Between Rupture and Rapture is a song about how Geoff sees the world and about his friend who killed himself. His friend would always tell him that “Life is just a short hallway that your running through” and that sometimes he feels like he is getting lost in that hallway. Also, Geoff is scared that love wont fill a void he feels.
03. Division St.
“This song is about a street, Division St. and we use to spend alot of time there. It was a whole new world, and we saw alot of people change because of what that street opened up to them. Bad things, like drugs and alcohol. We eventually decided that we had to get away from the street, so we did, and we never want to go back.” — Geoff
When I listen to this song, I picture Geoff riding as a passenger in a car, and hearing the shallow, sex-filled songs on the radio. I see him screaming these lyrics at the radio, which is personified as “you” in the song. In this analogy I believe that the car is symbolic of America, and the radio, of course, symbolizes mass media. Here is some of my support for this point of view: “This is how it feels calling out, but no one even hears.” As has been noted by other users on this site, almost none (if any) of Thursday’s songs are about relationships with a boyfriend or girlfriend. In fact, most of Thursday’s music is very “deep”. Unfortunately, so many people just listen because the music sounds good. Or they only appreciate the lyrics for their complexity, and don’t take the time to look at all of the lyrics at once, and really figure out what they are trying to say and take it to heart. I believe this lyric refers to the fact that no one really hears what Thursday is saying to us. “When you say my name…” In this lyric, I feel Geoff is ashamed of the fact that his songs are on the radio–that he is part of the mass media he hates. (Thus, the signals “we” send–not the signals “you” send.) He feels ashamed that the radio even mentions the name “Thursday”. “If you keep driving we’ll be lying in the rain. ” In the analogy of the car being America, Geoff is proposing that the radio is actually the driver of that car, and it’s going to make the car crash. Geoff goes on to use some amazing imagery in describing the aftermath of that collision. “There’s nowhere to hide.”, “That’s where we hide: the love and lies and sex on the radio.” The media is everywhere, constantly bombarding us with sex. We have no reasonable way of escaping it in our everyday lives. So ironically, we end up hiding in the very thing that we are trying to hide from. We put on our headphones and isolate ourselves–but what are we listening to on those headphones? Listen to this song and keep it’s message in mind whenever you turn on the radio or put on those headphones.
05. Marches And Menuvers
its about what the couple is going through when they decide to go through with it. i feel like the first half is about their argument about it and how it drives them mad (”were up in arms, with our heads pressed against the wall”). then the only line about the abortion itself is “administer…devides” then the rest of the song is about what they go through “to treat this [guilty] concience.” reflecting on the loss they lose sleep. the gunshot could be refering to the actual abortion in the sense that taking the pill was taking a life just like a gun does. the screams mistaken for laughter might be what other people might think. that they are happy to be rid of their burden, when they are really in agony over the loss of the child. “one part love, one part stepping out of the driving rain” to me means that they still love eachother but have to get out of “the driving rain” of their relationship, and thus must part ways and leave the cold apartment where the whole debacle could have started when she got pregnant and where the relationship finally ended. they dont want to look back so they can hopefully forget everything and hope that “after time all this will heal.”
Geoff said in an interview that this song is about people losing faith and basically just going to church because that’s what they’re supposed to do and kind of losing themselves and their own voice because they’re caught up in other’s beliefs.. (wake up in an outline and try to speak with the shattered voice of the lives we lead) .. it’s basically about the way conformed religion detiorates faith.
07. This Song Brought To You By A Falling Bomb
In this song, singer Geoff Rickly creates a sense of isolation from the world. We get this sense of isolation from the beginning, when we hear only a piano playing. In the first three lines, he notices small things that make him frustrated with the world. He finally breaks, and has had enough. He says “shut the window, love. Keep the world outside,” to show that he no longer wants to be associated with the outside world. Soon, he finds out that it is extremely difficult to shut yourself off from the world. He loses unity with himself when he begins to notice the world again, and hears that “the footsteps are getting louder.” He emphasizes their intensity by singing this line in a louder voice. This also shows that the footsteps have broken his concentration and that the outside world is pounding away at him - he can no longer even sing in the same manner. He cannot concentrate on anything to keep himself isolated anymore, such as the rain that “knocks on the windowsill.” Despite this, he still attempts to stay free and look inward - by not answering the phone. In the following lines, he breaks a second time. The world has kept pounding away at him. He is now to the point of self destruction, as he becomes a “falling bomb.” As he gets closer to the ground, closer to self destruction, the sky chases him. The closer that the sky, or the outside world, comes to him, the closer he is to self destruction. In the last lines, he examines himself. He shows us, and himself, that this is not his usual attitude. We knew that this was true from the beginning because the music played during this song is unusual. It is different from the music played in any other song the band has made. He has trouble referring to himself as “a falling bomb.” He hesitates, and repeats the line “This song has been brought to you.” Even when he does admit this attitude and his feelings to himself, he is still unsure. He whispers almost inaudibly when he says “by a falling bomb” and repeats it in disbelief of the reclusive person he has become.
