I think that indie rockers were in the know about the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. They tried to warn us, but we didn't wanna hear it. I provide the following albums as examples:
1. Explosions in the Sky -- "Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die/Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever"
Now, the thing about this, aside from the name of the band, is that the album was released on September 4, 2001. So what? The inside liner notes are really sparse, but the back page has nothing but a drawing of an airplane, and the caption "This plane will crash tomorrow". There is a rumor that this record was actually released on September 10, which would make that caption even more eerie, but September 10 was a Monday. New release day is always Tuesday.
2. Superchunk -- "Here's to Shutting Up"
Okay... this one is kind of a stretch. The album was released on September 18, 2001. One week after the attacks. However, while the images were still being constantly shown on tv, tha chunk had to chime in. Track 3, entitled "Phone Sex" features the lyric "Plane crash footage on tv. I know, I know that could be me." Obviously the song was written well in advance. Mac must have known something.
Alright, alright. I can't go through with it. I can't extrapolate these terrible coincidences into some crazy theory. They're just that. Crazy coincidences. Obviously, these bands couldn't have know about or had anything to do with the attacks. It's just wild that their albums have plane crash imagery in them, and they happened to be released in such proximity to that horrible day.
I tried to do a search of the albums that were actually released that day, as it was a new release day. Nothing of note. Well, Slayer did put out a record, and I'm sure it was full of lyrics about death and dismemberment. They usually are.
In all seriousness, the above mentioned albums are both fantastic. I highly recommend them to anyone. Especially to strangers on the street. I've ranted before on this blog about Explosions in the Sky. I'm sure at some point in the near future, I'll rant about tha chunk.
If you do nothing else today, go somewhere where you can listen to that Explosions in the Sky record. It's truly phenomenal. If you have the patience for it. It's instrumental, heavily effected, mostly very intense, and the tempo constantly fluctuates from dead still to frenetic. I can't listen to it enough. You may have listened to them before whether you know it or not. If you saw the movie Friday Night Lights, that was their music you heard throughout the film.
I'll shut up now.
3 comments:
Ryan Adams - Gold? That album was either released right before or right after 9/11, and had some pretty stunningly relevant imagery in it. That was a pretty crazy coincidence too - and now that album will always have an association for me with then - which, of course, means that I can hardly ever listen to it anymore.
you know, I thought that movie was pretty great - good story, good performances (by Tim McGraw if you can believe that). I heard a review that described it as something like Hoosiers crossed with Hoop Dreams w/ football instead of basketball - seems pretty accurate. Anyway, I think you'd enjoy it. It also brought back some memories for me of watching high school football in Georgia - which was a pretty similar atmosphere.
What about I Am The World Trade Center? Maybe they not only knew about the attacks, but they got a jump on the patriotism thing, showing a solidarity with the victims well before anyone else did.
Then, of course, there's the Coup's "Party Music".
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