A little bread – a little circus
It served as a diversion for devils and death merchants
I was curled up underneath the swirling thread of reds and purples
Lumberjack flannel, strapping saddles over servals
These four opening lines evoke ancient Rome (bread and circuses, death merchants). Aes then positions himself as a servant (wearing a working man’s clothes: Lumberjack flannels) of the elite (red and purple being royal colors). Saying he straps saddles over servals, referring to the ancient roman preoccupation with big cats.
Pedaling in circles with ten thousand maniacs in Yankee caps/
who get to know their neighbours every time they tip the ladle … back
Ragtag cats and canines
Who catch phat tags on the fabric of spacetime
Here we see that ancient Rome is a stand-in for New York (Yankee cap), where Aes used to wait tables. A lot of New yorkers would attest that everybody living there is a maniac, “pedalling in circles” referring to the hamster wheel of working life. The line about neighbours evokes soup kitchens and masses in poverty, taking turns eating from the same pot straight out of the ladle. “Ragtag cats and canines” continue this poverty theme, though I can’t quite decipher the next line.
All work no play/dull boys rotate
Old boy Ghostface-Tolstoy-Coltrane
Throws up coffin nails off the rails
Born bathed in a tornado of claws and tails
“All work no play” references The Shining, (Stephen King novel about a writer going mad) and connects the working class theme to the work of becoming a master of a craft. Dull boys rotate (out of the scene), but Aes is an “old boy” who stuck with it, a master fusing three different cultural fields: Ghostface (rap) Leo Tolstoy (literature) and Coltrane (jazz). The next two lines are cryptic, “coffin nails” are slang for cigarettes but that’s all I’ve got. Death will pop back up later though.
Got skulls on his sails, cobras on the pleather
Salt and pepper soldiers barely holding it together/But
supposedly awoke and down to mobilize whenever
You’re pretty much a Gomer Pyle to pester/Remember
Here we get a pirate theme (skulls on sails) and a soldier theme. Aes isn’t just a master of the craft, he is also positioning himself as belonging to (and sometimes leading) a faction that are rebelling against the prevailing culture. “Salt and pepper” is usually a reference to beards going grey, and his soldiers are barely holding it together, but they are ready to fight. Gomer Pyle was a naïve soldier character who kept messing up, Aes maintaining the braggadocio. Like: “My soldiers may be old but you can’t even hold your rifle correctly.”
I’m Pop-O-Matic trouble I will commandeer the goulash
Under hockey hair/Zoom off on a blue ox through the blogosphere
With poppies for your mama bear/Carrots for the vita-mix
Kibble for the puppies/something bloody for the fire pit
“Pop-O-Matic Trouble” is a reference to an old board game. This section is about how Aes went off the grid: IRL he moved to an isolated barn in the north west. “Blue ox” is a Paul Bunyan reference, keeping up the lumberjack/wildlife theme. “Hockey hair” also has a rural feel, evoking Hungary (good at hockey, where goulash comes from). He zooms off through the blogosphere, meaning he kept up his artistic career through the internet. And he is cooking up some stuff: all kinds of food (a.k.a. art) for all kinds of people, setting up a beast of a line in the next section.
Never mind the appetizer writhing in a spider web
Stare into it long enough you biters just might find yourselves
Tea with the dark side/slimer on speed dial
Sleep on a couch or a street or a leaf pile
These first two bars have real malice, evoking Nietzsche (stare into the abyss for long enough and the abyss will stare into you), telling “biters” (artists who steal aspects of his work) that they shouldn’t look to hard at the darkness at the core of his works, or they might get eaten themselves. Then he goes back into the “going off the grid”-narrative, hanging with unsavoury characters (tea with the dark side, slimer on speed dial), and sleeping outside. The interwoven rhyme schemes are particularly smooth here.
Our kind cannot be redeemed
Im a cancer on the glamour/I cant with the me me me
No anaesthesia surgeon with the signal jammer scrambling the feed
Distributing the panacea free
Once again, Aes aligns himself with the rebels and outcasts of society, the irredeemable. He abhors glamour and likes it dirty (as the Malibu Ken cover art clearly conveys).
These next two bars are cryptic and could've used another pronoun for clarity, but I think Aes is saying he isn’t a boring artist (anaesthesia puts you to sleep) who “scrambles the feed” (a political interpretation: obscuring the inequalities of the system by glorifying consumerism). Instead he is giving out his music (a panacea is a miracle cure) for free.
All day/there is no amount of “our father”’s
That can remedy the black dog breathing down his collar
Mi casa like I’m Oscar, hot and popping out a flipped lid
Eye patch, prince wig, disappearing grid blip
Next, we get the inevitability of death. A “Black dog breathing down his collar” means impending doom, and no amount of praying will stave it off.
