Demons

I think it might be "I can sleep on the floor, DRINK the blood and hang the palms..." because hanging palms is a religious (catholic) tradition around palm sunday, and drink the blood would then refer to communion. I think Matt Berninger went to Catholic school.

So my interpretation of this one is a speaker who at least partly wants the comfort of belief in god of some sort "huddled with unbelievers...worried talk to god goes on...I sincerely tried to love it" but he just doesn't believe. He wants to sleep (have comfort) in the church (palm branches, drink the blood), but he's depressed or troubled and bothered by the evil he sees in the world (symbolized by pythons, buzzards, limbs, etc). He's kind of fighting his own demons, depressed, certainly not one of those people who can light up a room, although he wants to be (I do not light it up/fuck). Maybe the people he grew up with were this type, and that's why he's "secretly in love" with them.

When I walk into a room I do not light it up. Fuck.

Official lyrics from album sleeve:

When I think of you in the city, The sight of you among the sights, I get the sudden sinking feeling of a man about to fly. It never kept me up before, now I've been awake for days. I can't fight it anymore, I'm going through an awkward phase. I am secretly in love with everyone that I grew up with. I do my crying underwater, I can't get down any farther. All my drowning friends can see, now there is no running from it. It's become the crux of me, I wish that I could rise above it,

but I stay down with my demons. I stay down with my demons.

Bats and buzzards in the sky, alligators in the sewers. I don't even wonder why. I hide among the younger viewers. I huddle with them all night long, the worried talk to God goes on. I sincerely tried to love it. I wish that I could rise above it,

but I stay down with my demons. I stay down with my demons. I stay down with my demons. I stay down with my demons.

Can I stay here? I can sleep on the floor Paint the blood and hang the palms on the door. I do not think I'm going places anymore. I want to see the sun come up above New York. Every day I start so great and then the sunlight dims. The less I look, the more I see the pythons in the limbs. I do not know what's wrong with me, the sour is in the cut. When I walk into a room I do not light it up. Fuck.

So I stay down with my demons. I stay down with my demons.

I'm pretty certain that it's "paint the blood." I think you're spot on, tori, with the palms being a reference to people hanging the palms from Palm Sunday, but I think the "paint the blood" is a biblical reference as well (or at least that's how I took it the first time I heard the song). I assumed it was a reference to the story in Exodus in which God instructs the Israelites to paint their doorposts with the blood of the lamb to let him know which houses to pass over when he unleashes his latest plague (the one in which the first born son of every household will die). Those who painted their doorposts would be safe from this plague. I'm not particularly religious, but this is the basic story as I remember it from my study of the Bible. The line "paint the blood and hang the palms on the door" seems to me to be a reference to the idea of having some sort of charm/protective sacrament that will keep trouble away from the narrator. I know that some cultures view the hanging palms as a way to ward off evil spirits, which ties in pretty neatly with the title of the song.

The line with “alligators in the sewers” reminds me of Thomas Pynchon’s novel “V.” The book has a section with a character hunting alligators in the sewers.

Couldn't it be about suicide? "I get this sudden sinking feeling / Of a man about to fly"

A thought that has been haunting him more and more. "It never kept me up before, / now I've been awake for days."

I see the religious reference in the sense that suicide is a sin and as such a work of demons.

I think it means that we all have character defects that can cause Problems in Personal relationships. We try our best, but we are human mistakes are made! We just try to stay down with those blasted demons!

A different view: The narrator stays in the comfort of it's current state. It's relationship, a job, a home. A safe life. Ignores the feeling of wanting more. He stays down. He tells himself that it's still great,but as the day passes he realizes that he didn't learn anything. He didn't grow. It stays the same. But back in the days he knew he wanted more, as did the people he grew up with. He is not able to love the normal life even though he tries.

He's simply depressed and can't find help in God for not being a believer.

So he stays with is demons...

But if he believe in demons also believe in God...