"Concrete Seconds" - Pinback
"Anything I say to you is gonna come out wrong anyway"
This is the entry I've been waiting to write since this whole shebang started earlier this year so buckle up and prepare yourself for a long, intense look at one of the most important Songs For 3 A.M. I can think of - "Concrete Seconds" by Pinback.
My love for Pinback and basically every associated act they have has been heavily documented across the internet as I've forced most people I know to listen to them at one time or another. In the simplest sense, they are my comfort-food band - the one that I can listen to literally all day, every day when I'm trying to relax and realign with reality. Since high school (which is getting closer and closer to the point that I shouldn't talk about it anymore) "Concrete Seconds" was the song I would start the day off with. It's the dangerously-relatable tale of a person who is afraid that anything they say will be taken the wrong way, no matter what the situation is, and if that isn't a big mood I don't know what is.
This song chronicles the most mundane forms of communication issues that I have literally daily. It's about the anxiety that comes from knowing you have to introduce yourself during a company-mandated icebreaker and you're supposed to add a fun fact about yourself ("Hi, I'm Britton and I.... uh..."), or when it's your turn to answer a question but you didn't have the necessary 10 minutes to internally rehearse your answer (both of which are terrifying situations).
So imagine my terror/excitement when several hours after arriving to Philadelphia from Buffalo with my good friends Dakota and Danielle (after an Against Me! show that was pretty amazing) I had to attempt to act normal around members of my favorite band who were otherwise casually waiting for soundcheck and selling merch.
It was a trial, but it resulted in these photos I will treasure forever:
These two shows, one featuring their album Autumn of the Seraphs from start to finish, and another with an assortment of songs, were maybe the closest to a spiritual experience as I'll ever have. The venue was intimate, I was with two of my best friends, we had absolutely delicious funnel cake fries that weren't overpriced AT ALL, and the band that I had undercut many a moment in my life from age 14 onwards was performing. It truly could not have been better, and I'm choosing today to write about it because it was exactly three years ago.
Some people can probably attest to this but there's this thing that happens where if I have any connection to live music that's being performed I will cry and there's absolutely nothing that can be done to stop it. So, in between mouthing lyrics to every single song both nights I was essentially a blubbering mess - until a woman with a really cool tattoo (a jackalope) pushed past us during "Penelope" and proceeded to have maybe the best time I've ever seen anyone have during a song (it is a bop). At first it was a bit of shock since the crowd had not been remotely physical, but then it became powerful to behold as from that moment on, I knew that this was the place I was meant to be and that every other failed/missed attempt to see this band had been worth it. I don't think I've ever been in such a positively charged space before.
Another fun anecdote of that show is there was a dude there (and if you're that dude and reading this I will never forget this) who kept saying things like "you KNOW they're gonna play it," "they HAVE to play it," about Pinback's arguably most popular song "Good To Sea." The song's great, it was featured on The OC and it's probably the first I heard from them (not because of The OC), however I don't think that this dude in question knew that they played the album that song is from in full the day prior and none of us had the heart to break that news to him.
Needless to say they did not have to play it (and they didn't).
Towards the end of the set, I heard the opening notes to "Concrete Seconds," and proceeded to lose my mind (and then I lost it again when "Prog" happened). Seeing it live set my adoration for it in stone (concrete) and ultimately, to bring things full circle, led to the selection for tonight.
Every bit of this song is fantastic from the legendary bass-work of Armistead Burwell Smith IV to the way Rob Crow's distinct vocal range lightly, but expertly, accompanies the instrumentals. It's believable, and while not the most emotional Pinback song ("June"), or most depressing ("Walters"), there's a relatable sort of sadness to it that I love. So much of their writing has this feature to it - melancholy thoughts or conclusions within a story, or emotions obfuscated by hazy, purposeful imagery. They pull from pop culture as often as he does obscure sci-fi films (like the one this band is named after in the first place - Dark Star), and creates worlds within songs blending the known and unknown to create wholly original, unique landscapes for us to explore.
Their lyrics, often obscure via reference or allegory, sometimes reveal themselves (and pieces of their author) in very frank ways as they do here, or in "Leveling" from Rob Crow’s solo album which is literally about playing World of Warcraft. There's truth here, but not always on a deep, existential or pastiche level - in a sentence, "sometimes it just be like that." We're constantly bouncing between acceptance and rebellion from narrator, understanding how and why they're acting the way they are, but refusing to truly let the thoughts go.
Unlike other songs on this blog, "Concrete Seconds" is a relaxing come down from a day spent communicating and simply trying your best. This is a song to soothe the soul, much like Pinback in general is to me. I hope that at the very least you can find room for it (or another song from them, they're basically all great) on one of your playlists. If you want to relive the show I did, I have a playlist of both nights in order that you can find here.
I also highly recommend this live recording of their show at The Casbah. Both Crow and Smith are extremely prolific artists, and I wholeheartedly recommend basically everything either one is involved in like Systems Officer, Goblin Cock and Optiganally Yours (with a newer album I reviewed here).
Thank YOU for reading about tonight's song. Check out the full playlist here, and stay tuned each night as I add more and explain my thought process. Feel free to discuss your own thoughts on the song either here or on social media where you can yell at me, free of cost, as much as you'd like.
Today, listen to something new. I dare you.
Britton