Interpretations:Mr. Xcitement
- Song
- Lyrics
- Interpretations
- Credits
- Guitar Tab
- Bass Tab
- Chronology
Can I say I'm really disappointed this song is rated among the least popular songs! This is actually an amazing song, a great collaboration with the Elegant Too. Very High energy, I just think that people cant handle that they might be giants can do something other tthan accordion and guitar, they dont have to be constricted to one genre!
I'm not saying you should all become rap fans, but widen your views just a tiny tiny bit so they Mr. Xcitement can squeeze in there. -Lachlan
I'd say this song's about someone who's so excited about something, they can't even speak. All they can do is ramble nonsense words sometimes sorta related to how great the thing is (the beat is blubba... protrude into the hoobalicious... "extra spooky") and shout "Mr. Xcitement!". It's not a hip-hop "parody" or "ridicule" at all; you've got to know that was never TMBG's style, they always use musical styles in order to contribute to them and respect them, not to make fun of them. Mink Car is TMBG's forward-looking and, yes, experimental album, their most underrated in my opinion, and this is one of the best songs on it. I'd say it shows that TMBG's musical spirit can come through no matter what musical style They choose to use. It seems to me people dislike this song so much because they don't believe hip-hop is a legitimate musical style. We're TMBG fans... how can we not be more open than this? - The Silver Chauffeur
Laughably bad. The sound of middle aged men getting down with the kids and "experimenting". Rather than being left to rot as a forgotten B-side on Boss of Me, Flans pushed for it to be on Mink Car. The overall effect is a toothless toddler version of the Beastie Boys. One wishes Linnell had just told Flans to forget it. (Mr Tuck)
I keep thinking that this song basically ridicules the way words are created, misused, and generally messed with in hip-hop and rap. I shudder. Aurora Hawthorne
- Nice way of interpreting it. Mike Doughty was known for stream-of-consciousness lyrics and the occasional nonsense word while he was a member of Soul Coughing, but even then his stuff usually made more sense - or was at least more poetic and evocative - than most of the (c)rap one hears on the radio. This, then, would be the first time I've heard him using his own style of writing to parody somebody else. - Jakesbrain
The lyrics are much more in Mike Doughty's style than TMBG. Doughty really often just plays with the way phrases sound, or with phrases that get stuck in his head when he's high. He also likes borrowing the vocal stylings of hiphop. This was the first song on Mink Car that really caught me, because it's very Doughty but also very TMBG. "Mr. Xcitement" sounds like a swinging spy from the 60s, which is kind of supported with the musical style, too. I don't really think there's much meaning here, though. - Ted
My opinion? Think your fifty-something year old father's horrible attempt a rap music...wait, did I just call rap music??
Possibly, it's about how little meaning there is in what people say these days, and it is expressed in way that I believe could only otherwise be achieved by Yoko Ono successfully. 0dd1 04:17, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
If TMBG wanted to parody hip-hop, there would have been at least a minimal attempt to sound something like a rapper from the last 25 years or so. That's not at all what went on with this song.
It sounds very much like a Soul Coughing song. It fits right along "Casiotone Nation" or "Bus to Beelzebub." It's not supposed to make a lot of sense, it's just wordplay, it's fun and silly and all those other things I love about both TMBG and Soul Coughing.
I thought this is where you post your interpretation of a song, not review it like a comments section...
Not really an interpretation[edit]
...but the kind of creepy music at the very end of the song is how I envisioned the way the music the Weird Sisters played sounded at the Yule Ball in the book version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.--Pittsburghmuggle (talk) 22:02, 26 April 2015 (EDT)
Mr. Xcitement is an alien?[edit]
My guess as to the song's meaning is that Mr. Xcitement is an alien, and is trying to rap. The nonsense lyrics and creepy/spacey music at the end are what lead me to believe this. I know it's kind of a weird idea, but I think it makes sense, given the odd nature of the song. -Jake IV
Metaphor for holiday shopping and consumerism[edit]
Yes, I know, I am absolutely thinking too hard about a song full of nonsense words. I think about the lyrics constantly, if my username is any indication. I want to make an attempt to properly interpret it, since most of the other "interps" are just people talking about how awful they think the song is (come on, it's not that bad. a little clamdem never hurt anyone) So, after some thinking, I have come to the conclusion that Mr. Xcitement could be a metaphor for holiday shopping (Black Friday in particular) and consumerism, like the title says.
The second stanza of the song gives me a pretty strong mental image: A bunch of people ("The people in the pix") all scrambling to the beach ("Careen in tandem / The sea into the landem") to dig up clams and eat them ("They want to scarf and dig the clamdem"). This could be taken literally, but this also sounds like the stories we hear of the Black Friday shopping craze. The people, typically adults, perhaps parents, are the "people in the pix". Many of them hop in their cars to head to the same place, like a mall or department store. There is a certain energy, "xcitement" if you will, that surrounds this time of year, these people are eager to get their hands on discounted televisions and the hot new video game consoles before anyone else, but unfortunately everyone else had the same idea. They "careen in tandem" to the stores (they flock to the stores just as quickly as they flock to the beach, so both of them can be "the sea into the landem") to shovel products in their carts like there's no tomorrow, to "scarf and dig the clamdem".
Now we can look at the first stanza with this context. "Rock on, my hubba / The beat is blubba" could be these eager shoppers preparing for the tough battle that awaits them in the mall, like some kind of suburban soldiers. "Being stingy on the pike / Collect the one into the otha" is yet again talking about getting the products into their carts. The use of references to aquatic creatures (pike and "clamdem") supports this.
So, we've all heard the stories of fights breaking out during these shopping frenzies, the older users on this site may have experienced it for themselves. "We nix the glaben / The knifey-knife is staben" definitely sounds like an escalated conflict taking place in a crowded store. "Nix" in this lyric sounds like "nick", so perhaps someone stole whatever a "glaben" could be from another shopper's cart and they got into a fight, leading to the first shopper getting "staben". It's ridiculous, but not unrealistic. "Protrude into the hoobalicious" could refer to the knife and the shopper, or perhaps the fact that these people are resorting to ridiculous measures over toys and kitchen gadgets. "Scoff the extra aden" could refer to that as well, putting aside common sense in favor of hot discounts.
"I write the mooky / My verse is extra spooky" I will admit, I can't really figure out how this line would fit into my interp. These verses sure were "extra spooky" to the users that decided to treat this interps page like a review section, I can say that for sure. I don't really know what it means to be "trooky-trooky-trooky" either. But while talking about this interp with someone, we were able to decode "Flansy in a soda can". Soda is heavily associated with brands; the question is always "Coke or Pepsi" after all. Flansy is, obviously, a person. The person is trapped within the product, which could represent how consumerism can consume (ha) a person. (I am not trying to imply anything about Flans, he simply represents the everyday person.)
The people are so blinded by consumerism and discounts that they disregard all common sense and go into a frenzy while shopping for the holidays. ...Or maybe it doesn't mean anything at all.
- (Careen in tandem), SeaIntoTheLandem (talk) 18:44, 21 October 2024 (EDT)
