Though Asbury Park’s Yawn Mower take its New Jersey roots quite seriously, the bigger, brighter, bolder I Just Can’t Wait To Die (Mint 400) may be just the thing to propel the quintet past the demarcations of a tight-knit indie scene—for good. The band’s second LP is also its most collaborative so far. The music on all 10 tracks was written with everyone’s input. For the lyrics, Yawn Mower co-founder Mike Chick was left to his own devices, as is most often the case. Here’s more from Chick.
—Hobart Rowland
“Most of these songs aren’t about one thing. There are many little stories and memories going on within each: my beliefs and personal thoughts, my family experiences and day-to-day life and my observances of other people’s experiences. There are also a lot of inside jokes about experiences we’ve had in the past few years at shows and on tour. ‘I’ refers to Mike in the following spiels.”
1) “Windshield Wiper”
“While driving home one rainy day from work I noticed a helicopter flying above Route 33 East, and the first two lines of the song came out. While YM was recording IJCWTD, we got to a point where we needed an opening and closing song. I had ‘WW’ in my books for a bit and thought opening this record solo acoustic would be like nothing we’ve ever done. Then the band could crash in to start the record. The blue typewriter is from an estranged aunt, and I still have my best friend’s sleeping bag, from like eighth grade.”
2) “Igor The Exetor”
“Years ago, I heard someone use the phrase, ‘I’m going to take the light from their eyes.’ When I inquired about what the phrase meant, the person replied, ‘It means to kill them.’ From what I know, no one was harmed, and the kid was just mad. I thought about everyone I knew who’d been wronged, betrayed, neglected, etc., and ‘Who stole the light from your eyes this time?’ came out.”
3) “New Years At The Airport”
“I had this image of someone sitting at the gate getting a notification that their flight is delayed, and they won’t get home in time to see their family and friends on NYE—irritated and pissed. There’s a lot going on in this song. The first two lines about the priest are probably my favorite on the record. ‘This town is gonna break my heart again’ is about Asbury Park, how it’s evolved over the past 20 years and everyone’s varying opinions about where the town is going. The ‘scratched by a ghost’ part is about an actual run-in with a Dayton, Ohio, local when YM was on tour in November 2023. We asked this maintenance guy at our Airbnb if there was anything we should see in Dayton before we headed to Chicago. He bluntly replied, ‘Nah, you can just leave.’ That night at the gig, a bartender told us she was scratched by a ghost in a dream.”
4) “Rascal”
“This song is about the kids of our families and friends—how people grow up, move out of town and come back, and how that separation and adjustment is a part of life. The song is also about a basement show YM played where a descending spider almost knocked (bassist) Dana (Yurcisin) off his chair—Dana hates spiders—and how I grabbed the drum throne on the greasy side when loading the van.”
5) “Squirming”
“An actual bird did die for this song, though not on purpose. Its death wasn’t in vain, as its memory now exists in ‘Squirming.’ Besides that, the lyrics are about superstition and the desire for a more mellow, less dog-eat-dog existence.The second part of the song is about humans aging … watching people get old and fall apart, them telling you it sucks and you having no choice but to face whatever the future has in store for you.”
6) “Speedboat!”
“The line, ‘I’ll be the one who stays all night,’ is about experiences at shows where bands play and then leave before the other bands are done—and how annoying this can be for the other bands. YM has a good track record of showing up early and staying late at shows.”
7) “$12 & A Wine Press”
“The lyrics for this song are a mix of stories from my relatives who came over to the U.S. from Italy. Immigration is always in the news, so I decided to write a song telling the story of my grandparents and great-grandparents. They were people coming to this country with the hope for a better, more stable life. That seems like a pretty common thread, whether it was 80 years ago or last week.”
8) “Geothermal Springs”
“(Drummer) Biff Swenson’s girlfriend went to Iceland a few years ago on a photography trip. I came up with the line, ‘Wish that I was with you for the foss,’ kind of like a postcard you’d get in the mail. Foss means waterfall in Icelandic. The rest of the song talks about ordering Chinese food, taking your little sister to the arcade and the mall, and gardening. All the things I was doing that day are in the lyrics—except the hot-air-balloon part. I didn’t ride a balloon that day. Or ever.”
9) “$5 & A Handshake”
“I was a valet at a restaurant in my college years, and most of these lyrics recall those experiences sitting outside in the cold and heat and hearing all the gossip from the waiters as they took their smoke breaks.”
10) “Floorboards”
“‘Floorboards’ is about mortality, watching family and friends pass away but also living their lives the best they can. It’s about entities who don’t care about innocent people dying in war. It’s about day-to-day conflicts with those around you. It’s also about one of our good friends, who has one of the most ripping snores I’ve ever heard in my life.”
