HEYdazedcola.
I sent the lyrics to Mote to my girlfriend who is NOT a sonic youth fan but she is supa smart and insightful when it comes to lyrics and I old her to let me know what she thinks of the MOTE lyrics. Here is her reply.
ultimately, my take on it is that he speaks of someone very close to him, maybe a partner and at the same time speaking of how they feel of this life, their life and all the shit that comes with it. he feels like this person sees their relationship/life as an equation and does not feel a consistency with that person, whether physically or emotionally I do not know - they are always seeing him/her "moving in or out of sight". It seems as if he feels like he is the only one that feels the turmoil and "heaviness" of their relationship, that how he pictures the other person's life is much more like a rocket, while he feels like he has this spiral in him, turning him heavy and into stone.
when he speaks of what his friends tell him, what comes to mind is when people cut coke, but in this case, its like everything he sees/feels/desires goes through the other person, like their influence is "cut" into and through everything, but yet it comes from nowhere and goes nowhere.
Mote is a tiny speck/particle - i very much relate with their description of how they feel like this small little thing inside his eye. a separation from the present, a disassociation from the whole of their body/life, rather just feeling like this little speck inside the eye watching their "life"....and the "island-bound" reference further shows disassociation from life/society.
he wants in this time, does not want to "reason at the door" - wants to be let in, being shut out is no longer allowing him to "see the other person breathing as before" whether that means he does not see the passion in them anymore or does not feel it himself...
he goes "down in the daytime and out of sight" but comes back with "fire", feels the repetition of this and their relationship, but in the end, does not see it the same nor does he desire to go through it all again. when shit goes crazy and he blows up (last part re: fires burning, words not speaking but rather falling across the carpet) he feels as if it is a crime, but sees how much the other person feeds off of the situation....
this could also all relate to a certain aspect of himself - maybe the "rock star" part of him...