This Blackest Purse

Yes, I think the "blackest purse" is the pose of being doomed and suicidal, that young people think is so cool. Yoni admits in verse 1 that he's never got as close to suicide as he's faked on previous lyrics on stage, suicide in fact being a "far off and abstracted" thought.

He worries that by carrying on the pose (like the bowler hat and bow tie posers), he's "failing" his mom (setting a bad example), or "worse" (pandering to teens tendency to think suicidal nihilists are cool).

Yoni denounces himself, and sets a new goal for his now "earnest" hands, no longer to carry that "blackest purse" of the poser death cult, but instead to focus on the TRUTH: the "sharpened steel of truth in every word."

This song is a manifesto for honesty in art.

the subject wishes he could be more open to his significant other about the problems he has with the relationship. he acknowledges that the brash, pistol waving guy will go down first, but he still wishes he had such bravado sometimes. instead he's trapped in this unfulfilling relationship because he can't speak up about his insecurities. he's stuck, basically, being a pussy. holding her purse while she walks all over him.

ComaLogic, I think the "thing" that he's referring to is someone's life. I think what he's basically saying is that when someone dies, he keeps his distance because he's afraid that he will die too. When he says "expired license" it's like he's saying that his time is up, you know?

I think this song is a reaction to the previous songs of the album. The whole album dealing with death. The song previous to this is "Berkley by Hearseback" where Yoni pictures himself already dead being "Hearseback". This song is a step away from the story to ponder, what it means to write song about being dead. "Our heroes hands holding this blackest purse" aka Yoni being dead. It also a lot about how the songs he sings makes him perceived to be in contrast with who he actually to who he is hence the lines about "the poser" and "the small fry". Basically this song is a critique of his own music in contrast to himself. His character in his songs vs the actual author.

:) i'm so excited for eskimo snow.

Sounds like even more fear of death. But this song focuses on how unfulfilled you feel as a person when death is approaching. The small fry and the poseur are fake and try to act tough but they get the axe first. But he still doesn't feel honest or fully grown. He still wants to operate from a base of hunger. I don't quite understand the black purse metaphor.

The part, "and when a thing starts finishing around me,i faint or fake a moustache, an accent, or flee, in fear my expired license be pulled by sheer proximity," What exactly is the "thing" finishing, do you know?

the last stanza of the first verse sounds a whole lot like 'pick fights'.

Yoni's master knowledge of syllable flow is so evident in this song.

I wanna speak at an intimate decibel with the precision of an infinite decimal. The only singer that can put such a poetic flow on syllables rather than words and still get a stronger message than most.

Very few artists put this much of themselves in their songs.

This song is about how we see our heroes. That's what I feel anyway. It's kind of like that saying "never meet your idols". I guess I'm more literal but he's talking about maybe catching that person you idolize in a bad act. It's like your hero running down the street while holding a purse that he's stolen. And if you're a kid and you meet eyes with him and you see this crime he's committed, I can't help but think that purse will be the blackest purse you've ever seen.

He might even be comparing himself to the poser in the bowler or the smallfry in the bowtie, as he states that he's really a poser himself "i'm not who, with my eyes from stage, i claim to be" so he himself would be the one to kick the bucket first. And if he's this "hero", Yoni knows he's gonna bite it first yet, his own poser ways will bring him back to running away from situations when they come up.

even though he comes off as being brutally honest all the time, maybe Yoni feels he's still a fake because maybe not all of what he's spitting at us is true. or maybe it is true but he's bending and hiding things for some unknown reason.

however, we know he wants to "speak at an intimate decibel", which makes him at least worthy of something.

that's pretty much all i got.