At a 2009 performance in Durham, NC, Darnielle said of the song:

This is one of those songs where when I tell people what it’s about they look really uncomfortable and they don’t laugh at the parts that I think are funny when I tell the story. Here, I’ll show you. So, this is one of those songs about how if you’re 13 and you live in a house where your stepfather beats your mother nightly — see, I told you. Some of us from these houses, we laugh when we remember the things. I don’t know why, if I figure out why I’m gonna right a self-help book about it. But in the meantime, this is a song about the headphones that were most important to me when I was 14.