Listen to chorus for number of strums.
and I do-o-o-on't know
where I could go away and you could wish that I had stayed or just
stayed gone
and I don't know
and I don't know at all
so, out of the context and into what you meant
and U know your reasons
you don't know who you are but you know who you wanna be
I-I-I doooon't know
so you go to the library to get yourself a book and you look and you look
but you didn't find anything to read
and I do-on't know at all
Then back to
E|------------------------------------------------||
B|------------------------------------------------||
G|-6----------------------6-----------------------||
D|---7-6---6---4/5/4--------7-6---6---4/5/4/5/4---||
A|-------7---7------------------7---7-------------||
E|------------------------------------------------||
left all my kinderparts rusting and peeling
that god was complaining as he looked at the ceiling
my nose isn't that big it looks nothing like me
we're all doctors trading sadness for numbness
grass looks much greener but it's green-painted cement
mayors (?) and machines now they're cleaning the pavement
you can't make dirt clean so we'll just lemon-scent it
Yay!
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Tab Discussion, Comments, and Critiques
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cody Average |
#1 by cody champion at May 20, 1970 at 5:29 PM EST |
| I made an edited version of just the upbeat part of the song. It kicks so much butt. | |
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kyle Rhythm Player |
#2 by kyle perry at Aug 5, 1970 at 3:14 PM EST |
| this song shows his oppnion on dpression medication. basically sayin is it better to be on it or off. "trading numbness for sadness" it shows when the music gets all peppy he dosn't make sense and he can't find his "book " and he dosn't care and things are just going... then when he drops off to the slower part he has a negative view but is it better to have a full range of emotions? thats what i got from this song | |
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cody Average |
#3 by cody champion at Apr 21, 1973 at 11:23 PM EST |
| One of the best songs I've ever heard. The one I can relate to the most. | |
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Mauro Wanna Be |
#4 by Mauro Leon at Sep 30, 1975 at 3:21 PM EST |
| this song reminds me of the band bedhead. especially the beginning it sounds almost identical. the way it starts really slow and then gets bigger and slow again. | |
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David Rhythm Player |
#5 by David Bradley at Dec 25, 1976 at 11:03 AM EST |
| haha taht organ sounds like it would be playing at an insane asylum...brilliance | |
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metal-cat Average |
#6 by metal-cat stepheria at Feb 26, 1978 at 4:44 PM EST |
| badtemper nailed it, the medication doesn't make things better it just makes things appear better. | |
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David Average |
#7 by David Turner at Jun 17, 1980 at 12:47 AM EST |
| For the most part, I agree with what jadetear82 and others have said, but i think the middle is less about being hopeful and more about the way medication numbs everything and throws everything into the unknown--Brock says "don't know" 5 times in the upbeat part. I think the line "we're all doctors trading sadness for numbness" captures the meaning of the song perfectly; sometimes people would rather not feel anything than feel the pain of life, but it's not worth it because numbness obscures everything. Reminds me a lot of the movie Garden Sate. This seems like a common theme in Modest Mouse's songs: "Well I don't feel and I feel great." --Trucker's Atlas "If life's not beautiful without the pain, Well I'd just rather never ever even see beauty again." --The View And the line "grass looks much greener but it's green-painted cement" I think is referring to how the whole "Grass is always greener on the other side" thing is pure bullshit, which is another common theme in MM's songs. | |
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jordan Wanna Be |
#8 by jordan at Aug 13, 1981 at 7:01 PM EST |
| First part is so depressing... Then... Yay! Everything happy. Then depressed again. But still an awesome song. I think it's mostly bashing American culture... Very Religious for a Western Country. Thinks medicine can solve everything... Introverted... etc. On "Building Nothing Out of Something" it goes really well before "Workin' On Leavin' The Livin'" "In Heaven, everything is fine." | |
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Zach Average |
#9 by Zach at Oct 15, 1981 at 11:05 PM EST |
| I love this song...it's already been said, how medication just makes things seem better when they're really not (can't make dirt clean so we'll just lemon scent it) I adore this song. Definitely one of my favorite Modest Mouse songs. | |
