Cleaning Crew[1]
Lyrics
You were passed out on the sofa
Cigarette burns and coffee stains
Loose change in your pocket
Naltrexone[2] in your veins
They got a scanner at the airport now
And a dropout in a Kevlar vest[3]
I can hear the timer
Ticking in my chest
What are you gonna do?
What are you gonna do?
What are you gonna do when the cleaning crew
comes through?
When you get out on your own again
If you ever do shake free
If you find yourself in Portland[4]
Ask about me
Dig up the first revision
The one who's got less to lose
Look on every lamppost[5]
From here to Baton Rouge[6]
Ask yourself one question
Then ask yourself again
What are you gonna do?
What are you gonna do?
What are you gonna do when the cleaning crew
comes through?
It's better if you have a plan
It's better if you have a plan[7]
I saw the future in an oil slick[8]
It told me what I needed to know
Leave a little stain behind you everywhere you go[9]
Banter
- [Plays opening chords on piano] Look at me going to the right key! Pretty stoked about that! As you may notice, we're playing a bunch of songs from the new record, which is not out yet. Don't tell anybody. Cause this is the only show we're gonna do that at. That would be great. They played five from the new record at San Diego, and then no matter how much they asked after that, like, no. (2023-10-02 Belly Up Tavern)
- Matt just fed me the first line of the last one for this one, which I consider unsporting. [band laughs] I know this one because I recognize the people in it. (2023-10-03 The Belasco)
- Fellas, what are we gonna play? [off mic] I play this one on the piano. [clavinet chord] NO. [laughter] I like, I really like that you have Electric Piano 1, Electric Piano 2, Clavinet, Piano, Organ, and Other. What's "Other" tonight? [clicks through, it is synth strings, he starts playing the song on strings] Well friends, this is a song that asks us the question: what do you intend to do? What do you intend to do, Matt? What are you gonna do? When the cleaning crew...comes through? (2023-10-05 August Hall)
- Matt Douglas, as you know, I got a whole thing now where I don't bring a set list to the stage. What am I playing now? I love it! We have charades on stage now! Oh wait, but there's two that have that, I'm afraid. Two songs from the new album... [charades and chords are played to much amusement] This song is called... yeah! That's what's up! (2023-10-06 August Hall)
- [audience member sneezes]
JD: Bless you. My child. [JD and audience laugh] I could either introduce the band with no ceremony at all or I could tell you that today's the day our new record came out. [cheering] And one thing about the internet is that people think that, y'know, memes are forever. But they're not. They die and people forget them. And I alone carry the torch for the letter that was written by a band's label-head 'cause they fucked up at the record release party. And it was an email that he had sent to the band calling them "chumps". He used the word "chumps" repeatedly. And they, good pioneering soldiers that they were, promptly forwarded this email to all of their friends to say 'this guy who runs a label - that is not really blowing up the scene or anything, is angry with us because we were hanging out by the merch table at our record release party.' I'd like to welcome back to the stage for our record release party Jon Wurster, Peter Hughes, and Matt Douglas. The Mountain Goats. And he keeps asking "would the White Stripes do that?"
Wurster: Do you think Mick Jagger is at the merch table at his shows?
JD: No! Do you think Meg is at the merch table up in Detroit when Seven Nation Army comes out? No! Because she's not a chump. [laughing]
Peter: We know better than that. We preserve our mystique. You never see us in the street.
JD: [cross talk] We walk around a little maybe. What are we playing?
Peter: Outside.....we don't go outside.
JD: These guys, Peter's the kind of [unintelligible]. I am the kind of goth that doesn't go outside. (2023-10-27 Cactus Theater)
- JD: Not used to sitting on this stool (unintelligible). Adjust my expectations. I feel like drummers live in luxury and comfort now. Piano is kinda punishing. [JD and Wurster laugh] I gotta learn to play the drums! The least physically demanding of jobs!
Wurster: I mean, I just sit back here all night. (2023-10-28 Longhorn Ballroom) -
- This one is off the new record, after Jenny takes a boarder. (2023-10-29 The Heights Theater)
- Oh sinner! You strut so proud! You stand there, you gotta do it your way! You gotta do it only your way! You don't want to do it the high way, you don't want to do it my way, but sinner-brave sinner, bold sinner, cold sinner-what are you gonna do when the cleaning crew comes through for you? (2023-12-12 Georgia Theatre)
Live Performances
Footnotes
1. Subtitle: "The next best thing to an actual goodbye"↩
2. Naltrexone, also known by the trade name "vivitrol", is a medication prescribed for alcohol use disorder and other substance use disorders. It can be given as a monthly injection, especially before someone discharges from an inpatient or residential treatment facility, to help them maintain sobriety.↩
3. Though the timeline is nonlinear, the events of the album seem to mostly take place in the mid-1980s, which aligns with the introduction of metal detectors in American airports in the late 1970s and early 1980s.↩
4. Portland is the setting of many Mountain Goats songs, especially on We Shall All Be Healed.↩
5. Missing person signs are often stapled or glued to lampposts, a practice that was especially common prior to the ubiquity of the internet and digital social networks.↩
6. Baton Rouge is the capital of the US state of Louisiana. Likely a metrical choice rather than narrative, though I would love to find out I'm wrong.↩
7. That sound is Jon Wurster hitting a vibraslap, a decision that has brought the curator of this website much delight as a former percussionist. A vibraslap is a percussion instrument that the player hits to create a rattling sound. It is not standard equipment on a drum kit but SHOULD BE.↩
8. Ancient Greek eleomancy involved using oil as a method of augury by dripping it on a surface and divining meaning from the patterns. This may also be a reference to Black Pear Tree, which references both divination and oil ("Blossoms black and sweet as Texas crude").↩
9. The Original Sin in Christianity is sometimes described as a "stain on the heart". (I am not enough of a Christian to explain this in a way that makes sense, due to it does not make sense to me beyond "apparently even babies suck").↩