The Vandals are an American punk rock band formed in 1980 in Huntington Bea… Read Full Bio ↴The Vandals are an American punk rock band formed in 1980 in Huntington Beach, California and currently recording for Kung Fu Records. They have released ten full-length studio albums and two live albums and have toured the world extensively, including performances on the Vans Warped Tour. They are well-known for their use of humor, preferring to use their music as a vehicle for entertainment and sarcasm rather than as a platform for more "serious" issues.

The band's lineup fluctuated significantly over their first nine years, though founding members Steven Ronald "Stevo" Jensen, guitarist Jan Nils Ackermann, and first consistent drummer Joe Escalante remained regular fixtures. Of the original members only Escalante has remained through all incarnations of the band. The current lineup of Escalante, Dave Quackenbush, Warren Fitzgerald, and Josh Freese has remained intact since 1990 and is considered by most fans to be far removed from the band's early 1980s incarnation. Since 2002 Escalante has released all of the band's albums through his Kung Fu Records label, with Fitzgerald generally producing.

It's a Fact
The Vandals Lyrics

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You know when your sure
That no one gives a crap,
Your on the right track
It's a fact

And when you believe,
Things are good
It's guaranteed

You're up your ass
It's a fact

Morons through
The world,
And it's shitty place
No one ever asked to be born
It's a fact

You know every time
You think you've got it right,
Your totally wrong
It's a fact

And when you really try
The efforts misapplied
Or there's a catch
It's a fact

When you've got a sure thing,
Your sure to fuck it up
It's one thing you can count on every time
It's a fact

What can you do?
Absolutely nothing
Don't even try to amount to something
It will never work and Hitler is a jerk,
And soon we'll all be dead anyway
It's a fact
(you suck)

In five billion years
The sun will explode
It's in the bible
It's a fact

And no one will know
That we were ever here
It's a fact
It's a fact

So rest assured in knowing
That what you do don't matter
Some one can do it better anyway
It's a fact

It's a fact

Overall Meaning

The Vandals' song "It's a Fact" is an insightful commentary on the human condition, underscored by pessimism and nihilistic themes. The lyrics advise us to embrace the fact that the world and life in it isn't always great or fair, and that no matter how hard we try, things often don't work out the way that we want them to. The opening verse tells us that even when we believe that things are going well, we're usually just fooling ourselves, and that once we realize that we're actually not in control, we can accept the fact and move forward. The song also offers a bleak outlook about the human experience, saying that the world is "a shitty place" and "no one ever asked to be born."

As the song progresses, we learn that the key to surviving in the world is to not get too invested in our own significance or accomplishments. Instead, we should accept that we're all just cogs in the machine and that nobody's actions or contributions really matter in the grand scheme of things. This is reflected in lines like "What can you do? Absolutely nothing/Don't even try to amount to something," reminding us that no matter what we do, we're ultimately powerless to change the course of our lives or the world at large. The musical composition of the song is refreshingly upbeat, despite the realistic and pessimistic lyrics, almost as if to suggest that accepting these truths can actually be liberating once we've embraced them fully.

Line by Line Meaning

You know when your sure
When you are absolutely certain

That no one gives a crap,
That nobody cares

Your on the right track
You are correct