“Insulated Crate” is the 5th song on our first full-length, Bear Hair, and it’s YET ANOTHER song we almost never play live. This is strange, because it’s one of the tracks on the album with the most energy, and it also features some nice vocals from Abigail Large of Property of Saints, and our very own Evan Loritsch. The main reason we never play it anymore is because, instrumentation-wise, it’s totally impractical; everybody has to switch, and it’s a stupid, arduous process no one wants to do/watch.
The subject of the song is jealousy in relationships, and it REALLY WAS APPLICABLE when I was 16-17, dating a girl named Jennie, and being terrified day and night because I had super-low self-esteem, even though NOTHING WAS WRONG. (Needless to say, I wrote it when I was 17 also.)
An interesting thing to note about this song before I talk about the lyrics is that the chorus was not written to be sung; it was originally a part of a rap that I wrote, until I realized that the song I was writing at the time was better than the rap I was writing. So, splicing took place.
I keep my baby in a hearth to wait
I keep my baby in an insulated crate
I keep my baby in a high-security safe
that’s ironically built from my own insecurities
I was really worried when I wrote those lines that people would think I was dead-serious. People sometimes take things at face value and don’t delve any deeper than that, and that could make me look like an assclown. What this says is, I am too protective, and too set on securing her, when that’s really rooted in how insecure I am (hence the “ironically”), and I’m not proud of it. That’s not really how I typically am, but in that particular instance…yeah, I was totally “that guy.”
Writing about these lyrics again requires rereading them, and that’s reminding me of how seriously young and immature I was. Listen, if you like the album, I’m overjoyed; I’m still proud of it. But, the reason I’m so antsy to release new material is…this album is a little under 3 years old, writing-wise. Sick of it.
I was a boy in a musical box
I was a snowglobe shaken by exes ‘til the song season stopped
“The Musical Box” is one of my favorite songs of all time. It’s by Genesis, and it’s on one of their first albums, Nursery Cryme. (Listen to it:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBL67P4VzCk) That song was a big deal for me around the time “Hermit Crab” was being formulated. But it also refers to me being in a box myself musically, due to only being able to think about my relationship. And the snowglobe thing is kind of obviously, with Winter being the supposed “song season.”
‘Til I was promptly dropped, and chopped and screwed,
like every rap album fueled by codeine and golden tooths
Y’all know the rap style, “chopped and screwed”? It’s a Southern thing where you slow EVERYTHING down. By the way, the bad grammar of “tooths” was intentional. Get it? Because RAP??
I love you, insect; sincerely, windshield
I turn everything I love to shimmering, chandelier tears
I want to tell him, “If you think you can talk to her like that, you’re wrong!”
But I’m not, and all I’ve got is this song
The first “insect”was influenced by mewithoutYou lyrics depicting lowly things as insects. I tend to damage whatever “insect” I’m with due to my “windshield”-like love, protecting nothing inside and out in the process.
The last part is referencing every time I’ve ever wanted to stand up to someone who was hitting on someone I was dating (whether they knew we were dating or not), and never, ever having the courage to do it. I would always take that anger internally, rationalizing that he probably deserved her better than I did.
Do you feel, do you feel, do you feel, do you feel too much?
Did I also mention I don’t like to play this song because it’s a bummer?
