Marla

To me, it seems like this song is narrated from the perspective of the ghost of a servant who continually wanders around this abandoned (or maybe not?) house looking for the objects described in the song despite the fact that decades or even centuries have passed and his master and all his possessions have long since gone. But still, he can't stop his search.

Judging from the previous comments, this may not be what Grizzly Bear intended but it's how the song strikes me. It's truly haunting. (And yes, Adscititious! The lyrics, especially "I've looked in the greenhouses one, two and three" remind me somehow of Dr. Seus)

@greed22 AWESOME interpretation.

Here's mine.

The singer is this Mr. Forbes' housekeeper, assistant, mistress, or even wife - a woman who lives with him/under his roof [and is in love with him, whether overtly or secretly]. He wants to move away/leave her, so she resorts to hiding/discarding/destroying some of his belongings, in order to detain him [seeing as: 1) if she lives there and must know her way around the house; 2) the likes of a cello or harp aren't easily misplaced]. While this sounds like an impishly funny act of mischief, its utter conspicuousness actually denotes a sad sense of despair - she is basically admitting her inferiority to a bunch of inanimate objects - he could well go without her, but he "can't go without that". So we get an ironic mix of childish denial and resignation, of hopelessness and the bittersweet empty gratification of petty revenge.

Hope that makes sense.

to me this song reminds me of dr seuss literature

----I can't find it at the moment, but I read an interview with Dan and Ed and they said that this song was originally entirely written by his aunt Marla, they just slowed it down and changed it a little bit. They said that the lyrics and the tune were the same as the original.

Is anyone else reminded of the TV show "Dexter" whenever they hear this song?

this song reminds of me of a horror film, one that's particularly atmospheric and maybe a little experimentally symbolic. the instrumental of it is chilling and there's something about that line "i've looked everywhere, mr. forbes" that just creeps me out

it's "sheepskin-lined coat" and i have no idea what (?) is either.

i've done a tiny bit of research (=google) and found that this song is about edward droste's aunt, marla forbes, who was an aspiring musician. yellow house is the droste family estate where they recorded the album so they tried making it sound like a haunted house. if i remember well.

ps it was originally called 'mr forbes' but it was re-titled 'marla'

the (?) is "gavel".

I've looked everywhere, Mr. Forbes but I can't find the gavel and oh why oh why ...