Song of the Week: Tears in Her Tonic

You all might hate me for this, but up until recently Tears In Her Tonic was one of the few Skinner Brothers songs that I didn't listen to very often. And don't get me wrong—it's a great song! It's extremely catchy, and has a nice, mellow feel to it, which is wonderful. But I won't lie to you, I don't know anything about the sound quality of different instruments, or the technical process of making music.

I'm a lyrics person first and foremost, and for some reason I was having a hell of a time understanding a lot of the words to this particular song. It was still on my Skinner Brothers playlist, of course, but that's over seven hours long so it's easy for things to get lost in there. Could I have just Googled the lyrics and not missed out on all this time with such a great song? Apparently yes, because that's what I did to find them for this article. But my success rate of finding Skinner Brothers lyrics online has not been the greatest in the past, so I guess it didn't even cross my mind.

I don't know if they do Easter egg hunts in the UK (well, I do now because I just Googled that, too), but finding Skinner Brothers lyrics on the internet is a very similar experience. Are they on Google? Are they on YouTube? I think I saw some hiding under a small shrubbery on Bandcamp, but someone else may have beaten me to it. The struggle is real.

All that aside, now that I've listened to the song again with the lyrics, I have seen the error of my ways. As I mentioned before, the song has a very mellow vibe overall, but it's also a little somber in places, like the feeling you get when you've just come to terms with some bad news. The drums are not overpowering, and I love the little guitar trill leading into the chorus that sounds like something from the original Mario Brothers game, or the sound you'd expect a dog to make when they tilt their head to the side in confusion (start the song at 0:31 and see for yourself!)

Kitty Bella was an excellent addition to this track as well. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this was her first collaboration with the Skinner Brothers before going on to record Heartbreak St a year later. Her voice is angelic, and a seamless fit for the overall feeling and structure of this track. If you haven't checked out her other music yet, Kiss the Moon is beautiful, and her most recent release, Man's World, is guaranteed to have you dancing in your seat and singing along. Make sure you go show her some love and follow her on all your socials!

You're up there then you're out, you're inside then you ain't

The lyrics to Tears in Her Tonic seem to be describing the highs and lows of life in general, or perhaps just the music industry. It feels like being on a roller coaster—one moment you're at the top of the world, and the next you're plummeting straight into the pits of hell with no way of pumping the brakes. Maybe life isn't quite as labile for everyone else, but the rest of my neuro-spicy friends will know exactly what I mean by that, and how sometimes you just have to learn to ride the wave until the moment passes on its own. It's tough living life outside of the emotional gray area, where things are always felt way too strongly or not ever enough, but with a little time and patience you can learn to overcome it.

The experiences Zac has described with the music industry in some of his Sunday Service videos (which seem to have recently been removed from YouTube) sound very similar. The industry itself is so fragile that the concept of 'making it' is really just a myth, because it can all be taken away the moment you become too comfortable in your own success.

One day (usually when you have the support of a label or manager) everyone loves your band– you're getting booked for festivals, doing interviews, music blogs are eating you up... and then just like that, you're dropped like a hot potato and left with the degenerates here at Bad Brains. Ah well, at least we're fun. But that seems to be more along the lines of what he was describing here.

These beats and simple melodies got me feeling peace

Have you ever looked at a person and wished you could trade places with them just for a moment to see what it's really like living inside their head? Many people have commented (and I've also wondered myself) how it's possible for the Skinner Brothers to create as many songs as they do, as frequently as they do, and still maintain the same level of quality throughout their entire catalog.

This particular line from Tears in her Tonic really resonates with me in that regard. If you've been following along with the Skinner Brothers Patreon, you'll have seen how Zac slips into his own little world when he's in the process of creating a song, and it's like he becomes a completely different person for a little while. The energy is through the roof, and it's like there's a billion thoughts swirling around that are all trying to come out at the same time and getting bottle necked in the doorway. This isn't a criticism by the way, it is admiration for a savant level of talent that I genuinely believe only comes along once in a generation, if you are lucky enough to witness it at all.

The video for this song is where things went a little sideways for me, for a multitude of reasons. But let's start with the elephant in the room— why is our man just sitting in the bathtub like that? It's like he went in there because he wanted to take a bath, but then forgot how to do it, so now he's hoping that if he just sits there long enough it'll come to him eventually.

And are you seeing what I'm seeing here in these pictures? Right there on the edge of the... bathtub... is drink vessel, after drink vessel, after drink vessel. Tell me that this two-year-old video is not the villain origin story for Cup City?! That's right, you can't tell me that, because you know I'm right.

Who knows, it may go back even further than this! We'll have to make a point to watch all of the older Skinner Brothers videos to determine the exact moment coffee cups began to congregate in random places they do not belong. For science!

And then, there's THIS! Isn't that the very same billiard ball I was going on about in the article we did for Stupid Much a while back?! In the article, I had mentioned that the video for Stupid Much shows Zac being relentlessly pursued through the streets of London by a blue billiard ball, which follows him all the way to a pub by the end of the song. Except in this case, the video for Tears in her Tonic would actually appear to be a sequel to that.

In this one, a masked character (*cough* Noir *cough*) pulls the blue billiard ball out of his pocket (I'm resisting the urge to make a joke about Pocket Pool here...) while sitting in the bathtub. Then, he proceeds to get into an actual automobile, drive himself a good distance away, walk into the middle of a large, empty field, and throw the ball on the ground before leaving.

You know what else you do that to? Mice, when you don't want them finding their way back inside your house. Or, you know, pesky billiard balls that won't stop following you through the streets of London. Seriously, I need to know the story behind this!

I'm not sure I will ever get an answer to that question. It will have to be filed away into the Unsolved Mysteries: Skinner Brothers Edition for the foreseeable future. In the meantime, I am just happy I have been able to see Tears in Her Tonic in a brand new light, and don't have to mumble through the lyrics every time it comes on in the car anymore. It can be appreciated at full volume, with the respect it deserves! Now, I just have to try and find it in that massive playlist... Yikes!

☘️🖤

Lyrics from Genius:
Don't let the seasons get you down
You're up there then you're out
You're inside then you ain't
They call it treason but its love
And it fits like a glove
Fits us like a glove

Up on this wave and I love it
Walkman with processed beats on it
Long hair with hints of crud on it
She's drinking tears in her tonic

Nostalgia beating like a drum
I'm up there but I'm dumb
I'm dancing coz I'm numb
These beats and simple melodies
Have got me feeling peace
And everything just feels

Up on this wave and I love it
Walkman with processed beats on it
Long hair with hints of crud on it
She's drinking tears in her tonic

Alcoholic it's the dumb
Vibes that get me through
Get me through the day
Nothing else, it don't do jack
I want my money back
Forgot my name was Zac

Up on this wave and I love it
Walkman with processed beats on it
Long hair with hints of crud on it
She's drinking tears in her tonic