This song is when he got in a fist fight with one of his friends.. then he went on vacation before they made up.. while he was on vacation his friend and another kid were playing with a gun and it went off and killed the kid he got in the fist fight with. They used to play in the kid’s attic and geoff said that for years he would have dreams of him running downstairs(steps ascending) from the attic and trying to save his friend.
09. War All The Time
The poster that said that Thursday doesn’t try to teach you something you already know, but just have you realize is right on key to what I gather from this. That people think we all live in peace. That the war is off the shores in places such as Iraq or other third world countries. LIttle do we know that this whole world is gripped in a war. It’s more then neighbor killing neighbor with his/her hands. There are psychic battles going on where people steal energy from one another. Every day, people choose to not go on because of the sufferring. There is a system built all around us and if you decide to ever not follow it, it stings you like needles in the form of creditors and telemarketers. You’re never alone, always someone wanting something from you. How can you not see the war, is what Thursday speaks. When teenagers are committing suicide every day. When it is accepted today for everything to leech on to you and steal your life, no matter the bits and pieces. We all pay taxes. That is fine. I don’t have any squabbles with that. But my bank nickels and dimes me everytime I overdraft. Everytime I don’t use my bank card enough times in a month. Every time I withdraw money from an atm. That’s just one example. And people are pushing you. Pushing you to live their life. To serve their purpose. And if you were to ever cleverly decide to go somewhere, to live out your dreams, whether jealousy or not, someone’s always knocking on your door trying to stop you. War all the time. It’s in the States. It’s in other countries. It’s all around. It’s in the physical world. It’s in the psychic world. It’s especially in the spiritual.
We take no credit for this interpretation, we found it on a website.
On October 7, 1998, Matthew Shepard was murdered by two men. He was tied to a fence post, then was continuously beaten, tortured, and left to die in the near-freezing temperatures. Eighteen hours later, a man rode by on his bicycle. He first mistook Matthew for a scarecrow, but on further investigation discovered that it was in fact a human being. Matthew’s face was covered in blood, except for where his tears had washed it away. He was murdered because he was gay. Geoff Rickly is outraged, frightened, and disgusted by the murder of Matthew Shepard. He is so moved by this death that he cannot even disguise his feelings. This death, to him, shows the dehumanization by society that is becoming more and more popular, frequent, and life-threatening. He believes that eventually, no one will be unique or have identity - the world will be filled with robots. In this song, he gives a cry for unification and for revolution. The song starts off on the night Matthew was murdered. “The stage is set to rip the wings from the butterfly” refers to Matthew, a unique and delicate butterfly, tied to the fencepost, about to be ripped apart, both mentally and physically. This sets a serious tone for the rest of the song and causes everything that is said to relate to Matthew. Next, Rickly gives his thoughts on the subject. He feels that it will never be safe to express ourselves or to “take the stage” unless “the whole world dies,” or society learns how to accept and cope with differences. He says that these kinds of crime will continue, and graveyards will grow to enormous sizes, near that of a “landing strip.” He explains that when the whole world dies, “we won’t have to be afraid anymore. But this is not the case, not yet at least, and in the meantime, people are scared. There is a “gathering storm” of hatred, and when it nears, everyone must “grow silent.” The “curtain” separates those hated by members of society, like Matthew Shepard, from those faceless robots that are accepted by everyone else, loathed by no one. When this curtain falls, it becomes a game of survival. You must try to be caught on “the other side,” the inhumane side, and “keep up the act” in order to survive. However, Rickly feels that it is worthless to live as a dehumanized soul, and refuses to put on an act for anybody. Instead, he chooses the other side of the curtain, and feels that he will soon find himself “in the back of black cars,” of hearses, adding to the success of these fierce souls and joining their “procession of emptiness.” Rickly points out that in today’s society, many people are scared to voice their personal opinions. If they work up the courage to do this, they are immediately regretful and terrified. They hold their breath in anticipation, even though they know that eventually their planes “are going to crash” and they will become another martyred soul. To help stop this, Rickly cries out for a revolution. He suggests to the listeners that they “don’t have to be alone ever again.” He calls for them to unite against the faceless and start a riot in the theatre. He imagines a brawl between those who are unique and have opinions and the “murderers,” who are waiting to do to them exactly what they did to Matthew and carve the same “M” in their sides. Rickly yells out that even if it comes to standing alone against the dehumanized, you must fight. If not, the world