Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCXCII--The Postal Service: We Will Become Silhouettes

My introduction to this week's tune was actually an acoustic cover version by the Shins while listening to Pandora at the thrift shop I used to work at a few years back (and come to think of it, listening to Pandora was pretty much the only highlight of that job).  I go back and forth as to which version I prefer depending on my musical tastes at the time, though I eventually decided on the original version for this post out of a sense of fairness to its creators....

Here's the part where I'm supposed to play the cool pop music expert who knew that Ben Gibbard (of Death Cab for Cutie fame) and Jenny Lewis (of Rilo Kiley fame--both bands I've written about for FNJ) were in The Postal Service...but sadly until I started my half-assed research this weekend I had no clue (or if I did I'd completely forgotten).  Anyhoo, the Postal Service had its beginnings when Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello put a song together for a compilation album, liked what they had done, and began work in earnest on an album of their own which they made via mailing each other music and lyrics (hence, The Postal Service).  The band released its one and only album in 2003, had some success with it, and proceeded to spend the next ten years thinking about a follow-up.  They reunited in 2013 for a reunion tour, and at its end, announced the band was splitting for good.  And that's about as easy of a band history as I've yet written.

Fun Fact:  The label The Postal Service released their one and only album on, Sub Pop, had only one album in its history outsell the Postal Service's LP:  Nirvana's debut album, Bleach.

"We Will Become Silhouettes" was released in 2005 from their one and only album, Give Up.  It would eventually reach #82 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, though it had much greater success in Canada, reaching #3 (so many cool kids in Canada!) on the Canadian charts.

Despite it's rather upbeat music, "We Will Become Silhouettes" is not the happiest of songs--it's subject matter is what becomes of us after a nuclear holocaust.  The narrator tells the tale of being stuck in his home (eerily familiar...) and wanting to go outside but he cannot because if he does the fallout will invade his body until he eventually explodes.  Yeah, happy, happy, joy, joy for a Sunday night.  Still, despite its rather maudlin story, there is a touch of the resilience of the human spirit in it, and I suppose that's enough for me.  Gibbard delivers some fine vocals and the song is amazingly catchy for such a downbeat message.  I'd guess you'd need somewhat of a cockeyed view of the world to appreciate this one.  And to think you saw it all on Friday Night Jukebox....

Lyric Sheet:  "Because the air outside will make our cells/Divide at an alarming rate until our shells/Simply cannot hold all our insides in/And that's when we'll explode (and it won't be a pretty sight)...

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCXI--Death Cab for Cutie: I Will Follow You into the Dark

Another week, another kick in the ass to my New Year's resolution of actually publishing Jukebox posts on their scheduled Friday....

This week's tune comes courtesy of another late night of not being able to sleep and channel surfing which somehow made it to VH-1 before finding anything else of interest to watch.  Doesn't help the coolness quotient much, does it?

Every now and again while doing my half-assed weekly research for FNJ I'll come across a band that hasn't been as commercially successful as I would have guessed, but Death Cab for Cutie is the first that I recall as having been more successful than I would have thought.  Formed in Bellingham, Washington is 1997, Death Cab for Cutie was originally a solo project for band leader Ben Gibbard, but after having been signed to a recording contract, he decided to make a band of it.  Over the last twenty-one years they have released nine studio albums, six EPs, and thirty singles.  They've had a #1 album, three other albums in the top ten, and one more in the top twenty.  Surprisingly (at least to me), they've done this without much help from hit singles--of the thirty they've released, only two have hit the Billboard Hot 100, and those two topped out at #60 and #70.  The band has also been nominated for eight Grammy Awards, toured the world over (they've done especially well in the UK--so many cool kids in the UK!), and have another five years to wait for their shot at being enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  Damn fine career if you ask me....

Fun Fact:  For the three people who probably don't know already, Death Cab for Cutie was named for a song by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band called, surprisingly enough, "Death Cab for Cutie."  The song was originally released in 1967, making the band's name choice a bit odder than it already is (we're talking thirty years down the road, for God's sake).  Gibbard has admitted if he'd known what a pain in the ass the name would become, he'd have chosen a different band name.  For those who don't have my curiosity, the original song is actually quite listenable...and don't let the fact that it's a take off of Elvis (Presley, not Costello) stop you from giving it a listen.  It's actually quite clever and catchy.

"I Will Follow You into the Dark" was the third single released from the band's 2005 album Plans.  It was not one of the two singles they had that actually cracked the Billboard Hot 100, though in an odd turn of events, it was eventually certified as a gold single, and is the band's best selling single in their history.  Sometimes greatness isn't as evident in the present as it should be (see also, Van Gogh, Vincent).

I've noted a time or two here on FNJ that simplicity is not an impediment to greatness in a pop song, and "I Will Follow You into the Dark" does nothing to dispel that notion--well, at least as simple as a  song that's about following one's love into the Great Beyond at the end of one's days can be.  The song is just Gibbard and acoustic guitar--Gibbard's vocals are a delight, almost reminding me of a softly played clarinet, and the guitar matches the whimsical nature of the song word for word.  Gibbard has a way with turning a phrase ("...everything to see from Bangkok to Calgary" "...in Catholic school as vicious as Roman rule"), and takes what could easily have been a maudlin song and imbues it with a touch of humor and a lot of heart.  In the end, it's a quirky masterpiece that'll bring a smile--and those are always most welcome.

Liner Notes:  "If Heaven and Hell decide/That they both are satisfied/Illuminate the 'No's' on their vacancy signs/ If there's no one beside you/When your soul embarks/Then I'll follow you into the dark..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee