Please Put the Phone Down

Pilot Speed, formerly Pilate, of Toronto (Woot! Represent!) is getting ready for the release of their new album Wooden Bones.

1 Put The Phone Down (mp3) (Amazon) (iTunes)
2 Light You Up
3 Bluff
4 Ain't No Life
5 Up On The Bridge
6 Where Does It Begin?
7 What Is Real, What Is Doubt
8 Today I Feel Sure
9 Midnight Fires
10 Wooden Bones
11 Open Arms

"I felt it was important for us to write songs that could work in any environment. Songs that would have a conventional appeal but still sound like us. Even the 'weird' or 'artier' tracks have what I think are pretty easy entry points for the listener," quoth Todd Clark, vocalist/pianist/lyricist of Pilot Speed.

You know, usually when I hear the word "arty" to describe music I cringe a little bit. "Arty" can imply that when I'm listening to an album, I'll forget what and who I'm listening to. And that forms the inevitable Why question. But... I trust these guys.

In 2006 Pilate Speed brought us the brooding track Barely Listening and that was pretty decent. The people deemed it Top 20 material, and rightly so.



Sometimes their material can be pretty dark like that.

Even the new single Put the Phone Down, although sweet and gentle makes me feel a little bit. The Wooden Bones album as a whole carries a theme about life and humanity's fragility. Depressing? Maybe. But the boys won't admit to that.

"I don't find the themes on this album depressing. To me as an observer, it's just the way it is. Life is precarious, in a lot of ways; the trick is to feel comfortable with that realization," says Clark


I like his philosophy.

Wooden Bones comes out April 28th.