Saturday, November 24, 2007

Tokyo Expressway

From The Whole Shebang

The funny thing about “Tokyo Expressway” is that it’s probably the most singularly autobiographical song that Seth Timbs has written, and even though few people can relate to its storyline of traveling to Japan and being dragged from performance to party on a rigorous schedule while completely unable to sleep, many people see this as one of the most affective songs on The Whole Shebang. I think the reason is that here we see a side of Seth that is a different kind of insecure from what we’ve heard him before. Yes, we’ve heard about the toils of his love life, and we’ve sympathized with him, but here he sings about his own career and his own fears, including his insecurities regarding a love relationship that he is already involved in (whereas he usually sings about relationships in their sad demises), and I think that resonates with most people who hear things in this song presented in a new way we hadn’t heard before.

I try to subtly praise this song when I communicate with the band in a one-man effort to keep it alive at the band’s live shows. I wondered if its mentioning of Seth’s ex-wife by name has anything to do with it, though I thought it was interesting that in a few performances he sang, “Thoughts of Malin and mother and father,” instead, heralding his new love interest that would become his wife. And even more strangely, after a few times, he went back to singing the original lyric.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's great that you have the link at the bottom to buy these songs, but what about Instant Nostalgia? Last I heard, its release was imminent. But no word about it on the myspace page, and the website doesn't seem to exist anymore. Do you know where could I purchase a copy if it is available?

Juan Horsetown said...

It is still un-released. I was told not long ago that the band is hoping to have it pressed within the next couple of weeks. It will be available online both electronically and by mail order, and it will be available at shows.

Anonymous said...

my favorite on Whole Shebang. please don't stop playing this song....

Jakob Dorof said...

also my favorite whole shebang tune.

Anonymous said...

Every once in awhile I wake up in the morning with this song playing in my head which usually signals an upcoming week or two of a continual loop of nothing but this song playing as my background soundtrack. I go to sleep with it playing and wake up again the next day still going. I think it's some kind of ancient Japanese curse.

Purchase Fluid Ounces mp3s Directly from the Band!