Yeasayer//2080

Before we kick off the week: OSS finally jumped on the social networking bandwagon (about 1-4 years late, but oh well). You can now follow the jams on Twitter and Facebook.

Speaking of technology, I would like to officially welcome you to Time Travel Week here on OSS. Prepare to be jostled around as we move between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space!

Last week, I had dinner with a friend and we got into a long, intense conversation about what would happen if we lost the grid. This is one of my favorite conversations and usually leads me to fantasize about the hell that would occur when post-digital information age, we realize that no one in our society actually knows how to do anything anymore and we are hurdled into another dark age. I have a few friends who are carpenters and farmers. I am looking at you guys. If this ever happens, I will be showing up at your doors.

With that in mind, let’s travel to the future. Brooklyn buzz band Yeasayer just released a new album that sounds, from what I’ve heard of it so far, great. On their previous release, All Hour Cymbals, they wrote about 2080.

The version of the future (and the resistance to thinking about it too much) described in the song feels pretty bleak. The narrator suggests that we “grab at the chance to be handsome farmers,” implying that our current situation likely won’t hold long. The way the song sounds, I can’t help but imagine post-apocalyptic urban hells taking over our once-thriving cities and small farming communities dotting our countrysides, with people returning to old ways as lack of resources leads civilization to revert to simpler times. The narrator also acknowledges that he’ll “surely be dead” by the time any of this comes to pass.

Until tomorrow, enjoy your stay in 2080. If you get bored, you can always get back in the DeLorean for some more.



2080.mp3

I can't sleep when I think about the times we're living in.
I can't sleep when I think about the future I was born into.

Time Travel Fact: It’s unclear where the idea of time travel first emerge, although some point to an early example around 700 BC. From Wikipedia: Ancient folk tales and myths sometimes involved something akin to travelling forward in time; for example, in Hindu mythology, the Mahabharatha mentions the story of the King Revaita, who travels to heaven to meet the creator Brahma and is shocked to learn that many ages have passed when he returns to Earth.