Absentee - "Shared"
Modest Mouse - "Make Everyone Happy / Mechanical Birds"

The Absentee track I got in the mail today, and the Modest Mouse is the last track on their first album. These are the only two songs I have listened to today, and I had a very distinct feeling listening to both. I think there are some among you who would relate with me when I say that I would like to survive my own suicide. Which is distinct, mind, from surviving a suicide attempt. It's a fictional, adolescent kind of fantasy, that allows one to both muster the courage involved and to be free of the consequences. Or rather, consequence in the singular. You can see inklings of this idea in many things: video games, movies, drinking, drugs, and you can easily squirrel it into the simpler notion of re-inventing yourself, but I prefer the grandeur, self-pity, and histrionics of my idea. Every time I hear those mechanical birds, I just want to throw myself on them, their vast metal jaws hungry and screaming.

[Absentee's Victory Shorts available only in the UK in Sept.]
[buy Long Drive from Up Records]