10 Of The Best Lyrics Of The Rise Of Hobo Johnson
"Hey, my name's Frank. Hobo Johnson, I hope you like this song."
In March of last year, a video for a little song entitled "Peach Scone" went viral. It showcased five amazingly talented boys in their backyard sending in a tape for the NPR Tiny Desk Concert. Hobo Johnson and the Lovemakers are a couple of kids from Sacramento who like to make a little love, make a little music. Johnson's slam poetry vibe is one that isn't common to most in music, so once Peach Scone started getting passed around, the world was tuned in. Hobo and The Boiz released their first album in late 2017 entitled "The Rise of Hobo Johnson." I decided to pick my favorite lyrics from each song and give you a little taste of one of my favorite artist.
1. "Sex in the City:" "I’m not sayin it’s real smooth sailing, but guys being nice doesn’t hurt. I’m not saying they’re perfect, I’m saying they're different and the differences is they love to wear skirts.”
This album starts with a banger. This may be my favorite Hobo Johnson song (watch me say that about all the others too). From the get-go, Frank is calling our judgmental society the f*ck out. The way he doesn't defend them by objectifying anyone any farther, he goes with personality traits instead.
2. "DeMarcus Cousins & Ashley:" "I love breathing, pizza, Santa Claus and Jesus. And other things that feel real nice to believe in."
When you're struggling, you'll settle for anything to believe in. Whenever I get stressed or overwhelmed, or sad, I find myself touching things or counting ceiling tiles because those can't change, this specific line reminded me of my specific behavior. Often when we're stressed and lost, all we need is something to believe in to make the days go a little easier.
3. "Dear Labels:" "EBT couldn’t help the fact that I’m starving for that MTV."
Frank, my love, MTV will never be worthy of your love or talent, first off. Second of all, I feel this one in my soul. Half the reason I love Hobo Johnson so much is because of his desire to live his dreams, and when he gets farther than he ever imagined, he just wants to go farther.
4. "Mario and Link:" "I asked 'do you for coffee and scones' and she says 'No!', but I just killed a fucking dragon though! with this sword that I made from the words of my soul"
I love it when songs play off of one another, and while Peach Scone isn't on the album, we all get the parallel. I also think it's calling her out (Frank loves call outs, Y'all) for not noticing all the things he goes out of his way to do for her. I think we've all been here.
5. "Father:" "Sometimes your courage makes you feel strong, but it seems as if the monster eats your muscles all along fucking pickin' out your self-respect right out its scary teeth"
In context of the song, this is about the woman his father is seeing. Thinking of it a personal context, for me, it's the girl my first love cheated on me with. I think we all have someone that we see as this monster and want to blame for the things that the primary connection in our life is putting through. And yeah, while this monster person sucks, we should probably come to terms with the real problem.
6. "Romeo and Juliet:" "But dad loves to shout, really loud. Loud enough to knock the lamps and dressers to the ground. In my memory, I can hear Chopin’s nocturnes playing in the background, a slow train wreck. You’ll close your eyes, but forever hear the sound, and boy, it’s tough. Cus that’s the sound of people falling out of love."
This makes me feel seven. I feel like I'm so small. My parents are fighting and I can't make them stop. I know what's going on, maybe it's because I'm just a kid, maybe it's because for some reason I think it's my fault. I can almost see it in my head. I can feel the blue carpet under my toes. Good songs paint good pictures, better songs make you feel things & that's exactly what Frank does.
7. "Creve Coeur 1:" "Sometimes you drive a car and lose control, and it pulls. Hold me closely, I don’t think you should love me. Always feel so lonely, knowing nothing last forever, last forever. Sorry Frank, you’re much too late."
THIS SONG S L A P S as is, but this part makes the world stop spinning, brings a ringing sensation deep in my ears and I have to remember my feet are on the ground. I relate to both sides of this song so much. I've been so hurt and stepped on I sometimes think it's much too late for anyone to love me, but then again I'm always the one reaching and praying for someone to love me in the way I love them.
8. "3%:" "But, but, but, they said it's a three-percent chance that I'm gonna make it. That's a little bit less than what it is in my mind, but it's ok, I think I can take it They said it's a three-percent chance, my friends, that's what they said."
I was told I'd never make it. I was told that I would MAYBE graduate high school, girls like me didn't make it to college. We get pregnant, we drop out. We let boys who drink PBRs constantly and swing on us every now again break our hearts. But I graduated top of my class, I went to my dream school and I am 75% of the way done with my degree. And they said I had a three percent chance.
9. "Jesus Christ:" "And Jesus Christ seems super nice. I wonder if he'd love me. How come I only wonder when I'm sad or really hungry? Jesus Christ, you're super nice, but don't expect much from me"
I struggled with my faith for a long time, and I think we all do every now and again. I think we all get scared that we're not worthy of God's love. Or we find ourselves only actually asking for love and forgiveness when we've fallen so far, it just seems like a distant wish now.
