With the bone chilling cold whipping at our backs and the dawning realization that we’ve already chucked whatever resolution we thought up minutes before the ball dropped last week, we’re hit with news to maintain our grip on something good at play in this January tundra.
And that good is music. New music.
Nashua NH/Boston based Old Abram Brown comes at us this desolate Wednesday with not one, but two toe-tapping singles. With these singles come two videos to make your head spin. Sort of.
Take “Leaving Plans” below, a tune starting of with a Hamilton Leithauser-esque croon to slowly work up a buzzing energy. The song soars from start to finish, hinging on the simple pledges like, “I was prying on that leash/away to the atmosphere is all I need/A nightmare appearing out of thin air/Tired of all the wasted bands and melodies.” This accompanied by some eccentrically childlike visuals, a sort of stop-motion take on the dollhouse you played with as a kid. Except this one has a spinning clay head inside. But don’t you worry—the tiny grandfather clock and vanity are still there.
“Pointe Courte” follows as a B side, complimenting the first tune’s confident motivation with something a bit more downbeat. It’s almost as if this song offers contemplation to it’s predecessor’s sense of spontaneity, as mysteriously surfy guitars back lyrics paint a grieving traveler on the move. “Riding the train across the way/my inner child is getting old again. You were exhausted and unknown/I was lying to myself about those animosity.” At its downtrodden end the song fades into a sort of longing goodbye, a wash of shimmering guitars, rolling percussion and the wail of frontman Carson Lund’s brooding line at leaving, “And I waited all this time responsibly.” Mirroring the songs despondency and it’s contrast from an A side, this video sees that same spinning head in a different room, one dimly lit and sparse enough to allow the feeling of being underwater.
With these videos comes the band’s revamp to their website. The site’s interactive sense allows listeners to play with a variety of toys inside both dollhouse scenes, from the A side’s adorable Hansel and Gretal-like characters to B’s trippier ability to use bits coral as a toy to your own perception. Click the right button in either room and wolves appear. A pack of beasts put forth to say, “you made this choice own your own.”
Dig it? Check the Old Abram Brown at their single release show January 15th at Great Scott with ABADABAD and Soft Pyramids. Get your tickets here, and mark your calendars for a surely unforgettable set.