3.31.2009

Pilot Speed :: "Please Put The Phone Down"

I thought Pilot Speed's lead-singer was Sting's kid. As in: bassist, "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic," The Police -yeah, his offspring. Actually, I was thinking of the band Fiction Plane which is, in fact, fronted by Sting's child. Pilot Speed is different. I conjecture too quickly. And definitely not Blind Pilot either, a brief, incorrect, second-try on my part. This band is not to be confused with any other pilot or aeronautical metaphor. This band is not the band you think they are. One more time with feeling.

The truth is, Pilot Speed doesn't sound like any of the mistakes I made when I read their press release rather hastily three-and-a-half weeks ago. They sound a lot like The Thrills playing Snow Patrol songs. The arrangements are big, sweeping, string-drenched affairs. The vocals are close, fragile, and almost confiding. Close your eyes and picture the sun-sweat of The Thrills' "Santa Cruz" and the morose, over-emotion of Snow Patrol's "Run." Take those two aesthetics and tempos and average them: it works and I'm not a mathematician.

It's the middle of the morning and I'm scribbling "Please Put The Phone Down" on a notepad. No one is on the phone. The lyric is just in my head. The frailness, or maybe the simplicity of the request, "please put the phone down" resonates. It's certainly not perfect but I promise you'll remember it. You might even end up scrawling it on a legal pad in a fit of bored hysteria. So as your mind drifts to the people you talk to on the phone too much and see too little, remember the words. And don't forget their name - you might need it.

Listen :: Pilot Speed - "Please Put The Phone Down"

1 comment:

Blair said...

your last label made me guffaw.