last november, death cab for cutie's first album, something about airplanes, was reissued in honor of its tenth anniversary. i am not a big fan of death cab's last two albums, i do, however, consider something about airplanes, the photo album, and transatlanticism to be some of my favorite cds. there's just a rawness and passion to the band that i don't think is as evident now that they've made it big. and it really pains me to say that, because don't you always want a band that you love to become successful (maybe to even somewhat validate your obssession with them)?
but anyway, back to something about airplanes . i first heard this record when i was in college and going out of my way to find obscure little bands from seattle to listen to. my favorite song on the album is bend to squares, about which sean nelson writes in the liner notes to the reissue, "this song, with its desire, its demand for gravitas, contains the germ of everything Death Cab would become capable of, and everything people would come to love and probably hate about them." um, okay, i won't pretend that i'm smart enough to follow that, but it sounds about right. plus don't they look cute in this video? and that is really all that matters.
kidding.
Showing posts with label death cab for cutie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label death cab for cutie. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Sunday, November 9, 2008
it seems that you live in someone else's dream
death cab for cutie!
wow, ben got a haircut, i think. i liked the way he looked before. he looks.. less nerdy now, i suppose. but that's what i liked about him before. he looks a little too much like a model in this video and it's creeping me out. but this is one of the only songs i like from their new album, so here it is.
i spent a good part of the afternoon today looking for an mp3 player to replace the one that got wet when my water bottle leaked the other day. i hate buying stuff like that because sales people intimidate me and i usually end up buying more than what i want and then feeling bad about it afterward. one of the salesmen at best buy was babbling on to me about ipods and bluetooth until i looked at him and said, "i have no clue what you're talking about." and then he went on about video games for about 5 minutes and i didn't want to interrupt him and tell him that i STILL had no idea what he was going on about.
but i managed to get something and i'm looking forward to being able to listen to music on the bus tomorrow morning. the first thing that i downloaded was a bunch of ray lamontagne songs because i have discovered a fondness for him. and i thought that it was awesome when i read that he's from maine. ha! we already have something in common. i also am completely IN LOVE with the new kings of leon album. wow! i love the singer's voice, the music.. everything about this band. listening to them almost makes me feel the way i felt when i first heard pearl jam. they're THAT good. wow. listen to cold desert. that song is completely owning my world right now.
pearl jam's newest newsletter has a look-a-like contest. you're supposed to dress up the way that one of the members looked in the early 90s. i'm tempted to try to be jeff. not that i'd win or anything, but i think it might be fun to try to find some wacky hats and crazy outfits to wear. i bet i could do it.
oh! speaking of fashion, i saw the cutest shirt in the mall today that i think i want to buy. it said, i'm a caffeine craving, flannel wearing, raindrop dodging seattle girl. do i look like i used to be in a grunge band? LOVE.
wow, ben got a haircut, i think. i liked the way he looked before. he looks.. less nerdy now, i suppose. but that's what i liked about him before. he looks a little too much like a model in this video and it's creeping me out. but this is one of the only songs i like from their new album, so here it is.
i spent a good part of the afternoon today looking for an mp3 player to replace the one that got wet when my water bottle leaked the other day. i hate buying stuff like that because sales people intimidate me and i usually end up buying more than what i want and then feeling bad about it afterward. one of the salesmen at best buy was babbling on to me about ipods and bluetooth until i looked at him and said, "i have no clue what you're talking about." and then he went on about video games for about 5 minutes and i didn't want to interrupt him and tell him that i STILL had no idea what he was going on about.
but i managed to get something and i'm looking forward to being able to listen to music on the bus tomorrow morning. the first thing that i downloaded was a bunch of ray lamontagne songs because i have discovered a fondness for him. and i thought that it was awesome when i read that he's from maine. ha! we already have something in common. i also am completely IN LOVE with the new kings of leon album. wow! i love the singer's voice, the music.. everything about this band. listening to them almost makes me feel the way i felt when i first heard pearl jam. they're THAT good. wow. listen to cold desert. that song is completely owning my world right now.
