There are multiple artists named Pinwheel:

1) a band Ben Gibbard was… Read Full Bio ↴There are multiple artists named Pinwheel:

1) a band Ben Gibbard was in before Death Cab for Cutie
2) a band featuring Chris Collingwood and Adam Schlesinger from Fountains of Wayne.
3) a Minneapolis hard rock band formed in 2008

1) In the Ben Gibbard version, Ben shared lead vocal duties with Justin Kennedy, who now fronts L.A. popsters Army Navy. The band sounds more like Built to Spill than it does Death Cab.

2) Adam and Chris, now of Fountains of Wayne, met at William College in 1986. They played in a series of bands together and sometime in the late 1980s/early 1990s recorded some demos as Pinwheel. Four songs from these recordings eventually became Fountains of Wayne songs; Troubled Times, I Know You Well, Imperia, and Half a Woman.

3) Minneapolis-based rockers Pinwheel have just released their first full length album "Reset" and there's a distinctly powerful sonic groundwork being laid - think the melodic veracity of Tool meeting the instrumental headiness of Nine Inch Nails. Call it industrial; call it prog-metal; call it what you will, but one thing is clear: the impressive chops summing Pinwheel's whole are an aggressive, boundary-testing aberration. The band's output is tightly-executed and atmospherically jarring, ideal for fans of electronic-tinged hard rock. Combine all that with a notoriously raucous live show, and you've got one of the Twin Cities' buzziest hard rock bands.

Band Members:
Ben Brock - Vocals
Sam Benson - Synths
Ryan Nelson - Bass/Guitar
Joe Kester - Percussion

Lie Awake
Pinwheel Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Off or on the light is gone
We let it fade away
But who'd have know that letting go
Would leave us in this state

To lie awake
In an endless dream
Your tortured screams

Somehow comfort me

Lie Awake

End from end we disconnect
To make it through each day
But who'd have known that on our own
We'd all turn out this way

To lie awake
In an endless dream
Your tortured screams
Somehow comfort me

End from end we disconnect
To make it through each day
But who'd have known that on our own
We'd all turn out this way

To lie awake
In an endless dream
Your tortured screams
Somehow comfort me

Lie awake
But don't lie to me

So lie awake with me
Inside an endless dream

Somewhere your tortured screams
Somehow comfort me

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Pinwheel's song Lie Awake explore the idea of disconnection and the profound loneliness it can create. The first verse sets the tone by describing the loss of light and how it can lead to the very state of separation and unease that the song is trying to capture. The second verse broadens the scope, detailing how disconnection is present in our everyday lives - a necessary but ultimately lonely act. The chorus, which repeats three times, serves as a kind of mantra, with the singer finding some kind of solace in the pain of another.

The final lines "So lie awake with me, inside an endless dream, somewhere your tortured screams, somehow comfort me" encapsulate the central theme of the song. In the depths of disconnection and loneliness, we may find some kind of belonging simply by seeing that others are struggling in the same way. Pinwheel's lyrics take this idea one step further, suggesting that this is not only true of our fellow humans, but of the very world we inhabit. The song invites the listener to lie awake with the singer, to feel the anguish of the world, and to find some semblance of comfort in that shared experience.

Line by Line Meaning

Off or on the light is gone
The light has disappeared, regardless of whether it was consciously turned off or not

We let it fade away
We allowed the light to gradually disappear

But who'd have know that letting go Would leave us in this state
We did not anticipate that our choice to let the light fade away would result in our current condition

To lie awake In an endless dream Your tortured screams Somehow comfort me
I find solace in the sound of your distress as I lay awake in a never-ending dream

End from end we disconnect To make it through each day But who'd have known that on our own We'd all turn out this way
In order to get by, we intentionally isolate ourselves from others, but we did not realize that this would cause us to become who we are today

Lie awake But don't lie to me
Stay awake with me, but be honest

So lie awake with me Inside an endless dream Somewhere your tortured screams Somehow comfort me
Join me in my sleepless state, where the sound of your pain brings me some sense of relief

Contributed by Sadie R. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

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