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Dan Average |
#10 by Dan Christopher at Jan 26, 1982 at 3:33 AM EST |
| i think along iwth what everyone has said, the medication may be used to cure the depression of the singer being left by someone close to him...possibly a girlfriend. "where I could go away and you could wish that I had stayed or just" and "so, out of the context and into what you meant and you know your reasons you don't know who you are but you know who you wanna be" | |
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phoen Average |
#11 by phoen bay at Feb 13, 1983 at 7:44 AM EST |
| God, I just love this song... I love how it goes from slow with the cars honking to this fast up beat song, it's the best ever ahhh, I think he's talking about like everyone has this "typical american" side.. that watches sitcoms, loves their parents, etc, also that everyone has different sides to them and just i think commenting on how everything is the way it is... end of story haha | |
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Cory Wanna Be |
#12 by Cory at Oct 12, 1983 at 12:06 AM EST |
| woah, jadetear, i never noticed that before, ilove this song even more now | |
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Max Average |
#13 by Max Benton at Jan 9, 1986 at 2:23 PM EST |
| i think the way this song works is totally awesome. its called medication right? at first it starts off really slow. then it picks up to a euphoric sound, and his, then slows down again. almost like how actual medication works. he has complicating thoughts, takes medicine and becomes happy and oblivious, comes down from the medication and has the complicating thoughts again......just an opinion | |
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adg Average |
#14 by adg ??? at Apr 29, 1987 at 10:07 PM EST |
| Holy crap, i just realized something. Maybe the line "...trading in sadness for numbness" means being numb to the life's details. I mean, at the beginning and end, you hear birds chirping and horns honking, but in the middle you can't hear any of that--maybe that's referring to how medication sends you off into your own little world. I'm not sure whether that makes sence or not, but this song has slowly grown to be one of my favorite MM songs ever | |
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hey u by the th Average |
#15 by hey u by the that thing. SHUTUP!! at Sep 11, 1987 at 12:13 PM EST |
| ok. I think this mean that you can't wait for things to get good, you have to make them good. | |
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Turd Fergeson Lead Player |
#16 by Turd Fergeson Fergeson at Nov 9, 1987 at 11:01 PM EST |
| "we're all doctors trading sadness for numbness grass looks much greener but it's green-painted cement the mayor's machines are there cleaning the pavement you can't make dirt clean so we'll just lemon-scent it" I think he may be talking about one of two things. He could be talking about taking psych meds. The first part, "this is the part of me that needs medication this is the part of me that believes in heaven ....thinks outer space is all dead ....wishes it was with it ....'s trying to be funny ....loves my parents ...thinks that ants are cavemen ....thinks all humans are ants ....learns from sitcoms .....means nothing just sounds to me like something a person with bipolar or even just depression would say. Because some people see it like this: you have this disorder or this disease of the mind or whatever it is...and you could just take medication for it and then life wouldn't be so painful. But if you take the medication, you may miss the part of yourself that you're numbing, because it does have it's upsides...it's like a lens that lets you see the world a certain way, but with it comes a lot of pain. You can keep the lens or you can take medicine to take it away and see the world through the eyes of someone who isn't "disordered". Also kinda sounds like he could be talking about people "selling out", climbing the corporate ladder or whatever so we can buy all this material shit to numb us. But it doesn't fix anything, just lemon-scents it. there are so many other possible meanings to this song. That's the thing about his lyrics, anyone could relate to a Modest Mouse song, but we relate to it in different ways. | |
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cody Rhythm Player |
#17 by cody watts at May 7, 1993 at 12:06 PM EST |
| this song is almost overwhelming with emotion, what makes it so incredible is the simplicity of it | |
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I BAKE YOU MUFF Average |
#18 by I BAKE YOU MUFFIN at Oct 25, 1993 at 2:44 AM EST |