pearl jam's newest newsletter has a look-a-like contest. you're supposed to dress up the way that one of the members looked in the early 90s. i'm tempted to try to be jeff. not that i'd win or anything, but i think it might be fun to try to find some wacky hats and crazy outfits to wear. i bet i could do it.
oh! speaking of fashion, i saw the cutest shirt in the mall today that i think i want to buy. it said, i'm a caffeine craving, flannel wearing, raindrop dodging seattle girl. do i look like i used to be in a grunge band? LOVE.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
everyone you meet, they all seem to be asleep
with the exceptions of marching bands of manhattan and i will follow you into the dark, i did not like death cab for cutie's last album. at all. so much so that i was ready to give up on a band i had once thought was really promising - for a long time, i was obssessed with their two albums before plans, the photo album and transatlanticism. i think i feel such a strong connection with the latter album because, when i was living in tacoma and could not find a teaching job (and was really unhappy as a result), i listened to it every single night for about two months with headphones on. so, i was really excited for plans, and when it came out, i was incredibly disappointed. it just seemed... boring . maybe it was the fact that it was their first album with a major label, i don't know - i just felt like it was missing something.
their new album, narrow stairs, begins with bixby canyon bridge , a song that i have to say has really grown on me since the first time i heard it on KEXP (and thought it was such a waste of time that i turned it off). the song begins quietly, and then builds until it feels like it's going to explode. maybe this is what was missing from plans. like marching bands of manhattan, bixby canyon bridge just seems.. big. 'big' as in it makes me want to strech my arms out wide while i close my eyes and sing along. lyrically, the song has lots of references to jack kerouac (which i know you'll appreciate, kristine). all the way from san francisco as i chased the end of your road/cause i've still got miles to go. like the best death cab songs, this one paints a beautiful picture in my mind. i can totally see ben standing in a hot canyon, hoping somehow to discover the secret to life, but then realizing that he can't, and coming to terms with the fact that that's okay.
musically, narrow stairs doesn't really break any new ground for the band. i still want to listen to it a little bit more, but a couple of the songs remind me of older songs (long division in particular sounds really familiar. i think that it reminds me of why'd you want to live here, one of my favorite death cab songs). cath begins with a guitar hook that hasn’t left my head for days. long division has a catchy chorus that I love to sing along with, and no sunlight does a great job of juxtaposing upbeat music with depressing lyrics.
speaking of lyrics, one of my favorite things to do when a band i like releases a new album is listen to it while analyzing the lyrics. ben gibbard is, i think, really good at writing songs from other people's points of view, and the strongest songs on narrow stairs play to this strength. cath, probably my favorite song on the album, is about a woman who, on her wedding day, regrets her choices in life: she stands with a well intentioned man but can't relax with his hand on the small of her back... what became of you when your heart was dying fast. grapevine fires, a song about a family that watches a forest fire becomes a metaphor for coming to terms with the fact that life has no guarantees: the northern sky looked like the end of days/a wakeup call to a rented room sounded like an alarm of impending doom/to warn us that it's only a matter of time before we all burn. even no sunlight, a pretty straightforward mid-20s 'what the hell am i doing here?' kind of song, reminds me of lazy summer afternoons: when i was young lying in the grass/ i felt so safe in a warming bath of sunlight/the vast open sky could do no harm like the embrace of a mother's arms.
