Album: Wig Out at Jagbags (2014)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • This song finds Malkmus singing of growing up "listening to the music of the best decade ever." He explained to Billboard magazine: "I was trying to write something that Taylor Swift would write, or maybe even more Katy Perry. I was thinking in wide ways. For me I'm a seventies guy, and sometimes when you're in your early adolescence or when the chicks are just a little older, and kind of out of your reach, they're the ones you sort of like at that young age. Seventies chicks and seventies rock."
  • Malkmus sings about the Grateful Dead in the song. He explained to Rolling Stone: "Back then, the Grateful Dead was a fratboy stand-in for alternative. If you were into the Dead, for a frat boy, that was like being into Faust or something. So the St. Elmo's rich guys at UVA would play it on the lawn and throw some Frisbees"

    "That song is just like a party at [Pavement percussionist] Bob Nastanovich's house where everyone is wigging out," he added. "It's about loving music, loving WTJU, loving the Butthole Surfers – bonding over that s--t. There's that pathetic rallying cry at the end, 'We grew up listening to the music of the best decade ever!' Which could be anyone's era of music."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Allen Toussaint - "Southern Nights"

Allen Toussaint - "Southern Nights"They're Playing My Song

A song he wrote and recorded from "sheer spiritual inspiration," Allen's didn't think "Southern Nights" had hit potential until Glen Campbell took it to #1 two years later.

Richard Marx

Richard MarxSongwriter Interviews

Richard explains how Joe Walsh kickstarted his career, and why he chose Hazard, Nebraska for a hit.

Commercials

CommercialsFact or Fiction

Was "Ring Of Fire" really used to sell hemorrhoid cream?

John Doe of X

John Doe of XSongwriter Interviews

With his X-wife Exene, John fronts the band X and writes their songs.

Yoko Ono

Yoko OnoSongwriter Interviews

At 80 years old, Yoko has 10 #1 Dance hits. She discusses some of her songs and explains what inspired John Lennon's return to music in 1980.

Loreena McKennitt

Loreena McKennittSongwriter Interviews

The Celtic music maker Loreena McKennitt on finding musical inspiration, the "New Age" label, and working on the movie Tinker Bell.