Dubious Intentions: School's Out

West Ward's a city

East Ward's a town

North Ward's nothin' but a hole in the ground!

Singer and songwriter Jeff Dixon explained in a recent interview with SPIN that the song North Ward on his band Dubious Intentions' latest album, School's Out, was inspired by a real childhood experience:

"I grew up in a little town in Nebraska and we had three elementary schools, West Ward, East Ward and North Ward. Don't ask me why there wasn't a South Ward, nobody ever seemed to know the answer to that one. Anyway, us kids at West Ward used to sing this little song about the other two schools. West Ward was a city. East Ward was a town. And North Ward was nothin' but a hole in the ground. All three schools were exactly alike. All two-story brick buildings, ugly as hell. I guess it was a stupid cross-town rivalry thing.

"Well, one summer North Ward burned down. I mean it totally burned and nothing was left but a big black hole in the ground. All of us kids felt guilty, like our little song made it happen. The kids from North Ward had to be split up and some of them came to our school. Man, we could barely look those kids in the eye. That's what the song is about. Be careful what you f**kin' wish for."