This album is not one of those that you will like immediately - at least, it wasn’t for me. And I can’t tell yet whether it will stand the test of time, but, for now, I don’t want to let it leave my CD player.
their new album, narrow stairs, begins with bixby canyon bridge , a song that i have to say has really grown on me since the first time i heard it on KEXP (and thought it was such a waste of time that i turned it off). the song begins quietly, and then builds until it feels like it's going to explode. maybe this is what was missing from plans. like marching bands of manhattan, bixby canyon bridge just seems.. big. 'big' as in it makes me want to strech my arms out wide while i close my eyes and sing along. lyrically, the song has lots of references to jack kerouac (which i know you'll appreciate, kristine). all the way from san francisco as i chased the end of your road/cause i've still got miles to go. like the best death cab songs, this one paints a beautiful picture in my mind. i can totally see ben standing in a hot canyon, hoping somehow to discover the secret to life, but then realizing that he can't, and coming to terms with the fact that that's okay.
musically, narrow stairs doesn't really break any new ground for the band. i still want to listen to it a little bit more, but a couple of the songs remind me of older songs (long division in particular sounds really familiar. i think that it reminds me of why'd you want to live here, one of my favorite death cab songs). cath begins with a guitar hook that hasn’t left my head for days. long division has a catchy chorus that I love to sing along with, and no sunlight does a great job of juxtaposing upbeat music with depressing lyrics.
speaking of lyrics, one of my favorite things to do when a band i like releases a new album is listen to it while analyzing the lyrics. ben gibbard is, i think, really good at writing songs from other people's points of view, and the strongest songs on narrow stairs play to this strength. cath, probably my favorite song on the album, is about a woman who, on her wedding day, regrets her choices in life: she stands with a well intentioned man but can't relax with his hand on the small of her back... what became of you when your heart was dying fast. grapevine fires, a song about a family that watches a forest fire becomes a metaphor for coming to terms with the fact that life has no guarantees: the northern sky looked like the end of days/a wakeup call to a rented room sounded like an alarm of impending doom/to warn us that it's only a matter of time before we all burn. even no sunlight, a pretty straightforward mid-20s 'what the hell am i doing here?' kind of song, reminds me of lazy summer afternoons: when i was young lying in the grass/ i felt so safe in a warming bath of sunlight/the vast open sky could do no harm like the embrace of a mother's arms.
This album is not one of those that you will like immediately - at least, it wasn’t for me. And I can’t tell yet whether it will stand the test of time, but, for now, I don’t want to let it leave my CD player.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
recommendation #2
first of all, i think i may have to eat my words about death cab for cutie. i bought their new album today at easy street because it was on sale. i'm listening to it right now and, although it's my first listen, i think i like it. a lot, even. in the future, perhaps i shouldn't be so quick to judge something based on its creepy song titles. the award for best lyric about my life is you can do better than me but i can't do better than you. that ben gibbard sure is good at writing depressing love songs.
but here's something i can judge. today, i went to a movie called strangers (it was at the uptown theatres, as part of the seattle international film festival). i first heard about this movie because, a couple of months ago, glen and marketa sang on its title song, which i now think is interesting because strangers and once do share some intriguing parallels. both movies are great at evoking the feeling of living in the moment, but knowing that the moment can't possibly last forever.
strangers is about eyal and rana, an israeli and palestinian, who meet each other during the 2006 world cup finals in berlin. the film actually has lots of funny moments, especially at the beginning, when eyal and rana meet by accident - their bags get mixed up on a subway train and there are a couple humorous scenes of them going through each other's things. during the next few days, they start falling in love (although their feelings are never given a name), but then rana has to return to paris (where she has lived for 5 years) and, despite her telling eyal not to follow her, he does. some other stuff happens - which i won't write about in case someone happens to get the opportunity to see this movie (which you should!) - and it's all set against the backdrop of news reports about bombings in lebanon. even though the film is about the relationship between two people, those two people cannot separate themselves entirely from their political realities. when she first realizes their bags have been mixed up, rana (who has figured out that eyal is from israel because she finds a hebrew book in his bag) hesitates calling eyal because of who he is. later, eyal and rana joke that the palestinians and israelis both have crappy soccer teams because the best palestinians become terrorists while the best israelis join the army. in paris, eyal argues with rana's friends about which side shoulders more responsibility for the war. however, rana tells eyal that, if they got married, she would live in israel (which kind of reminded me of the scene in once when the guy and girl are sitting by the piano talking - dreaming - about moving to london together). can they ever really be together? the ending is pretty ambiguous.
