Notebook : pages 19-20
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More Metal Things. Arrangement details on the left—use of "ah ah ah ah" as a vocal element is partly a nod to Laurie Anderson's O Superman, a recording I love to death and have always meant to cover eventually. Of course, hers were mechanical and melodic, whereas these are organic and rasping.
The recording for Metal Things ended up a lot more noise-centric than I thought it'd be—I was originally imagining something more crisp and clinical and industrial. And so that "get-cha cha cha cha cha cha" thing was going to be paired up with a half-closed hihat or some other similar rhythmic white-noise element—human and instrument noises synchronized—but that got lost along the way.
Right side: some notes below on the general theme of the song, trying to grab onto the pop-culture perception of paranoia, schizophrenia. Tin foil hats, muttered revelations, the fixation on needfully vague threats.
I don't know anything about Jasper Johns—I am in all things pretty poorly read, and hadn't heard of him until he had a cameo on The Simpsons, oddly enough—but I really like that comment in the sidebar, however badly paraphrased it may be.