Slaughter Beach, Dog release new single ‘Engine’
Ahead of the release of their forthcoming album, Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling, Philadelphia-based band Slaughter Beach, Dog have dropped their latest single, ‘Engine’.
The title of the record is a subtle nod to folk master Labi Siffre, and the songs they have offered so far are as equally luscious as his record Crying, Laughing, Loving, Lying. With a simple beat and strumming pattern, the latest effort allows space for the emotive words to drift in and out of.
It sways around a theme of reminiscence throughout its bittersweet nine minutes. Speaking about the track, frontman Jake Ewald explained: “This song keeps changing for me. First, I didn’t think it was about anything. Then I thought it was about the van. Then I thought it was about [Slaughter Beach, Dog bassist] Ian [Farmer], and I couldn’t figure out why the guitar solo kept making me cry.”
However, the robustness of his testimony also hints at how considered the song is, as he continues: “Outside the Sinclair in January, I saw a flyer for a house show and remembered how long we’ve been doing this. Then my heart was in my shoes. Ten years of thinking a different life was right around the corner, selling off all this heavy machinery and making spreadsheets for somebody, futzing with chickenwire, everything more simple.“
This is tangible in the song’s fraught refrains, and speaking about its tonality, Ewald says: “Lately this song feels like a eulogy for the change that never came. Ten years gone and I’m still squirming under freedom’s thumb, too easily forgetting rock ’n’ roll, my great hulking vessel, a framework to swing from, a history to make home inside of.“
Concluding: “Forms to learn, rules to break, comrades to find, mysteries turned over ad infinitum, inexplicable monsoons of the heart. I’m still finding myself inside this song, still learning to accept that I lived it. Some of it spooks me. I can hear it in the pain of belonging – standing in one place long enough to not take leaving lightly. Staying put when the outlaws arrive at night. Saying very quietly to no one, this is where I live.“
Their new album, Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling, is set for release on September 22nd via Lame-O Records.
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