Best of, #27. Homemade Mummy

Probably one of the most juxtapostionized (yeah I said it), why-the-hell-am-I-nodding-my-head-and-smiling songs of all time: Homemade Mummy. Coming to you off of Aesop’s newest album, Skelethon, released in the summer of ‘12, Homemade Mummy is a song that always makes me smile and always makes people around me question my sanity. I’m going to hold off on talking about the album as a whole until later on, but I’ll just tell you this- I like it.

Maybe one of the reasons I find this such an uplifting song is the fact that I have listened to it a few times and realize Aes is using the mummy thing as a metaphor for using your heart over your brain. It might also be because the music video seems like it was so much fun to make (and also perfect for Leisureforce?). Who knows. But the truth is while the song might be uplifting it is most definitely still pretty damn dark. Just look at how it starts:

How to make a homemade mummy: get a corpse, get gauze, get comfy. Shampoo and disinfect dead Fluffy for the hallowed excavation of his x-marked tummy.

What an incredible way to start a song. The next dozen lines or so continue enlightening the listener on how to properly mummify a cat until he finishes the macabre verse with

I hope you vow to meow another day and never decompose, by the way before we seal these molds, the shorten version goes…

Take the brain out, leave the heart in. Pay for playgrounds, leave your harvest

If it is your first time listening to it you might start to realize at this point that maybe this song isn’t about what it initially seems. I hope you do, at least. The first verse is simply unique. I wish I had a unique synonym for unique to use, but I don’t.

The second verse leaves behind the mummification scene and goes somewhere else with the imagery. I’m not sure where exactly that is however. It’s kind of like Aes surprises you by putting a black bag over your head in the first verse and then takes it off in the chorus, and in the second you’re wondering where the fuck you are. The following lyrics are the entirety of the song minus the final chorus, I’ll try to make sense of it.

Gadzooks, punk’s dead, last good gut wrenched
Antennae Sam Cooke, black book Pushead

Alright so punk is dead, listen to Sam Cooke, forget about Pushead. Sense some sarcasm there.

Cat skulls stacked to the black hole sunset

No idea here

Olive on a toothpick, Dagwood Bumstead

No idea again, although now I want to make a large sandwich disappear.

Tagged-hoof hatchery, matter amass naturally. Bad wolf, dash for the last rook castling. Blue ox, red plaid Bass Pro flannel king

All I get from this is that I want to be the Bass Pro flannel king. If you don’t have a BP by you, it is like a Cabella’s. If you don’t have a Cabella’s by you, it is like a Walmart for hunters and boat enthusiasts.

Hasbro crown, sour apple Abba-Zabba teeth in poorly taken pictures antiquating on his mantlepiece

All I get with this line is an old picture of someone in a toy crown with candy stuck in their teeth. But, you know, Aes says it in a way doper way, dude.

Before we only spoke in letters cut from magazines

Again, not sure.

Folk broke bear claws over gross coffee
Not as milquetoast men, as los muertos walking

We shared breakfast pastries over bad coffee, not as
spineless men but as the dead walking.

Ergo the scarecrow in rare barley
Squared-off harpy to armchair: say a prayer for me

Therefore the thing the scares the pest from precious crop placed the female monster up against a person who sits behind while leading/telling others.

I feel that mystifying times have gotten ugly, I also feel that you could learn a lot from a mummy

I feel the enchanting times are gone. Nonetheless we can learn from the past.

Alright, maybe I’m crazy. Or maybe the last beer is starting to hit. But I think if you reread the last stanza you can see Aes saying that he has mummified so many things. Countless cat skulls and tagged hooves. He has spoken with his heart countless times. But punk is dead, his calls are falling on deaf ears. Nonetheless, he dashes for the last rook castling. He protects the King. The only thing that truly matters in the game. He does so in some sick flannel.

I really don’t know about lines right ahead of the last two. I’m not even sure what he is saying. They are prime example of Aesop properly slurring his words. I don’t know why the scarecrow cares about the harpy or the armchair, do you?

I FEEL THAT YOU CAN LEARN A LOT FROM A MUUUUUMMY

On an interesting note, this song reminds me of an Aes lyrics from his song Facemelter:

But I will say this to y'all that used your fifteen of fame to mention my name, that sixteenth minute regret is fucking insane

Seriously, go tell your friends about this dude. They’ll look at you in a weird state of aloofness.

On a pleasant side note, when I saw Aesop Rock live he made the crowd recite “Make mummy mummy, make mummy mummy mummaaaay”.