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Saturday, 15 May 2010

Sometime Around Midnight



I can't resist posting this song by The Airborne Toxic Event (terrible name for a band), as some of you may not know it, and some of you may like it as much as I do.

It's incidentally a demonstration of scene setting, conveying emotion, and how to do backstory with the lightest possible touch, that all writers can learn from. You can read the lyrics here.
Posted by Lexi at Saturday, May 15, 2010

7 comments:

  1. Old Kitty15 May 2010 at 19:41

    I love the lyrics!! And such a simple story too - and one that we've all experienced - broken hearts and unrequited love!

    I've never heard of these band until now - thanks for this!

    I've got the song in my head now..

    Take care
    x

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  2. Botanist16 May 2010 at 01:44

    I've never heard of them either, but I love their sound, and the lyrics.

    BTW I think the name is great, but then I am a sucker for whacky band names. I think my all time favourite oddity is Half Man, Half Biscuit.

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  3. Lexi16 May 2010 at 09:17

    Glad you both like it too.

    Botanist, I like wacky band names, as long as they are memorable, which I don't think The Airborne Toxic Event is. How could anyone forget Half Man, Half Biscuit?

    The band in my novel Heart of Rock is called The Voices In My Head - Q: What's that you're listening to?
    A: The Voices In My Head...

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  4. Katharine D'Souza16 May 2010 at 09:43

    That is a great song, but I hate the name - sounds like a 10 year old boy's joke. Hard to reconcile that with the sensitivity of the lyrics.
    K

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  5. Lexi16 May 2010 at 10:45

    K, to quote the fount of all knowledge, Wikipedia:

    The band takes its name from the postmodern novel White Noise, by Don DeLillo, which won the National Book Award in 1985. In the book, a chemical spill from a railcar releases a poisonous cloud, dubbed by the military as an "airborne toxic event". This serves as a metaphorical device for the novel's themes of mortality and media consumption, as the protagonist Jack Gladney is forced to confront the prospect of his own death.

    So not a juvenile joke, just a bit outré and pretentious.

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  6. Botanist19 May 2010 at 03:58

    I didn't know the origin of the name but guessed it was a military euphemism for poisonous cloud. I wondered if it was a self-deprecating statement about their music as some form of airborne pollution.

    Regardless, I am happy to concede the point about memorability, Lexi.

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  7. Lexi19 May 2010 at 07:41

    Aha, a conceded point. Haven't had many of those lately...

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