The band’s debut comes in the form of two “dusty songs about unrequited love” that were “dragged out of a Texas basement and covered by Brooklyn proto-punks”
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“Everybody can relate to a story of unrequited love.”
It’s a tale that transcends and time, a feeling that knows no bounds nor borders, a pain to which you can never be immune no matter your age or your income and a struggle that has been experienced, explored and expressed by creatives across geographies and genres since the Big Bang and the eventual birth of our extraordinarily sensitive species.
In short: Unrequited love sucks! For everyone! Which makes it, on the source material front, the gift that keeps on giving, sonic medicine for an unlucky-in-love audience in need of miserable company and catharsis and an undying source of inspiration for artists through the ages—from Shakespeare to T-Swift to, in this instance, a group of anonymous teenagers in 1960s Texas.
That, of course, brings me to the focus of this particular spotlight: a lost/found/re-imagined/re-recorded release from SEMI-AUTO, the band responsible for the declaration that kicked off this piece, who are throwing their sad-boi sombreros into the streaming ring in the form of their debut double drop: “a couple dusty songs about unrequited love dragged out of a Texas basement and covered by Brooklyn proto-punks”—which, a day ahead of its wide release, I’m hyped to premiere here!
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“Both songs are quick views into teenage angst and unrequited love told from alternate perspectives,” the band told me over email. “‘I’m Blue’ takes place in the throes of depression caused by unrequited love and ‘Cryin’ Shame ‘takes place after the narrator tries to accept the end of the relationship and move on with their life. What can we say? We love a story song, no matter how simple.”
While the tracks themselves might be about failed romances, there is a more successful love story—the musical sort, that is—that arose as a result: that of the bandmates themselves, who first bonded over bringing the tracks to life.
“The band was formed around covers off of a comp of undiscovered tunes that sat behind the scenes of the pop forefront in the 60s (FORT WORTH TEEN SCENE),” SEMI-AUTO shared of their inception. “We got together based on a mutual love of these unknown songs and the raw sound of a bunch of bored teens recording with pocket change budgets in the mid 60s.”
It’s worth noting that these aren’t unrequited-love songs of the cry-into-your-pillow, text-your-ex and binge-Ben-and-Jerry’s variety. These feel more like fast and dirty anthems for recovery via rebellion. Soundtracks for late nights spent at dirty dive bars that might inspire you to, idk, down a bottle of whiskey, buy a motorcycle, get a questionable tattoo and then take home an even more questionable stranger. Which means, of course, that they’re the exact kind of songs that are best experienced loud and live.
On that note, you can do just that TOMORROW NIGHT, when the band hits the stage to celebrate the release at Purgatory with Docents, Libby Quinn and Balaclava. Grab your tix here to enjoy the present-day Brooklyn band’s unique take on these mystery ’60s Texan teens’ original tracks—an experience that, I can definitely promise, you won’t get anywhere else.
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Follow SEMI-AUTO at @semiauto.band and buy music on Bandcamp.
Feature image provided by the band.