We Are Scientists—the duo of vocalist/guitarist Keith Murray and bassist/vocalist Chris Cain—are known for the oblique humor and intelligence that they bring to their music, but a question about their sharp mental acuity produces gales of laughter. “I don’t believe brains or wit are particularly helpful, or necessary, in pop music,” Murray says, still chuckling. “If we intended our appeal to be narrow and excessively insular, those qualities might be good for us, but nobody likes a smartass.” Despite this protestation, the songs on the band’s new LP, TV En Français (Dine Alone), are brimming over with wry humor and skewed insights into the state of modern romance. TV En Français was recorded with the help of producer Chris Coady (Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV On The Radio), who helped give the album a polished, expansive sound. Cain will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new feature on the band.
Cain: Everybody is familiar with the wonderful agglutinative properties of paperclips. If loose sheets of paper are heads of cattle (as has been argued convincingly elsewhere), then paperclips are cowboys, forcing those cows into neat little stacks.
But often overlooked is the paperclip’s ability to poke holes in things. Paper, vellum, thin plastic, foil, even fabric: If you unfold a paperclip, you can push its tip through any of these things. Even brick.
There’s an energetic metaphor in this. Looking at a paperclip out of the box, you wouldn’t take it for much of a hole-poker—indeed, neither of its points are exposed; each is wrapped into the clip’s endemic curve. But disfigure that clip, and you give it new meaning, fresh powers. It exchanges the ability to bind with the ability to skewer. It becomes, for all intents and purposes, a crappy awl.
The rather uplifting lesson being, if you get messed up psychologically—maybe by losing a loved one or participating in combat or going on a space mission and losing your crew (Sandra Bullock!)—you may be completely unfit to live life the way you’re used to doing it. But there’s bound to be a new, different approach that will work for you. Just look at that little paperclip, bent all the hell, happily spending his days poking little holes in magazines and ribbons. Go on! Poke some holes!