I don’t understand the "Oscar" reference. Next he stops by the pirate theme (eye patch, prince wig evoking a wig like captain Hook in the old Robin Williams Peter Pan movie), then vanishes from the grid.
Stiff lip, sure to shittalk a centurion/and
Tsk tsk, I don’t really wiggle with invertibrates
Perp in a thurable/Off sides toss thyne
merch in a urinal/Its nothing personal
Aes shit talks authority figures (centurion, also a tie-in with the ancient rome theme at the start of the song) and references his own arrogance or sense of superiority toward lesser artists: he doesn’t wiggle with invertebrates. This is then restated with some religious imagery (a thurable is a container for incense, swung on a chain, and “thyne” is old fashioned English), saying he’s throwing other artists merchandise in a urinal.
Dirtbag don, don’t provoke him to act up
I’m golden doing donuts in the Totoro cat bus
Everything I touch turn to back sludge
Bugs in the bagged lunch, punch through a mack truck
More braggadocio: he’s a don (like Don Corleone) who can punch through a mack truck. And here’s more dirt (dirtbag, bugs in his food, everything he touches turning to goo.) But he is also just having fun doing his thing, saying he is golden: The Totoro cat bus is a japanese animated character, a cat that is also a bus. Doing donuts (revving the engine and riding around in circles) in that sounds fun. Aes has been really cat obsessed ever since he got one.
Hunchback get y’all acquainted with the contagion
Nobody safe, say hello to “well beyond containment”
I came for every cell between the belfry and the basement
You maybe wanna telephone your favourites
The dirt imagery now gets more intense: now he is a locus of sickness, spreading his artistry like a disease. This section connects to the rebel outcast theme subtly through some medieval imagery: a hunchback (like the hunchback of Notre Dame, a belfry is a kind of tower) was shunned by society, much like disease-spreading lepers were during the same time period. Aes has used this imagery before (Hail Mary Mallon comes to mind). Time to call your loved ones.
We take it where the warlocks lock horns
Soda pop popcorn/top notch gore set to Bach over fog horns
Snotty nose, clogged pores, fork in his heart
Back away or catch a halo made of orbiting stars/yeah
This section is just a cool jumble of imagery: darkness (warlocks), violence (locking horns, gore, fork in his heart) and dirt (snotty nose, clogged pores) juxtaposed against high art and beauty (Bach). Aesop describing his aesthetic.
“A halo made of orbiting stars” is what cartoon characters get when they get knocked on the head.
… transform in the dark
Got a dog nose sniffing out the source of the snark
Got a cat’s ears twitching every snap of a twig
*Triangulate your position a simple rabbit to skin
Aes is far off the grid now, transforming into an animal (and more than that, as we shall see). Your snark marks you out as prey, and you are easy prey, a simple rabbit to skin. And a bonus cat reference.
I been an echo in the dark who demo applied science
At the parlay/barf rainbows and cry diamonds, okay
Ready Freddie, headlong into creeping death
Respawn where you least expect
Then the darkness of the preceding section expands into a metaphor for the musical underground (he used to “echo in the dark”, and “demo” is used with multiple meanings). “At the parlay” conveys the pirate theme again, evoking Aes meeting up with fellow outcast pirates and showing off “applied science”. My guess is he’s referring to music-making gear and rap innovations. He brags about barfing rainbows (i.e. cool rap flows), I’ve seen the diamond tear theme in other places but I’m not sure about any deeper meaning.
Then death inevitably returns, with a reference to another master of the craft, Freddy Mercury (of Queen fame, who died of HIV). But Aes throws in a plot twist: he’s a video game character now, respawning behind you after he dies to shoot you. There’s a sort of mystical theme here about artistic genius appearing in unlikely places.
I can pick a pin and tumbler right in front of the guard
Out the front with another Picasso under his arm
Hit the city limits still exhibiting his inner Caulfield, baby
I’m H.E. double hockey sticks on wheels
Aes has transformed. He is now beyond death or any type of negative consequence. He can pick locks right in front of the guard, walk out the front door with a stolen Picasso painting, and when he’s scot free (at the city limits), it won’t corrupt him. He’s still a misanthrope. (Holden Caulfield, main character of the Catcher in the Rye, is a famous kind of “self-imposed outcast” character). H.E. double hockey sticks on wheels is a way to say “hell on wheels” without cussing.
New dawn show them how the voodoo doll feels
Plus launch fireballs from the palm heels
On an otherwise slow day
This is how I row into the rogue wave
Aes is serving up more of his craft, showing how it feels to be a voodoo doll (i.e. stuck with pins to cause suffering in others) while also laying down some fire (shooting fireballs from his hands like a Street Fighter character). Then we wrap it up: On a day that would be slow otherwise, Aes shows how he takes part in the outcast movement (the “rogue wave” that gives name to the song).
