Obstacle 1by Interpol

#135 on KEXP's Listener-Voted Top Albums of the Last 50 Years Countdown! Check out vocalist Paul Banks' live performance for KEXP from CMJ Union back in 2012: bit.ly

#135 on KEXP's Listener-Voted Top Albums of the Last 50 Years Countdown! Check out vocalist Paul Banks' live performance for KEXP from CMJ Union back in 2012: bit.ly

The word "obstacle" doesn't appear in this song or another track on the album, "Obstacle 2." Interpol don't think the titles of songs are important, so they put little thought into them. Lead singer and guitarist, Paul Banks, revealed to Pitchfork in 2003 why the songs are named that way. "I've just never really been all that interested in titles, so either I'm very inspired, or it's just, whatever, the working title," he said. "'Obstacle' 1 and 2 actually came from Daniel, he was working on those. I came up with those names, and they were just our working titles, and everyone was like, 'Those are great names.' We wrote 'Obstacle 2' first and 'Obstacle 1' second, and I do think it was relating to the fact that, for some reason we'd had a drought in our writing. We kind of had a down phase. We just hadn't written anything good in a couple of months, and all of a sudden we were pumping out songs. So it was sort of related to that." www.songfacts.com

The word "obstacle" doesn't appear in this song or another track on the album, "Obstacle 2." Interpol don't think the titles of songs are important, so they put little thought into them. Lead singer and guitarist, Paul Banks, revealed to Pitchfork in 2003 why the songs are named that way. "I've just never really been all that interested in titles, so either I'm very inspired, or it's just, whatever, the working title," he said. "'Obstacle' 1 and 2 actually came from Daniel, he was working on those. I came up with those names, and they were just our working titles, and everyone was like, 'Those are great names.' We wrote 'Obstacle 2' first and 'Obstacle 1' second, and I do think it was relating to the fact that, for some reason we'd had a drought in our writing. We kind of had a down phase. We just hadn't written anything good in a couple of months, and all of a sudden we were pumping out songs. So it was sort of related to that." bit.ly __ Check out this footage of vocalist Paul Banks' live performance here in our studios back in 2012. youtu.be

#135 on KEXP's Listener-Voted Top Albums of the Last 50 Years Countdown! Check out vocalist Paul Banks' live performance for KEXP from CMJ Union back in 2012: bit.ly

Lead guitarist Daniel Kessler is celebrating his birthday today!

The word "obstacle" doesn't appear in this song or another track on the album, "Obstacle 2." Interpol don't think the titles of songs are important, so they put little thought into them. Lead singer and guitarist, Paul Banks, revealed to Pitchfork in 2003 why the songs are named that way. "I've just never really been all that interested in titles, so either I'm very inspired, or it's just, whatever, the working title," he said. "'Obstacle' 1 and 2 actually came from Daniel, he was working on those. I came up with those names, and they were just our working titles, and everyone was like, 'Those are great names.' We wrote 'Obstacle 2' first and 'Obstacle 1' second, and I do think it was relating to the fact that, for some reason we'd had a drought in our writing. We kind of had a down phase. We just hadn't written anything good in a couple of months, and all of a sudden we were pumping out songs. So it was sort of related to that." bit.ly __ Check out this footage of vocalist Paul Banks' live performance here in our studios back in 2012. youtu.be

2002 The word "obstacle" doesn't appear in this song or another track on the album, "Obstacle 2." Interpol don't think the titles of songs are important, so they put little thought into them. Lead singer and guitarist, Paul Banks, revealed to Pitchfork in 2003 why the songs are named that way. "I've just never really been all that interested in titles, so either I'm very inspired, or it's just, whatever, the working title," he said. "'Obstacle' 1 and 2 actually came from Daniel, he was working on those. I came up with those names, and they were just our working titles, and everyone was like, 'Those are great names.' We wrote 'Obstacle 2' first and 'Obstacle 1' second, and I do think it was relating to the fact that, for some reason we'd had a drought in our writing. We kind of had a down phase. We just hadn't written anything good in a couple of months, and all of a sudden we were pumping out songs. So it was sort of related to that." bit.ly Check out this footage of vocalist Paul Banks' live performance here in our studios back in 2012. youtu.be

