Music to crank up

I never liked most modern rock, and definitely not this emo thing, or the very creepy stalker themes often found in modern rock and all over what few videos are still on MTV. As far as I've been concerned, Death Cab for Cutie would never be played through my speakers. Now it's midnight, I have the windows open, and I've enthusiastically cranked up their song I Will Possess Your Heart. What gives, right? The music.

I was channel surfing the radio the other night when this incredibly haunting, dissonant bassline, with an absolutely chilling piano solo over it, and a very technical drumbeat came on NPR. It was like a cross between Pink Floyd, Krzysztof Penderecki, and Rush on barbiturates. Four minutes later, when the vocals came in, it was revealed to be a very disturbing stalker song, more so than The Police's Every Breath you Take, because these guys obviously think his will get them anything but a restraining order.

Musically, it is kind of a trance raga, darker and more dissonant than Shine on you Crazy Diamond, but not as wildly varied and psychedelic as The End. The fact that the band is literally playing in a freezer does not seem out of place for this video. Variations on a very simple theme and a killer piano tone combine to make for four minutes of icewater in your veins. The next four minutes are equally unvaried and consistent in their cognitive dissonace (at least for anyone not raised on this stuff), and will leave you clicking the repeat button and cranking up the bass more than once. The thin but smooth voice that Ben Gibbard has, as well as the look he has in the video of being on the edge of a nervous breakdown passes on to the listener that feeling of walking on thin emotional ice.

Overall, if you liked Pink Floyd's Wish you Were Here album, you owe it to yourself to give I Will Possess your Heart a listen.

And, apparently, youtube's embed code won't lead to a video right now, so I'll just say look it up, and I'll embed the damn video tomorrow.