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The Postmarks - "11:59"
Miami pop trio the Postmarks are releasing a covers collection next month. Covers are nothing new, but the band takes it 12 steps further: By-The-Numbers collects the dozen songs from their monthly cover series, each track including a different number in the title/lyrics, the album progressing from one ("One Note Samba") to 12 ("Pinball Number Count"). In this week's Drop, we bring you 11, a great cover of Blondie's "11:59." We asked Postmark Christopher Moll about the project and the song.
What are some of the other numbered songs you considered, but didn't end up covering? "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" by The Smiths was a serious contender to start the series until Mark Ronson's version turned us off that idea. "Goody Two-Shoes" by Adam and the Ants was another. "Five Get Over Excited" by The Housemartins. As the series progressed and we eased into the idea, there was more focus on which tracks we wanted and less vacillation on each title.
"11:59"'s the perfect penultimate track for the countdown to twelve: "Pinball Number Count"'s so quiet/lullaby-like, so it serves as a kind of time's-running-out climax. Musically, what do you think your take brings to or changes about Blondie's original? It was a bit of a trick. We didn't want it to sound new wave ... we had already established an overall sound on the album that was essentially "us" and we had to find a way to translate the energy level in that song into something that worked within our universe. We think it works ... it has this frantic quality that I would expect from a band making music about the last few minutes on Earth. Ironically, "Five Years" sets the same tone on what would be considered side one of By-The-Numbers. A thematic tie? Maybe? It certainly feels that way sometimes, with the way the world is behaving lately.
If you had to go to 13, which song would you choose? Maybe the main theme music from Friday The 13th? I certainly think "ah-ah-ah-ch-ch-ch" is pretty memorable and we could make it work for us. Maybe we'll consider it for By-The-Numbers: Volume 2 - Electric Boogalo.
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By-The-Numbers is out 11/11 on Unfiltered Records.
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