10. "The Ending:" "Now look at me. How's it going? My name's Frank. Wassuuup? Today, we're looking into what really fucking matters: Gucci bags, money bands, trap beats and sarcasm"
I love Frank so much because as much as he says he wants to be normal and rock MTV and have thousands of people screaming his name, he knows who he is. He knows what matters and at the end of the day, he's a boy who writes poems and likes making music with his friends. I think this really captivates the whole vibe of the album and Hobo Johnson as a whole.
After seeing Frank in the flesh this past November, I just love him that much more. His passion is contagious, his deep-rooted love and emotion in his soul are unparalleled to any other. This is truly just the Rise of Hobo Johnson.
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How Netflix's "Velvet Buzzsaw" Exposes The Greedy Nature Of Elitism Through Satirical Horror
Dubbing the efforts of the proletariat as unoriginal merely exhibits elites' attitudes towards the poor, using them as an aesthetic at appropriate times
I expected Velvet Buzzsaw to be just another a temporary reprieve to my neverending need for kitsch horror, so it was a rare occurrence for one "throwaway film" to stand out to me as much as Velvet Buzzsaw did. The film is unique, in a sense. It has that odd quality of satirical horror that places itself under the same label as "It Follows" or "Get Out". Sure, the film has its scares and twists. But it also contains underlying commentary about how twisted our society is.
Rather than coming out and saying "Greed is bad, elitism is poison," filmmakers of the satirical horror genre take it upon themselves to personify messages into ominous beings, a tactic that serves to make the message more interesting for viewers.
This trait, the puzzle-pieced, Frankenstein-ian combination of satire and horror exhibited by Velvet Buzzsaw was what intrigued me enough to keep watching.
Coming from a suburb like Johns Creek, I have always been disconnected from the lives of L.A's elite, particularly the art collector sort. I wonder if they are as elitist and condescending as pieces like Velvet Buzzsaw portray them to be. While this is a stereotype, the creators of Velvet Buzzsaw did not hesitate to expand upon it with the introduction of characters such as art critic Morf Vandewalt.
I would not call Morf my favorite character, but his wavering depth surprised me in the slightest of ways. He enters art exhibitions with the fluidity of someone with extreme amounts of confidence, yet reflects the smugness of somebody with a Fastpass card at Disneyworld. His literal first class status in the art world, as somebody who can make or destroy careers, has obviously gone to his head, yet he retains a somewhat critical judgement of art.
But we begin to see this purity of his become tainted within the first half hour. Already, he demolishes his current love interest's ex boyfriend's art showing, writing a scathing review only to please Josephine, somebody he eerily admires through the lens of his profession.
"Your skin...it's the beautiful cross between almond and saddle brown."
It's not hard to relate to this aspect of Morf. Really, it's not hard to relate to most of the characters. The desperation to climb to the top exhibited by Josephine, the selfish desires of Morf and the retreat into solitude for the purity of work seen by Piers, an artist discontent with the airheaded nature of the elitist art world, are all traits viewers can see within themselves.
Velvet Buzzsaw attacks that struggle of remaining authentic while being a contender in a viciously competitive world. It's the bare story of struggle that society is not willing to reward, a concept most strongly shown through Morf's disregard for "HoboMan".
My favorite exhibit within the movie, Hoboman is a compilation of parts that form a metal man on crutches. He staggers around in tattered USA-themed clothing reciting sayings like "Have you ever felt invisible?" and "Once, I built a railroad". While this exhibit captured my heart with the motions of a broken machine, Morf's displeasure at the repeat of poverty as theme places it under the label of boring, useless, and old as he labels "no originality and no courage".
Morf is the character that we're forced to look at, and really one of the only characters who realizes the corruption of the art world early on. It takes something personal for him to recognize this, though. Even as he connects the dots between the deaths, Morf finds himself too far gone to rectify the situation.
I don't want to make this a synopsis. Rather, I'd like to carry on the theme of the film. You can watch it yourself if you'd like to see the deaths of the air headed elites of L.A's art critics. But the movie isn't about them, or at least not entirely.
It's about the disregard we have for disadvantaged populations who create work for themselves. It's within Dease's life story that inspired such honesty within his work that we see the struggle that the average working men go through, the struggle that elites refuse to reward. Dease created his work in the arena of his own mind, in the solitude of his own cave, baring his traumatic childhood and impoverished nature of most of his life. It's after his death that people found value in his work, and sought to profit over it.
In real life, we can't reach beyond the grave to claim justice. But what we can do is take lessons like these and apply them. Let's not disregard the plight of the working class.