SING THE STATES #08: South Carolina

South Carolina joined the Union is 1788, and I think they may have my favorite flag of all the 50 states. Designed by Col. William Moultrie for the South Carolina troops in 1775, he chose a blue that matched their uniforms and a crescent like the silver emblem they wore on the front of their caps. The palmetto tree came later, in honor of Col. Moutlrie's defense of the palmetto-log fort on Sullivan's Island against the attack of the British fleet in 1776. And that's the history behind my favorite state flag.

South Carolina's a beautiful state, but musically they haven't produced much that I've listened to. Most notably, South Carolina's home to Iron & Wine and Dizzy Gillespie (arguably one of the best jazz trumpeters that ever lived). Unfortunately, Wikipedia cites Hootie & The Blowfish as SC's most successful rock group to date - so all I can say there is, please step it up musicians of South Carolina.

There's a myriad of songs about plain old Carolina, without specifying whether they mean "North" or "South", and for our track today I've actually gone with one of those, since South Carolina was, at least at one point, a part of the Province of plain-old Carolina. The song is Ben Gibbard's off of the HOME Vol. 5 EP he split with Andrew Kenny in 2003. If you haven't heard that EP, put it on a list and scratch it off soon. Because it's that good.

Also considered: Archers of Loaf - South Carolina; M. Ward - Carolina

Ben Gibbard - Carolina
from the EP HOME Vol. 5 (Amazon)


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SONG: Death Cab will possess your heart

As if I didn't have a million reasons to love Ben Gibbard and Death Cab for Cutie anyway - they go and release an 8+ minute song for the first single from their new record, Narrow Stairs (out May 13th on Atlantic). Yeah, I know - pretty awesome.

So the song opens with a four and a half minute long ambient noise/bass and drum jam thing before we ever even hear Ben's voice. It's all expertly rendered by Mr. Walla's superb production, and the transition into the second half of the song is pretty fantastic. The whole thing is like this drawn-out dramatic curtain pull before some long-awaited and highly anticipated... well, you know. Something amazing.

Death Cab for Cutie - I Will Possess Your Heart

from the album Narrow Stairs (pre-order on Amazon)