It all started with "The Fratellis," Stolen Babies' original 12+ member group. Horns blared, oversized dolls jumped out of toy boxes, squabbles were had, babies were stolen, turned into flies and fed to giant spiders. Eventually, the blundering theatrics came to an end, but the four stuck together.
More misadventure, more junk food...
Taking their name from a song/skit from the early days, Stolen Babies have been described as playing prog-pop-cabaret-thrash-quirky-goth-rock. Mostly though, they would just like to think that their songs are fun to dance and fall down to.
It's nearly impossible to talk about Stolen Babies without mentioning their ongoing collaboration with graphic novelist extraordinaire Crab Scrambly. His artwork has graced their early releases, website and merch. More notably you can see Crab's original paintings that provide the otherworldly landscapes to Stolen Babies video "Push Button," and of course the artwork for the bands debut full length album "There Be Squabbles Ahead," which was recorded and produced by Dan Rathburn of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. Which now brings Stolen Babies to...the beginning of The End.
STOLEN BABIES are:
Dominique Persi - lead vocals, face paint keeping, accordion sprinkling
Rani Sharone - electric and upright bass swapping, mental guitar playing, programming, sampling, vocals
Ben Rico - multiple keyboard reaching, beating, vocals
Gil Sharone (The Dillinger Escape Plan) - aggressive drumming
Oakland, California, USA in 2002
Spill!
Stolen Babies Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Do NOT spill the water when you're drinking it
Through your mouth
What happened here, nobody can say but it hasn't been the same
Our lips are pressed to the ground
Running with a cup
Thrown off!
All of a sudden under us
The drains in the street
Bubbling up....
Do not!
Do NOT spill the water when you're drinking it
Through your mouth
We're so desperate now
Look at us sucking up mud and blood
With our lips pressed to the ground
When they came to us no one thought
Such genius could have gone wrong
Never questioning until we saw
The drains in the street bubbling up...
Do not!
Do NOT spill the water when you're drinking it
Through your mouth
What happened here, nobody can say but it hasn't been the same
Our lips are pressed to the ground
Whose idea was this?
All the kids have random stains on their skin
If they scratch at all, their fingers dig into their flesh
Whose idea was this?
Do not...
The lyrics to Stolen Babies' song "Spill!" are both haunting and enigmatic, leading the listener to question what is happening in the world the band has created. The song is about a catastrophic event that occurs, leading to a complete change in how people live and survive.. The opening lines of the song instruct the listener to be careful not to spill water while drinking it, which hints at the scarcity of resources in the post-apocalyptic world the song portrays. The chorus repeats the command several times and adds the description of "our lips pressed to the ground," again driving home the idea that people are struggling to find and conserve water.
Further into the song, the lyrics describe the aftermath of what must have been a failed experiment, which caused the drains in the streets to overflow with some sort of bubbling substance. The people in the world of "Spill!" are desperate and resorting to drinking mud and blood to sustain themselves, leading to the disturbing image of children with random stains on their skin and flesh that can be easily penetrated by their own fingernails. The final lines of the song ask the question, "Whose idea was this?" and it is left unanswered, leaving the listener to ponder the culpability of those who created the disaster.
Overall, the lyrics to "Spill!" are a chilling commentary on the fallibility of technology and the consequences of human experimentation gone wrong. The song paints a vivid picture of a world in turmoil, and the repeated instructions to not spill water only add to the sense of fear and desperation that permeates the song.
Line by Line Meaning
Do not!
An urgent warning to not spill the water when drinking it.
Do NOT spill the water when you're drinking it
Through your mouth
A repetition of the warning to not spill the water while drinking through the mouth.
What happened here, nobody can say but it hasn't been the same
Our lips are pressed to the ground
An eerie description of an unknown event that has left the environment changed, with the people affected left on the ground, desperate and in distress.
Running with a cup
Thrown off!
An experiment gone wrong
All of a sudden under us
The drains in the street
Bubbling up....
A frantic series of events, involving running with a cup, being thrown off, and witnessing an experiment gone wrong, with the drains in the street bubbling up unexpectedly.
We're so desperate now
Look at us sucking up mud and blood
With our lips pressed to the ground
A sad depiction of desperation and despair, with the people forced to drink from mud and blood on the ground.
When they came to us no one thought
Such genius could have gone wrong
Never questioning until we saw
The drains in the street bubbling up...
An admission of how nobody thought a seemingly brilliant idea could have gone wrong, until the disastrous consequences became evident.
Whose idea was this?
A frustrated question asking who is responsible for the disastrous idea.
All the kids have random stains on their skin
If they scratch at all, their fingers dig into their flesh
Whose idea was this?
An alarming observation that the children have unexplained stains and painful sores, adding to the sense of horror and confusion about what has happened.
Contributed by Joshua J. Suggest a correction in the comments below.