Good Weather For Airstrikes

By now it’s time to just face the facts that we won’t be a getting another Postal Service album until about late 2006, but that’s just how it has to be. Ben Gibbard’s currently busy touring in support of Death Cab’s new album and Jimmy Tamborello is occupied writing (programming?) the next Dntel record and readying it for a first-quarter 2006 release. There is some mystery as to whether or not Rilo Kiley’s Jenny Lewis actually sang on the last album (I’ve heard from many reputable sources that it was actually Jen Wood of Seattle’s The Jen Wood Trio whose angelic vocals we hear on “Nothing Better”, though the interview in the middle of this session claims otherwise), but regardless, she too is occupied until early-to-mid 2006 releasing and supporting her debut solo album, Rabbit Fur Coat, due out January 23rd on Conor Oberst’s Team Love label.

But to make the wait easier, here is a gem of a live session, recorded on Seattle’s Morning Becomes Eclectic radio show in 2003. I acquired this last summer in the still pre-GWFAS days, and while I listened to it solidly for about a month, I forgot about it until now. Fortune struck though when it came on my iTunes yesterday (oh, the wonders of the “shuffle” feature), and I remembered just how fantastic it is. So I created album artwork for it (because, y’know, that’s just what I do) and I’m posting it here for you today, and hopefully it will help make the never-ending wait for a new album more bearable.

The actual set itself is fantastic; the band plays all of the highlights from Give Up (but let’s be honest, the whole album was a highlight in itself), and Jenny Lewis, who as I mentioned before may or may not have actually sang on Give Up, reinvents the female vocals and breathes a new life in to the tracks, especially when she shines on “Nothing Better”. What makes this live session great is that Tamborello and company take these songs that were already incredible on Give Up, and add new touches and elements, which in some cases (”District Sleeps Alone”, “Brand New Colony”, and “Nothing Better” especially) make these live versions actually eclipse their original counterparts. However, the immaculate “Such Great Heights”, my favorite song of all-time, unfortunately sounds relatively lackluster in this live recording, namely the stale-sounding guitar solo near the end. Even so, this is definitely worth downloading. I know we’ve all heard and love Give Up (seriously, I don’t think there’s a single person ever that doesn’t love that album), but I still highly recommend that you download this, so at the very least you can maintain your sanity waiting for their 2006 follow-up. “Mid-to-late 2006″ can’t come soon enough.

I’ve also included the song that got everything started, “(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan”, which was the initial collaboration between Gibbard and Dntel’s back in 2001, from Dntel’s album, Life Is Full of Possibilities. There’s a slight chance that some of you haven’t heard this, but it’s an indie classic so if you haven’t I kind of demand you do so now.

The Postal Service: Live On Morning Becomes Eclectic
1. Intro
2. “District Sleeps Alone Tonight”
3. “We Will Become Silhouettes”
4. “Nothing Better” (ft. Jenny Lewis)
5. Interview
6. “Clark Gable”
7. “Such Great Heights”
8. “Brand New Colony”

Bonus:
“(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan” - Dntel (ft. Ben Gibbard

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 10th, 2005 at 6:36 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.