An anti-car and anti-sprawl song.
"rocks" and "plastic rocks" refers to cars, as in "cities built to store and sell these rocks" in that we have built our modern cities around cars: parking lots, streets, traffic lights, car dealerships. Cars are just plastic rocks if you really think about it, and the idea of us being so obsessive about our little rocks is a little ridiculous.
The whole "bleed out" concept is best demonstrated by watching the exit of a suburban shopping mall near a freeway: the cars bleed onto the road when the light changes, and then onto the freeway when the next light changes. The "bleeding" is a really good metaphor for the sort of cancer that cars and general vehicle over-reliance has become.
The case can be made for this being about drug trafficking, but then what does "cities built to store and sell" have to do with drugs? No city was built on drugs (except maybe Nogales). Also, I don't see Modest Mouse making a completely ANTI-drug song, let alone following the gov't's current drug propaganda campaign about the negative indirect effects of drug use (the "My grammy died so you could get high" adverts). They do write a lot of drug songs, but they're usually about heroin or tweak.
An anti-car and anti-sprawl song. "rocks" and "plastic rocks" refers to cars, as in "cities built to store and sell these rocks" in that we have built our modern cities around cars: parking lots, streets, traffic lights, car dealerships. Cars are just plastic rocks if you really think about it, and the idea of us being so obsessive about our little rocks is a little ridiculous. The whole "bleed out" concept is best demonstrated by watching the exit of a suburban shopping mall near a freeway: the cars bleed onto the road when the light changes, and then onto the freeway when the next light changes. The "bleeding" is a really good metaphor for the sort of cancer that cars and general vehicle over-reliance has become. The case can be made for this being about drug trafficking, but then what does "cities built to store and sell" have to do with drugs? No city was built on drugs (except maybe Nogales). Also, I don't see Modest Mouse making a completely ANTI-drug song, let alone following the gov't's current drug propaganda campaign about the negative indirect effects of drug use (the "My grammy died so you could get high" adverts). They do write a lot of drug songs, but they're usually about heroin or tweak.