| Well personally I think this song is about a drug, not so much med's. The name is medication, and he feels that a drug is his medication for connection to his inner self. At the beganning he is all slow and somewhat boring (compared to the rest of the song), when he is saying "This is the part of me..", kind of like the real world. Then the weird backwards music kicks in, then the drums along with many, many, many instroments kick in, as if he had just taken that drug and his mind is now inhanced. Then the song fades back out to the slower part as if the drug had rubbed off, and now he is back in reality. The kind of drug, truely hard to say. Back in the days of Building Nothing Out Of Somthing Isaac was doing multiple drugs. But he would only use alchohol, weed, and pills while creating his songs. So it would probibly be weed. So basically, hes in reality in the first part, smokes weed or what ever else, enters the mid part, then fades off the the drug at the last part. Its even possable its other way around where hes high at first, it rubes off, then hes telling how it is, then he's high again and making weird obversations about his surroundings. Both ways sound logical. | |
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Kevin Average |
#19 by Kevin Fournier at Oct 20, 1994 at 7:22 AM EST |
| i think jadetear is right. and at the end where it says "grass looks much greener but it's green-painted cement " it seems to me that he is saying that things are looking up and looking better "grasslooks much greener" , but they arent really and are still the same problems as before , "but it's green-painted cement "and he uses medication to forget about his problems "you can't make dirt clean so we'll just lemon-scent it" this is one of my favorite modest mouse songs, at least the top 5 | |
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JUSTIN Lead Player |
#20 by JUSTIN LOCKHART at May 21, 1996 at 1:22 PM EST |
| I do not think this song is about the "typical american" like CowboyDan said up there. I think this song shows the two sides to a depressed person on happy pills, like Jadetear said. I know that this song describes my emotions through the day. The slow parts of the song are exactly how I feel when my medication has not kicked in yet, or a certain thought keeps playing over and over in my head, keeping me down. The few lines that really stick out to me during the low parts are: "This is the part of me that needs medication" - The depression is winning until the meds kick in "This is the part of me that believes in heaven" - I do not really believe in heaven, but I do wish for something better than the way I feel when the depression hits. Something like the idea of heaven promises to deliver. "This is the part of me that thinks outerspace is all dead. This is the part of me that wishes I was with it" - I do wish this life would end. "This is the part of me that .loves my parents" - When my depression hit its all-time low earlier this summer, my parents were there for me. It really made me realize how lucky I am to have them, how no one else would have been able to help me like they did. It made me realize that I really do love my parents. "This is the part of me that learns from sitcoms" - Earlier this summer, when all I could do was lay on the couch and watch tv, I did learn from sitcoms. Their lives all seem so happy - depression just is not funny, I guess. And then the fast parts are when I feel hopeful, that maybe I can beat this depression. I can find books to escape in. I can handle living. Everything is upbeat. Not necessarily happy, but numb like he says. At least the sadness is temporarily gone. But you know it will come back. It always does. | |
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Maarten Average |
#21 by Maarten Wuyts at Jan 3, 2000 at 1:41 AM EST |
| This song is completely amazing, I have such a connection with it. But I agree with what jadetear82 said about the tempo of it, very true... amazing. | |
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Matt Lead Player |
#22 by Matt Cromwell at Mar 29, 2000 at 2:47 AM EST |
| best MM song.. | |
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niles Wanna Be |
#23 by niles lewis at May 1, 2003 at 10:17 AM EST |
| I dont think he is saying you have to make things good hes saying things will never be good but we still just keep going. "you cant make dirt clean, So we'll just lemon scent it" It's not getting better we just pretend it is | |
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The Angel of De Lead Player |
#24 by The Angel of Death at May 18, 2006 at 3:09 PM EST |
| where I could go away and you could wish that I had stayed or just stayed gone Favorite line | |
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Zack Wanna Be |
#25 by Zack Volm at Jul 6, 2007 at 8:48 AM EST |
| addictive. | |
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