SONG OF THE DAY (#196)

'passchendaele,' by goodbooks

i really don't know where a bunch of 15 year olds get off writing songs this skilled. i really don't. when i was a teen i was writing two-chord songs about playing basketball, mexican food, 1950 chevys, and some guy called 'big bad bill.' don't ask. [but in the interest of full disclosure, those songs are awesome!!]

ok, i don't really know that they are teenagers, but they sure look like it. but i guess age is completely irrelevant, or at least should be. what does matter is that goodbooks is a really great and promising band from kent, england [why is this not even remotely surprising?]. judging from the quality of the tunes, goodbooks looks like a force to be reckoned with for some years to come. i don't think it's a stretch to put them in the same league as editors. they're sort of editors with acne. their debut album, 'control,' hasn't seen the light of US soil yet, but you can find reasonably priced used copies on amazon. check it out.

here's something for your gee-whiz collection: passchendaele [passendale in the modern flemish], a belgian village, was the site of a major, four-month WWI offensive by coalition of british, canadian, anzac, and south african troops against the germans. during those four months the brits lost a staggering 310,000 troops. if handful of kids wrote a song about it, it obviously still resonates some 90 years later. so there's your context...

and who says spitcake isn't educational?

��� goodbooks: passchendaele / video
��� goodbooks: passchendaele [dekko remix]
��� goodbooks: leni / video
��� goodbooks: the illness [teenager's mix] / video