Slanted and Enchanted
Summer Babe
Like it or not boys and girls this is a song about masturbation.
"...your girlfriend / she's eating her fingers like they're just another meal," - SM sees girls engaging in behaviour that he considers either decadent, outlandish or otherwise alien. To the perpetrator however this behaviour is "natural" (indicative of a nature kid).
"She waits there, in the levee wash / mixing cocktails with a plastic tipped cigar." - She's a cliche but desirable nonetheless.
"those shiny robes you wear on the protein delta strip / in an abandoned houseboat. / I will wait there / I'll be waitin' forever." - This is the part about masturbation. He's wanking over some chick in a shiny robe and the fantasy involves an abandoned houseboat. He's waiting there because he feels like he's never going to actually score.
"You took it all." - Like the Sentridoh song in which Lou sings "Something in your eyes, I misunderstood. Something that was bad, I took for good." SM has had his fanciful wishes dashed and it's all her fault.
Trigger Cut
Does it ever feel like you're just going through the motions, incapable of the dry emotion of a nature kid? When life is like a sandwich without any meat (or a kiss when all you can think is "I wonder if she's enjoying this?") I think of this song and its fragile confession of numbness.
"I've got a message for you / I keep it in my hand." - This is like, I'm thinking about what I'm gonna say next rather than letting myself go and hoping the conversation develops in an acceptable manner. The important part, the spark if you will, is unfortunately absent which leads us into
Ex-magician, still knows the tricks / Tricks are everything to me / Until it's free / I've got a trigger cut and I can't pull it back / But if I learn how I'll be coming back today." - SM is distressed that his interactions with others are so arbitrary and meaningless. This doesn't seem to bother most people but that's because most people are dumb cunts who give little or no thought to the permutations of their void-like lives.
― jarv, Tuesday, 20 August 2002 13:21 (twenty-three years ago)
Interesting. I dug out "Slanted..." when I read this. I think Perfum-V is about a one-night stand with someone Malkmus has little affection for, following a painful split with someone he likes a lot.
"Fun for an hour / When the hour's gone / can one-trick nights feed 40 days?"
Its pleasurable when it happens, but he feels empty:
"She got the radioactive / and it makes me feel ok / I don't feel ok"
Following the departure of the girl, he trashes his house, so it appears that his ex has done it to exact revenge. He'd rather think she feels anger for him than nothing.
"...Smash the set and slash the beds / And when it looks like a wife's ex plot / We'll cover all the rugs with cheap perfume."
Great song, great album. Perfum-V is a rare glimpse into his soul, mostly his lyrics are nonsensical (but often hilarious) word-play.
― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Tuesday, 20 August 2002 20:52 (twenty-three years ago)