Michael Lee & The Wartime Limousine’s “Drowning”
If your coping mechanisms are as deleterious as the stress they’re supposed to mitigate — what is a bender or a habit but a high-interest loan of serotonin — and you find that both are piling over your head faster than you can even think about them, Michael Lee & The Wartime Limousine have a new single out that might strengthen your resolve to take a big breath and push on through.
“Drowning” is the lead single from the new album that the blues singer/guitarist (and former contestant on NBC’s The Voice) and his band are releasing on Fri, Oct 30, via Dallas’ retrolicious, funk-and-soul-centric indie label Skylark Soul Co. “Drowning” finds Lee and the lower end of his earthy, soulful register digging deep inside the space between snare hits as he grapples with having to be his own savior: “Why can’t I see / Nobody’s gonna rescue me? / Well, I’m drinking holy water / Drowning the devil in me.”
Though “Drowning” deals with some heavy thoughts, its up-tempo groove and horn section make the song bouncy and buoyant. It still doesn’t feel light. Instead, as the backing vocals and horns echo the chorus’ rhetoric, the breezy pace gives Lee’s lament some urgency, like there’s no time like yesterday to get over your debauchery and bullshit. Recorded at Niles City Sound in Fort Worth with bassist Daniel Balis (Bastards of Soul, Calhoun, Sorta), keyboardists Jordache Grant (Abraham Alexander) and Chad Stockslager (Joshua Ray Walker), drummer Matt Trimble (Bastards of Soul), and pedal steel player Will Van Horn (Khruangbin), the album casts Lee’s blues and Motown influences in the multi-hued sheen of psychedelic soul, and its arrangements and hooks show off an artist allowing himself the vulnerability that comes with being in love. Lee has been married for a little while now, and the peaks and valleys of marriage were on his mind when writing the new album’s material.
“It should be easy, being in a relationship,” Lee said. “At least that’s what the matriarchs of my family always told me. I’ve never had that until now. From the lyrics to the musical choices on this album, there is an overall sense of ease that I’d say stems from the love I have with my wife.”
Prior to the album drop, Michael Lee & The Wartime Limousine will be slinging the new tunes on Thu, Sep 17, at Visit Fort Worth’s Cowtown GitDown event in Nashville as part of this year’s AMERICANAFEST.
LABELS’ Live to Revive
In July, local psyche-punk quartet LABELS announced they were releasing their new four-song EP Live to Revive on Austin-based not-for-profit indie label Spaceflight Records, who will provide promotional support to the EP’s digital release on Thu, Oct 29. The band is also self-releasing physical copies of the EP in both CD and a 10-inch vinyl formats that same day at a Halloween-themed show at the Double-Wide in Dallas. In the meantime, they’re dropping the EP’s first single, “Void,” on Sat, Sep 12. My first impression of “Void”: It kind of reminds me of High on Fire! But scuzzier and meaner, like a HOF song played by lysergic demons made out of old razors and rebar.
By Steve Steward
Cory Cross’ “18 Wheels”
Honkytonk hero Cory Cross has a new album out in February, and he’ll be releasing a single every month between now and then, culminating with a video for the album’s title track, “Supernatural.” The first of these is “18 Wheels,” rolling out to streaming platforms on Fri, Sep 18. A couple days before that, Cross will give “18 Wheels” a test drive to the crowd at the legendary Austin dancehall Broken Spoke on Wed, Sep 16.