will become dull, monotonous, and full of robots. Rickly then goes back to the night that Matthew was murdered. Once again, “the stage is set to rip the wings from the butterfly.” Then, there is a silence. Breathing. The helplessness of Matthew, the dullness of the world that will become of us, our inability to express ourselves, perhaps even Rickly’s perception of the sound of death. Next, there is no singing, but talking. Singing would make the death of Matthew too unique. But it is not unique, not in today’s world, because crimes like these have become almost as routine as talking. Rickly talks, describing Matthew’s death. The mention of a “curtain” brings the listener back to the image of the brawl. Matthew, as Rickly instructed, is standing alone, defenseless against these two murderers. With the mention of lotus flowers and silk, we are reminded of a Chinese culture, of Buddhism, of reincarnation. Rickly hopes and prays that Matthew is reincarnated. He hopes someone else will come along to swim upstream and fight the worsening society. In the last lines, Rickly worries about himself and takes a stand. Suddenly, he finds himself “under the spotlight.” He is the next target. He is “on display with the butterfly and the scarecrow,” two images of Matthew Shepard. He then yells at the murderers, viciously accusing them of their crime. He says to them, “With smiles like picket fences you tie us all up and leave us outside.” They then reply, speaking of Matthew, “That voice is silent now, the boat has sunk.” Rickly then screams his final line, a final plea for help, for unification, for the betterment of today’s society. He yells to anyone that is left from the brawl in the theatre, anyone willing to fight the murderers, anyone wanting to retain their opinions and their individuality. He tries to give these people confidence with his last line, while he also tries to make the murderers frightened. He yells, “We’re on our own, but we’re not going to run.”
11. Tommorow I’ll Be You
Singer Geoff Rickly is cured. He always has been, but it was only recently that he realized this. He writes the song in the present tense, but he is actually looking back at a point in his life when he could find no answers. He did not know why the bad aspects of his life were piling on top of each other, making it seem as though the “wheels” of Hell would never stop spinning at a speed so exhausting that he could barely keep up. He looks back to a point where he was near resignation, but did not resign because he knew that he could not “stop these intersections” at which his life was crashing. While near the point of resignation, Rickly has a cathartic experience. He realizes that it was not what happened in his life, or even the order in which they happened that is making him feel this way, but that he was looking at his life wrong. He realizes that he is cured, and always has been. To purify his life and his feelings, he learns to look at the good parts of his life, not the bad ones. He learns that in order to survive in this world, he must “cut the jet black,” or the bad parts of his life, from his “hair” of tangled memories. In order to survive in this world, he must “pull out the shards” from the lens of life, and deal with the problems that periodically get “caught in your throat,” even if it means choking on them from time to time. He realizes that the only reason periods of a life seem bad is because we have such good periods, such bright days, to compare them to. Finally, he realizes that he has been cured. He has always had bright periods as well as dark, but only needed to learn how to cope with the bad while focusing on the good. Rickly examines what other people, people from “another room,” may do when faced with the same problem that he has recently faced. Some may give up on life, but this solves nothing. Even when the “piano player” gives up and is hanging from “piano wire,” the “player piano”, a symbol for both a higher being and other peoples’ lives, carries on. Nothing changes in the majority of others’ lives when this happens, and the daily routine of life continues. The music played at this point illustrates both emptiness and the repetitive routine of life. Other people may pretend to be someone else. These are people that do not try to deal with their problems, but set them aside. Once they realize that no matter who they pretend to be they will have problems in life, they begin to go mad. They do not live life, but lie to themselves and say they are perpetually dreaming. New Year’s Day is used as a symbol of renewal. When Rickly cuts the “jet black” from his hair, he is renewing his way of thinking. He begins to think not of the bad, but of the good. The flame is his realization of the cure within. By realizing that he has always had the cure, he can renew himself. He does this “in the dawn of New Year’s Day,” and changes back to himself, rather than the negative person he was. The song is written in the present tense to show action. In order to change, Rickly needed to take charge of his life. To fix his feelings, he had to act upon it. By writing in the present tense, he recreates this action that he was required to use. This also makes the song more exciting, more suspenseful, and more interesting. To change his life and heal himself, Rickly needed to find the cure within. He found the cure by examining himself and teaching himself how to be inwardly happy. He taught himself to replace the “I” in “live” with an “O,” and to not just live his life, but to love his life.