Interpol + Spoon performing live at the Paramount Theatre on Friday, September 16 at 7PM! Tickets: tinyurl.com Lead singer and guitarist, Paul Banks, revealed the reasoning behind the song's title -- "I've just never really been all that interested in titles, so either I'm very inspired, or it's just, whatever, the working title," he said. "'Obstacle' 1 and 2 actually came from Daniel, he was working on those. I came up with those names, and they were just our working titles, and everyone was like, 'Those are great names.' We wrote 'Obstacle 2' first and 'Obstacle 1' second, and I do think it was relating to the fact that, for some reason we'd had a drought in our writing. We kind of had a down phase. We just hadn't written anything good in a couple of months, and all of a sudden we were pumping out songs. So it was sort of related to that." bit.ly

Check out this footage of vocalist Paul Banks' live performance here in our studios back in 2012. youtu.be

The word "obstacle" doesn't appear in this song or another track on the album, "Obstacle 2." Interpol don't think the titles of songs are important, so they put little thought into them. Lead singer and guitarist, Paul Banks, revealed to Pitchfork in 2003 why the songs are named that way. "I've just never really been all that interested in titles, so either I'm very inspired, or it's just, whatever, the working title," he said. "'Obstacle' 1 and 2 actually came from Daniel, he was working on those. I came up with those names, and they were just our working titles, and everyone was like, 'Those are great names.' We wrote 'Obstacle 2' first and 'Obstacle 1' second, and I do think it was relating to the fact that, for some reason we'd had a drought in our writing. We kind of had a down phase. We just hadn't written anything good in a couple of months, and all of a sudden we were pumping out songs. So it was sort of related to that." bit.ly "Obstacle 1" - Live At Glastonbury 2005: youtu.be

The word "obstacle" doesn't appear in this song or another track on the album, "Obstacle 2." Interpol don't think the titles of songs are important, so they put little thought into them. Lead singer and guitarist, Paul Banks, revealed to Pitchfork in 2003 why the songs are named that way. "I've just never really been all that interested in titles, so either I'm very inspired, or it's just, whatever, the working title," he said. "'Obstacle' 1 and 2 actually came from Daniel, he was working on those. I came up with those names, and they were just our working titles, and everyone was like, 'Those are great names.' We wrote 'Obstacle 2' first and 'Obstacle 1' second, and I do think it was relating to the fact that, for some reason we'd had a drought in our writing. We kind of had a down phase. We just hadn't written anything good in a couple of months, and all of a sudden we were pumping out songs. So it was sort of related to that." bit.ly "Obstacle 1" - Live At Glastonbury 2005: youtu.be

This single was released on this day in 2002. Following the horrific events of September 11th, 2001, New York was a scarred city that was determined to move on and rebuild. Members of Interpol had watched the scene unfold from the rooftops of their buildings and through the surreal spectacle of 24 hour news coverage. A strange atmosphere had taken over the city: unusually high levels of mutual kindness between strangers gave way to a new sense of clarity. Sam Fogarino recalls: “It was weird in the band, too. For a short period of time, it felt like, ‘Let’s just shake hands and move on. We’re not doing a record.’ Everything seemed so trivial.” Turn On The Bright Lights had been written before 9/11, but the album’s songs took on a whole new layer of meaning in its wake. The band kicked off the recording process just over a month later, opting for the home studio of producer Peter Katis, far away in Bridgeport, Connecticut: an isolated location, removed from the social and narcotic distractions of New York. Turn On The Bright Lights marked the beginning of a longstanding relationship between Interpol and Katis – an accomplished, Grammy-winning engineer who would also record seven albums with indie-rock darlings, The National. Amidst a sea of dilapidated houses and lonely strip-malls the band contented themselves with sleeping, drinking, and recording in the attic of Katis’s run-down house. Due to financial constraints, Interpol were in a race against the clock to complete the process before their limited stock of tape expired and their $900 budget evaporated. Nonetheless, the band’s songwriting process had produced an iron-clad set of compositions, which were, in theory, immune to the endless tinkering of the recording studio. They knew what they wanted; the mission was precise and predetermined. Read more about story behind the album here: bit.ly

From the debut studio album of this Brooklyn, NY band. interpolnyc.com

From the debut studio album of this Brooklyn, NY band. interpolnyc.com