the acting in this movie was GREAT. especially the woman who played rana - i want to see everything else she has ever been in. i love seeing foreign films that i would never otherwise see (everyone reading this should support the seattle international film festival! they have films all year long, not just during the festival).
but here's something i can judge. today, i went to a movie called strangers (it was at the uptown theatres, as part of the seattle international film festival). i first heard about this movie because, a couple of months ago, glen and marketa sang on its title song, which i now think is interesting because strangers and once do share some intriguing parallels. both movies are great at evoking the feeling of living in the moment, but knowing that the moment can't possibly last forever.
strangers is about eyal and rana, an israeli and palestinian, who meet each other during the 2006 world cup finals in berlin. the film actually has lots of funny moments, especially at the beginning, when eyal and rana meet by accident - their bags get mixed up on a subway train and there are a couple humorous scenes of them going through each other's things. during the next few days, they start falling in love (although their feelings are never given a name), but then rana has to return to paris (where she has lived for 5 years) and, despite her telling eyal not to follow her, he does. some other stuff happens - which i won't write about in case someone happens to get the opportunity to see this movie (which you should!) - and it's all set against the backdrop of news reports about bombings in lebanon. even though the film is about the relationship between two people, those two people cannot separate themselves entirely from their political realities. when she first realizes their bags have been mixed up, rana (who has figured out that eyal is from israel because she finds a hebrew book in his bag) hesitates calling eyal because of who he is. later, eyal and rana joke that the palestinians and israelis both have crappy soccer teams because the best palestinians become terrorists while the best israelis join the army. in paris, eyal argues with rana's friends about which side shoulders more responsibility for the war. however, rana tells eyal that, if they got married, she would live in israel (which kind of reminded me of the scene in once when the guy and girl are sitting by the piano talking - dreaming - about moving to london together). can they ever really be together? the ending is pretty ambiguous.
the acting in this movie was GREAT. especially the woman who played rana - i want to see everything else she has ever been in. i love seeing foreign films that i would never otherwise see (everyone reading this should support the seattle international film festival! they have films all year long, not just during the festival).
Friday, May 30, 2008
i took the 405...
death cab for cutie is on soundopinions this week and i would say that it's definately worth a listen. i STILL don't have narrow stairs (i have a gift certificate for amazon.com. i should order it). that tells you how excited i am about their new songs, huh? although, they play - obviously - some of the new stuff on the show, and i have to say that i really like grapevine fires. however, i will possess your heart still creeps me out. i don't like the song, and the title reminds me of that weird guy in high school who used to leave me plastic roses in my locker.
the interview itself is worth a listen, too. i think that the funniest part is when the interviewer says something about how no band is great when it first starts and then ben says, "well some bands are. we were pretty good." the interviewer laughs but ben doesn't. ha! i think that he's probably right, if he means that they were better then than they are now.
on a totally unrelated note, this review of the swell season show at radio city music hall is, despite its faults (when did the frames become a "tasteful decaf coffeehouse band"? what does that even mean??), worth reading for this: the best frames songs share the same DNA that made once so magnetic: "what happens when the heart just stops" is one long, graceful crescendo, expertly threaded out a measure at a time, until glen's pounding on his beat-to-crap guitar and howling 'disappointment' over and over like it's the most optimistic word in the english language.
the interview itself is worth a listen, too. i think that the funniest part is when the interviewer says something about how no band is great when it first starts and then ben says, "well some bands are. we were pretty good." the interviewer laughs but ben doesn't. ha! i think that he's probably right, if he means that they were better then than they are now.
on a totally unrelated note, this review of the swell season show at radio city music hall is, despite its faults (when did the frames become a "tasteful decaf coffeehouse band"? what does that even mean??), worth reading for this: the best frames songs share the same DNA that made once so magnetic: "what happens when the heart just stops" is one long, graceful crescendo, expertly threaded out a measure at a time, until glen's pounding on his beat-to-crap guitar and howling 'disappointment' over and over like it's the most optimistic word in the english language.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
daydreaming our lives away
in case you haven't noticed, most of my post titles are random lines from songs that don't usually even have anything to do with what i am writing about, they just happen to be songs i love or am listening to at the moment.