A little bread – a little circus It served as a diversion for devils and death merchants I was curled up underneath the swirling thread of reds and purples Lumberjack flannel, strapping saddles over servals
These four opening lines evoke ancient Rome (bread and circuses, death merchants). Aes then positions himself as a servant (wearing a working man’s clothes: Lumberjack flannels) of the elite (red and purple being royal colors). Saying he straps saddles over servals, referring to the ancient roman preoccupation with big cats.
Pedaling in circles with ten thousand maniacs in Yankee caps/ who get to know their neighbours every time they tip the ladle … back Ragtag cats and canines Who catch phat tags on the fabric of spacetime
Here we see that ancient Rome is a stand-in for New York (Yankee cap), where Aes used to wait tables. A lot of New yorkers would attest that everybody living there is a maniac, “pedalling in circles” referring to the hamster wheel of working life. The line about neighbours evokes soup kitchens and masses in poverty, taking turns eating from the same pot straight out of the ladle. “Ragtag cats and canines” continue this poverty theme, though I can’t quite decipher the next line.
All work no play/dull boys rotate Old boy Ghostface-Tolstoy-Coltrane Throws up coffin nails off the rails Born bathed in a tornado of claws and tails
“All work no play” references The Shining, (Stephen King novel about a writer going mad) and connects the working class theme to the work of becoming a master of a craft. Dull boys rotate (out of the scene), but Aes is an “old boy” who stuck with it, a master fusing three different cultural fields: Ghostface (rap) Leo Tolstoy (literature) and Coltrane (jazz). The next two lines are cryptic, “coffin nails” are slang for cigarettes but that’s all I’ve got. Death will pop back up later though.
Got skulls on his sails, cobras on the pleather Salt and pepper soldiers barely holding it together/But supposedly awoke and down to mobilize whenever You’re pretty much a Gomer Pyle to pester/Remember
Here we get a pirate theme (skulls on sails) and a soldier theme. Aes isn’t just a master of the craft, he is also positioning himself as belonging to (and sometimes leading) a faction that are rebelling against the prevailing culture. “Salt and pepper” is usually a reference to beards going grey, and his soldiers are barely holding it together, but they are ready to fight. Gomer Pyle was a naïve soldier character who kept messing up, Aes maintaining the braggadocio. Like: “My soldiers may be old but you can’t even hold your rifle correctly.”
I’m Pop-O-Matic trouble I will commandeer the goulash Under hockey hair/Zoom off on a blue ox through the blogosphere With poppies for your mama bear/Carrots for the vita-mix Kibble for the puppies/something bloody for the fire pit
“Pop-O-Matic Trouble” is a reference to an old board game. This section is about how Aes went off the grid: IRL he moved to an isolated barn in the north west. “Blue ox” is a Paul Bunyan reference, keeping up the lumberjack/wildlife theme. “Hockey hair” also has a rural feel, evoking Hungary (good at hockey, where goulash comes from). He zooms off through the blogosphere, meaning he kept up his artistic career through the internet. And he is cooking up some stuff: all kinds of food (a.k.a. art) for all kinds of people, setting up a beast of a line in the next section.
Never mind the appetizer writhing in a spider web Stare into it long enough you biters just might find yourselves Tea with the dark side/slimer on speed dial Sleep on a couch or a street or a leaf pile
These first two bars have real malice, evoking Nietzsche (stare into the abyss for long enough and the abyss will stare into you), telling “biters” (artists who steal aspects of his work) that they shouldn’t look to hard at the darkness at the core of his works, or they might get eaten themselves. Then he goes back into the “going off the grid”-narrative, hanging with unsavoury characters (tea with the dark side, slimer on speed dial), and sleeping outside. The interwoven rhyme schemes are particularly smooth here.
Our kind cannot be redeemed Im a cancer on the glamour/I cant with the me me me No anaesthesia surgeon with the signal jammer scrambling the feed Distributing the panacea free
Once again, Aes aligns himself with the rebels and outcasts of society, the irredeemable. He abhors glamour and likes it dirty (as the Malibu Ken cover art clearly conveys). These next two bars are cryptic and could've used another pronoun for clarity, but I think Aes is saying he isn’t a boring artist (anaesthesia puts you to sleep) who “scrambles the feed” (a political interpretation: obscuring the inequalities of the system by glorifying consumerism). Instead he is giving out his music (a panacea is a miracle cure) for free.
