Lyric discussion by darnee 

Cover art for No I Can't lyrics by Mountain Goats, The

I've always thought this song talked about a superficial relationship/friendship. You can't really find anything to talk about besides material things, and conversation sometimes ends up just looking into space, pretending to be engrossed in something else. "thank you for coming by/it's nice to see you once in a while" seems so forced and formal when something like that should be natural and actually happy.