generally speaking, i don't like summer, and i think i realized one reason why - i associate this time of year with endings. everytime i've moved, it has been during may or june. i graduated from high school in june, from college in may, i moved to tacoma in may, i moved to seattle in june... not that moving or graduating is necessarily a bad thing, but it does represent an ending in a way.
also, i really hate hot weather. i love the sun, but not all the time. and i don't like it when it's still light out at 9:00 on a weeknight. it makes me feel like i should be out doing things instead of falling asleep on the couch. wait, maybe i should...
today, however, was one of those spring/summer days i love. neither too hot nor too chilly. i went to the fremont sunday market, with a pit stop at pike place to get a piroshky and buy some sugar snap peas (yum). i walked around fremont for awhile, enjoying the view and going into little shops. everytime i'm in fremont, i always make sure to go to the antique market. i could spend hours wandering around there. and i think i did. well, one hour at least.
6 weeks until pearl jam in boston! i'm really excited for that. someone asked me what album i'd recommend as a first pearl jam record. i had to think about that for a second, because i don't really listen to the albums anymore - i mostly listen to live shows. and that question got me thinking, maybe i should listen to the albums more. anyway... i told her that she should get yield , because it is my favorite (that and no code, although the latter is a bit too experimental for me to recommend as a first album. it's one that i think you'll either love or hate, and if you hate it you might wonder why i love pearl jam so much)
speaking of endings and new beginnings, yield came out in 1998, the year i graduated from high school and started college. a lot of the songs on that album remind me of feeling homesick. there's a weird thing about music - songs that you listen to at a certain point of your life can become tied to the emotions you felt then. transatlanticism by death cab for cutie is another one; everytime i listen to that album, i remember where i was in my life when it was released. probably because i listened to it every night for a few months.
here's in hiding live from the gorge 06. this is my favorite song on yield, and one of the only ones that i hadn't heard live before this show. (i think the only song left that i adore and haven't seen after 20 something shows is indifference. play that in boston. got it, pearl jam??)
i was going to write more about why i love this song so much (the lyrics and stone's guitar, mostly), but my throat hurts and i'm suddenly really tired. so i'm going to make a cup of tea and watch desperate housewives. (don't laugh, it's the season finale!)
when things change so much, it's all state of mind
generally speaking, i don't like summer, and i think i realized one reason why - i associate this time of year with endings. everytime i've moved, it has been during may or june. i graduated from high school in june, from college in may, i moved to tacoma in may, i moved to seattle in june... not that moving or graduating is necessarily a bad thing, but it does represent an ending in a way.
also, i really hate hot weather. i love the sun, but not all the time. and i don't like it when it's still light out at 9:00 on a weeknight. it makes me feel like i should be out doing things instead of falling asleep on the couch. wait, maybe i should...
today, however, was one of those spring/summer days i love. neither too hot nor too chilly. i went to the fremont sunday market, with a pit stop at pike place to get a piroshky and buy some sugar snap peas (yum). i walked around fremont for awhile, enjoying the view and going into little shops. everytime i'm in fremont, i always make sure to go to the antique market. i could spend hours wandering around there. and i think i did. well, one hour at least.
6 weeks until pearl jam in boston! i'm really excited for that. someone asked me what album i'd recommend as a first pearl jam record. i had to think about that for a second, because i don't really listen to the albums anymore - i mostly listen to live shows. and that question got me thinking, maybe i should listen to the albums more. anyway... i told her that she should get yield , because it is my favorite (that and no code, although the latter is a bit too experimental for me to recommend as a first album. it's one that i think you'll either love or hate, and if you hate it you might wonder why i love pearl jam so much)
speaking of endings and new beginnings, yield came out in 1998, the year i graduated from high school and started college. a lot of the songs on that album remind me of feeling homesick. there's a weird thing about music - songs that you listen to at a certain point of your life can become tied to the emotions you felt then. transatlanticism by death cab for cutie is another one; everytime i listen to that album, i remember where i was in my life when it was released. probably because i listened to it every night for a few months.