All day/there is no amount of “our father”’s That can remedy the black dog breathing down his collar Mi casa like I’m Oscar, hot and popping out a flipped lid Eye patch, prince wig, disappearing grid blip
Next, we get the inevitability of death. A “Black dog breathing down his collar” means impending doom, and no amount of praying will stave it off. I don’t understand the "Oscar" reference. Next he stops by the pirate theme (eye patch, prince wig evoking a wig like captain Hook in the old Robin Williams Peter Pan movie), then vanishes from the grid.
Stiff lip, sure to shittalk a centurion/and Tsk tsk, I don’t really wiggle with invertibrates Perp in a thurable/Off sides toss thyne merch in a urinal/Its nothing personal
Aes shit talks authority figures (centurion, also a tie-in with the ancient rome theme at the start of the song) and references his own arrogance or sense of superiority toward lesser artists: he doesn’t wiggle with invertebrates. This is then restated with some religious imagery (a thurable is a container for incense, swung on a chain, and “thyne” is old fashioned English), saying he’s throwing other artists merchandise in a urinal.
Dirtbag don, don’t provoke him to act up I’m golden doing donuts in the Totoro cat bus Everything I touch turn to back sludge Bugs in the bagged lunch, punch through a mack truck
More braggadocio: he’s a don (like Don Corleone) who can punch through a mack truck. And here’s more dirt (dirtbag, bugs in his food, everything he touches turning to goo.) But he is also just having fun doing his thing, saying he is golden: The Totoro cat bus is a japanese animated character, a cat that is also a bus. Doing donuts (revving the engine and riding around in circles) in that sounds fun. Aes has been really cat obsessed ever since he got one.
Hunchback get y’all acquainted with the contagion Nobody safe, say hello to “well beyond containment” I came for every cell between the belfry and the basement You maybe wanna telephone your favourites
The dirt imagery now gets more intense: now he is a locus of sickness, spreading his artistry like a disease. This section connects to the rebel outcast theme subtly through some medieval imagery: a hunchback (like the hunchback of Notre Dame, a belfry is a kind of tower) was shunned by society, much like disease-spreading lepers were during the same time period. Aes has used this imagery before (Hail Mary Mallon comes to mind). Time to call your loved ones.
We take it where the warlocks lock horns Soda pop popcorn/top notch gore set to Bach over fog horns Snotty nose, clogged pores, fork in his heart Back away or catch a halo made of orbiting stars/yeah
This section is just a cool jumble of imagery: darkness (warlocks), violence (locking horns, gore, fork in his heart) and dirt (snotty nose, clogged pores) juxtaposed against high art and beauty (Bach). Aesop describing his aesthetic. “A halo made of orbiting stars” is what cartoon characters get when they get knocked on the head.
Aes is far off the grid now, transforming into an animal (and more than that, as we shall see). Your snark marks you out as prey, and you are easy prey, a simple rabbit to skin. And a bonus cat reference.
I been an echo in the dark who demo applied science At the parlay/barf rainbows and cry diamonds, okay Ready Freddie, headlong into creeping death Respawn where you least expect
Then the darkness of the preceding section expands into a metaphor for the musical underground (he used to “echo in the dark”, and “demo” is used with multiple meanings). “At the parlay” conveys the pirate theme again, evoking Aes meeting up with fellow outcast pirates and showing off “applied science”. My guess is he’s referring to music-making gear and rap innovations. He brags about barfing rainbows (i.e. cool rap flows), I’ve seen the diamond tear theme in other places but I’m not sure about any deeper meaning. Then death inevitably returns, with a reference to another master of the craft, Freddy Mercury (of Queen fame, who died of HIV). But Aes throws in a plot twist: he’s a video game character now, respawning behind you after he dies to shoot you. There’s a sort of mystical theme here about artistic genius appearing in unlikely places.
I can pick a pin and tumbler right in front of the guard Out the front with another Picasso under his arm Hit the city limits still exhibiting his inner Caulfield, baby I’m H.E. double hockey sticks on wheels
Aes has transformed. He is now beyond death or any type of negative consequence. He can pick locks right in front of the guard, walk out the front door with a stolen Picasso painting, and when he’s scot free (at the city limits), it won’t corrupt him. He’s still a misanthrope. (Holden Caulfield, main character of the Catcher in the Rye, is a famous kind of “self-imposed outcast” character). H.E. double hockey sticks on wheels is a way to say “hell on wheels” without cussing.
New dawn show them how the voodoo doll feels Plus launch fireballs from the palm heels On an otherwise slow day This is how I row into the rogue wave
Aes is serving up more of his craft, showing how it feels to be a voodoo doll (i.e. stuck with pins to cause suffering in others) while also laying down some fire (shooting fireballs from his hands like a Street Fighter character). Then we wrap it up: On a day that would be slow otherwise, Aes shows how he takes part in the outcast movement (the “rogue wave” that gives name to the song).