steelopus:

Presidents of the United States of America - Stranger

This song… oh god this song.  It’s so good.  Kitty, Lump, and Peaches got all the attention, but this is the best song on their eponymous debut.  That album is 38 minutes of three-string, dropped-D brilliance.

Here we have everything that I loved about that album, all rolled up into 3 succinct minutes.  It’s got gentle harmonic interplay between the bass and guitars, a singable and memorable melody, razor sharp vocal harmonies (the Open-4ths during the “ma ma ma ma” section are so great), punishing power chords in the chorus, and the kind of quirky, splash-cymbal infused drumming that glued the band’s entire sound together.

But what this song has, above all else, is absolutely perfect lyrics.  Any geeky guy can relate to the last verse; those “ma ma ma ma’s” aren’t there because he couldn’t come up with any words, they are there because that’s precisely what many of us stutter out when we’re attempting to talk to an attractive stranger, and when we finally compose ourselves enough to spit out a few actual words, the best we can do is ask what time it is, when what we really intended to say was “You’re absolutely beautiful, let’s get together sometime.”

You Lynyrd Skynyrd hat
and me little kitty
Sat across with a velvet jacket
wild orange hair and dark dark eyes
I gawked like a 12 year old smitten
Carla the stripper straight from LA
“you seem cool for a naked chick in a booth
Let’s be pals someday
(in other words) put some clothes on and call me”

I saw you it was incredible

Slim relaxed buyin’ wine at the QFC
on a snowy Saturday night
Black pearls and I swear you were drinking beer
you were the redhead behind the counter there
I’m the one who fell out of his chair there
you had your dry cleaning and I think you’re dreamy

I saw you it was incredible
mumbled these words at you
unintelligible
ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma
ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma
ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma
ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma
ma ma ma ma ma ma hey you there what time is it