here's in hiding live from the gorge 06. this is my favorite song on yield, and one of the only ones that i hadn't heard live before this show. (i think the only song left that i adore and haven't seen after 20 something shows is indifference. play that in boston. got it, pearl jam??)
i was going to write more about why i love this song so much (the lyrics and stone's guitar, mostly), but my throat hurts and i'm suddenly really tired. so i'm going to make a cup of tea and watch desperate housewives. (don't laugh, it's the season finale!)
when things change so much, it's all state of mind
Monday, April 28, 2008
speaking of songs that make me cry..
if i could open my arms
expand the length of the isle of manhattan...
if i could open my eyes
to see in all directions at the same time
oh what a beautiful view
if you were never aware of what was around you
it is true what you say
i live like a hermit in my own cave
but when the sun shines again
i'll pull the curtains to let the sun shine in
expand the length of the isle of manhattan...
if i could open my eyes
to see in all directions at the same time
oh what a beautiful view
if you were never aware of what was around you
it is true what you say
i live like a hermit in my own cave
but when the sun shines again
i'll pull the curtains to let the sun shine in
Sunday, April 20, 2008
sunday morning links...
isn't it funny how you start reading something and then click a link and before you know it, you have 10 windows of your web browser open? one is a review of the death cab show in bremerton, another is a piece ben gibbard wrote for a magazine, another is live from KEXP, another is a review of eddie vedder's last show in san diego...
so here's some of what i'm reading/listening to this morning:
ben gibbard wrote a piece for paste magazine called "the meaning of life." i'm not sure he actually comes to any consensus about said meaning, although he does write about feeling like jack kerouac in on the road. this is the part i found interesting:
With this record, if I didn’t have something to write about that I’ve experienced, if I couldn’t visualize myself in that scenario and really put myself in the shoes of the narrator, then I felt I shouldn’t be writing it.
kim virant i'm not sure how to describe her - country mixed with folk mixed with rock. i would recommend listening to jesse's song.
carrie akre i really like her - in fact i would probably say that she's one of my favorite female singers. check out take this heart.
glen hansard and marketa irglova sing on a new song called one more word for an israeli movie called strangers.
so here's some of what i'm reading/listening to this morning:
ben gibbard wrote a piece for paste magazine called "the meaning of life." i'm not sure he actually comes to any consensus about said meaning, although he does write about feeling like jack kerouac in on the road. this is the part i found interesting:
With this record, if I didn’t have something to write about that I’ve experienced, if I couldn’t visualize myself in that scenario and really put myself in the shoes of the narrator, then I felt I shouldn’t be writing it.
kim virant i'm not sure how to describe her - country mixed with folk mixed with rock. i would recommend listening to jesse's song.
carrie akre i really like her - in fact i would probably say that she's one of my favorite female singers. check out take this heart.
glen hansard and marketa irglova sing on a new song called one more word for an israeli movie called strangers.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
there'd be no distance that could hold us back...
THIS is where i wish i had been last night. death cab for cutie started their tour at a theatre in bremerton. i tried to get tickets, but couldn't - what is it with my favorite bands not playing in seattle (or only playing "surprise" shows)?? (i'm sorry, but the gorge is not seattle. neither is vancouver. i'm talking to you, rem and pearl jam).
wow, ben gibbard is a little nutty with his movements, huh? (boy, that's a weird sentence)
if i could walk, i would have gone to easy street today to celebrate national record store day. they were having twenty percent off everything today. sonic boom was also having a sidewalk sale, plus a bunch of instore performances.
foot update!!! my foot is better today, but still not 100% (probably around 70%). i stayed home and rested today, and am planning to do the same tonight, in hopes that i'll be able to walk normally when i go to san francisco next weekend.
