Elliott Smith was a self confessed drug addict and alcoholic. "Bottle up and explode" refers to the tendency for alcoholics to hide their pain/intense emotions with booze. It only works for so long before all the bottled emotions come pouring out, often in inappropriate ways. The "troublemaker" is the demon, or demons we're hiding when we get wasted. "In for a round of overexposure," is a reference to Elliott's personal issues with anxiety. Anxiety is "the thing mother nature provides to get up and go," because that's what it's been useful for historically - to get out of the way of serious threats to the well-being of an organism. I'm not sure what the "stars," or "red, white and blue" stand for.
"You look at him like you've never known him," refers to the person we're hiding from the world when we get wasted. We have to face them eventually. But just as there's a person we're hiding from the world when drunk, there's also a part of ourselves that we’re suddenly free to expose when we’re under the influence. That's the person Elliott wants to be. The calm, witty, confident, deep, caring human, that's always been overpowered by the other parts, until he uses a drug and is free to release it. He's tired of waiting for that person to show himself, and because it's an impossibility for him, he'll release that person in the only way he knows how. "I'm coming through," means he's getting drunk/wasted and he's done waiting. He's going to demand that person to show up..
My interpretation:
Elliott Smith was a self confessed drug addict and alcoholic. "Bottle up and explode" refers to the tendency for alcoholics to hide their pain/intense emotions with booze. It only works for so long before all the bottled emotions come pouring out, often in inappropriate ways. The "troublemaker" is the demon, or demons we're hiding when we get wasted. "In for a round of overexposure," is a reference to Elliott's personal issues with anxiety. Anxiety is "the thing mother nature provides to get up and go," because that's what it's been useful for historically - to get out of the way of serious threats to the well-being of an organism. I'm not sure what the "stars," or "red, white and blue" stand for. "You look at him like you've never known him," refers to the person we're hiding from the world when we get wasted. We have to face them eventually. But just as there's a person we're hiding from the world when drunk, there's also a part of ourselves that we’re suddenly free to expose when we’re under the influence. That's the person Elliott wants to be. The calm, witty, confident, deep, caring human, that's always been overpowered by the other parts, until he uses a drug and is free to release it. He's tired of waiting for that person to show himself, and because it's an impossibility for him, he'll release that person in the only way he knows how. "I'm coming through," means he's getting drunk/wasted and he's done waiting. He's going to demand that person to show up..