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. CXCI--Rilo Kiley: A Better Son/Daughter

Another episode of so much music, so little time...

A number of years back one of my two older kids passed along this week's tune, which I happened to mention to my oldest son that I really liked, and he proceeded to go to the trouble of burning me a CD of the album which it was released on...and somehow, lo these many years down the road, I've never listened to it (and just like that, my chances at Father of the Year have disappeared).  That will change soon, as it's now next in line on my drive to work playlist, but it would sure be appreciated if someone out there could find a way to get a couple more than just 24 hours in a day so I could get a little more time to get to all the music I've missed....

Thanks to a Wikipedia entry that had one of the weakest band histories I've ever seen (and in fairness, maybe there just isn't that much history to Rilo Kiley), this will be mercifully short.  Rilo Kiley formed in 1998 in Los Angeles, released their debut album in 1999, released four more albums over the next eight years, took a hiatus in 2007 that they never returned from, and released their final LP (total of six) in 2013, though the last one was little more than the obligatory b-sides and unreleased fodder bands are wont to release on occasion.  Depending on which story is true, the band's name either came from a character in a one of two dreams founding member Blake Sennett had, or was a name pulled out of a book about Scottish soccer players.  While the band had virtually no commercial success, they did attract a small but devoted following, much like many other indie bands.

Fun Fact:  Lead singer and songwriter (with Sennett) Jenny Lewis would go on to be in a band called Nice as Fuck.  I don't know how important of a fact this is, but it makes me chuckle to think there's a band out there called Nice as Fuck.

Released on their The Execution of All Things LP in 2002, "A Better Son/Daughter" was not released as a single, and it what has become a theme of sorts over the past couple of months, we have no shout out for Billboard magazine this week.  The album itself went on to sell 66,000 copies, which doesn't sound like much until you realize even if it had only sold one copy, it'd be one more than you ever sold.

"A Better Son/Daughter" is a song about depression (though through my half-assed research I found a few people who thought it was about bi-polar disorder), and as one who's been there, does a pretty good job of capturing the paralysis, doubt, fear, and guilt that go with it.  It also does well in showing the (sometimes in vain) hope that you can beat it and become whole again.  The song sounds anthemic in nature to me, though I've seen some describe it as more like a battle march (which could be somewhat the same).  Lewis' vocals begin as if she's singing through a bullhorn before coming in strongly as the character tries to tell herself how she's going to get better and what a better person she'll be.  In the end, it's one of those brilliant, small masterpieces that not nearly enough people will ever get to hear (though it was featured on Orange Is the New Black), and is another in a long line of reminders of why I've devoted so much of my time to pop music.

Lyric Sheet:  "And sometimes when you're on/You're really fucking on/And your friends they sing along/And they love you..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee