Pavement - Box Elder

Box Elder is a type of plant which looks like poion ivy, but isn’t poisonous. It is also a small town in Montana. I guess the two meanings are relevant to Malkmus’s lyrics. Box Elder describes the ending of a relationship in a slightly bitter if inevitable way.

I’ve got a lot of good things coming my way
And I’m afraid to say that you`re not one of them

In the first sense, Box Elder could be used to describe a seemingly poisonous releationship, poisonous women. In Malkmus’s bitter state he could be refering to the woman as poisonous when in reality, when you look beneath the surface, this is not the case; it is his own judgement which is skewed. In the latter sense, Box Elder seems to be a non specific place. It’s interchangeable with Timbuktu, I-Don’t-Care-Where-I-Go-As-Long-As-It’s-Away-From-You.

It was the way that you smiled
Made me know at once
That I had to get the fuck out of this town