i spent the afternoon looking up bus/train schedules and printing out maps for the places i want to go. i'm usually bad at planning for trips, so we'll see how much of it i actually get done. i can't wait until friday!
oh, and my pearl jam tickets for boston came last week! we're really going, kristine!! yay!
wow, ben gibbard is a little nutty with his movements, huh? (boy, that's a weird sentence)
if i could walk, i would have gone to easy street today to celebrate national record store day. they were having twenty percent off everything today. sonic boom was also having a sidewalk sale, plus a bunch of instore performances.
foot update!!! my foot is better today, but still not 100% (probably around 70%). i stayed home and rested today, and am planning to do the same tonight, in hopes that i'll be able to walk normally when i go to san francisco next weekend.
i spent the afternoon looking up bus/train schedules and printing out maps for the places i want to go. i'm usually bad at planning for trips, so we'll see how much of it i actually get done. i can't wait until friday!
oh, and my pearl jam tickets for boston came last week! we're really going, kristine!! yay!
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
randomness
i am so addicted to posting on this thing that it's insane. thanks, kristine, for giving me a new way to waste my time ;)
i woke up this morning to a familiar voice on my clock radio. wait a minute.. could this be ben gibbard? sure enough, it was, because soon he started singing i will possess your heart, which i remembered as one of the song titles on their new cd (out in the beginning of may, i forget the exact date). i always thought that was a creepy sounding title. what if i don't want you to possess my heart? upon first (and only) listening, i was none too impressed with this song - but i guess singles are usually the weakest songs on an album.
speaking of death cab, there is a very funny video on youtube (i am too lazy to copy and paste the link right now) of ben gibbard talking about his jazz band. complete with footage of him playing the xylophone. my brain must be fried from spending too much time around screaming 4 year olds, but i thought he was serious until he started talking about how the drummmer from death cab auditioned for this jazz band 7 times but isn't good enough to get in.
i am reading (well, re-reading) a novel called the true story of hansel and gretel. the author takes the children's fairytale (which is really quite morbid and frightening if you think about it) and re-tells it by setting it in poland during world war II. the story is about a sister and brother who are abandoned (well, that's not the right word - they didn't see another choice) by their father and stepmother in the woods. eventually, the children, who call themselves hansel and gretel, find an old woman (a "witch") who takes them in and feeds them. basically, it's just a really good story about survival, love and hope. and the hatred embodied by the german soldiers. my favorite part about the novel is the way the author describes the setting. it's not often that i read a story where the setting is so clear that i can close my eyes and see it in my mind.
i woke up this morning to a familiar voice on my clock radio. wait a minute.. could this be ben gibbard? sure enough, it was, because soon he started singing i will possess your heart, which i remembered as one of the song titles on their new cd (out in the beginning of may, i forget the exact date). i always thought that was a creepy sounding title. what if i don't want you to possess my heart? upon first (and only) listening, i was none too impressed with this song - but i guess singles are usually the weakest songs on an album.
speaking of death cab, there is a very funny video on youtube (i am too lazy to copy and paste the link right now) of ben gibbard talking about his jazz band. complete with footage of him playing the xylophone. my brain must be fried from spending too much time around screaming 4 year olds, but i thought he was serious until he started talking about how the drummmer from death cab auditioned for this jazz band 7 times but isn't good enough to get in.
i am reading (well, re-reading) a novel called the true story of hansel and gretel. the author takes the children's fairytale (which is really quite morbid and frightening if you think about it) and re-tells it by setting it in poland during world war II. the story is about a sister and brother who are abandoned (well, that's not the right word - they didn't see another choice) by their father and stepmother in the woods. eventually, the children, who call themselves hansel and gretel, find an old woman (a "witch") who takes them in and feeds them. basically, it's just a really good story about survival, love and hope. and the hatred embodied by the german soldiers. my favorite part about the novel is the way the author describes the setting. it's not often that i read a story where the setting is so clear that i can close my eyes and see it in my mind.
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