This song is about Gavin's disgust with the commercialization of pop culture. "There must be something we can eat" is basically what capitalism does to us. There's this saying in reference to corporations: "Unchecked growth is the ideology of the cancer cell." In other words, if your only goal is to keep growing (as is the case with many corporations) then you are essentially a cancer on the system--you're not helping the whole body, only yourself. That concept is summed up in the opening line of this song.
He talks of flying to LA, where his asshole brother is. But why? LA is the quintessential cultural mecca, the epitome of the crass commercialism and greed he's talking about. So of COURSE his brother who lives in LA is an asshole. It's pretty much par for the course there.
His line "Mickey mouse has grown up a cow" is a direct rip-off from David Bowie's 'Life on Mars', a song that was about the same thing this song's about: commercialism run rampant. The next line, "Dave's on sale again," is a bit of a dig at Bowie for being the very sell-out he used to decry in his own music. And so on.
But the big giveaway is actually the chorus and song title, which is a pun: "Everything Zen" = "Everything's in." Gavin is saying: Everything's in? I don't think so. In other words: Everything is for sale these days? I disagree. Voila!
This song is about Gavin's disgust with the commercialization of pop culture. "There must be something we can eat" is basically what capitalism does to us. There's this saying in reference to corporations: "Unchecked growth is the ideology of the cancer cell." In other words, if your only goal is to keep growing (as is the case with many corporations) then you are essentially a cancer on the system--you're not helping the whole body, only yourself. That concept is summed up in the opening line of this song.
He talks of flying to LA, where his asshole brother is. But why? LA is the quintessential cultural mecca, the epitome of the crass commercialism and greed he's talking about. So of COURSE his brother who lives in LA is an asshole. It's pretty much par for the course there.
His line "Mickey mouse has grown up a cow" is a direct rip-off from David Bowie's 'Life on Mars', a song that was about the same thing this song's about: commercialism run rampant. The next line, "Dave's on sale again," is a bit of a dig at Bowie for being the very sell-out he used to decry in his own music. And so on.
But the big giveaway is actually the chorus and song title, which is a pun: "Everything Zen" = "Everything's in." Gavin is saying: Everything's in? I don't think so. In other words: Everything is for sale these days? I disagree. Voila!