While it is by no means necessary, I am personally fond of a band name that manages to elicit some sort of parallels to the music that said band makes. Not in any super overt way, rather in an intangible sense – like when you listen to Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot and think, yeah, this is exactly what a sparkly horse sounds like. Perhaps that one is too abstruse, but think Built to Spill, Rage Against the Machine, Unwound, Brooklyn based Local Weatherman – who just announced their forthcoming EP, Right One. There is something simultaneously idiosyncratic and omnipresent about the notion of a “local weatherman”; whatever striped tie clad character it denotes for you will likely be wrapped in the same blanket of nostalgia as the one that comes to mind for your roommate who grew up Central Illinois and your coworker from New Jersey. Serving as patient zero of the ‘microceleb’, the local weatherman is a household name that belongs to you in a way Emma Stone never could. A star on your television each morning, but one time you saw him buying 2% milk at the grocery store, striped tie swapped for a quarter zip. He’s legendary and he’s human and he’ll occupy a small plot of real estate in your mind forever.
Today, Local Weatherman shared “Thread”, a song seeped in the ideas that make up my introductory tangent. Though it nods to the reigning songs of frontman Fritz Ortman’s childhood, my guess is “Thread” will dredge up some sort of nostalgia for you too. Or perhaps build the foundation for future nostalgia, as its ridiculously hooky bones and unfettered vocals pave the sort of angsty and youthful experience that our brain has no choice but romanticize in some way down the line. Crammed with punchy riffs and metaphors of disastrous failed sewing attempts, “Thread” a full throttle track slated to stick with much longer than three minutes and twenty-three seconds.
About the song, Ortman says, “‘Thread’ is about having no release valve when your mind is racing. It’s the heaviest song we’ve made, but I think the bridge is one of the prettiest moments on the EP. This song also reckons with the rockstar dreams I had growing up (and maybe still have), and each verse ends with a nod to a song I loved as a kid.”
Right One will be out January 16 via Karol Records. You can listen to “Thread” below.
Written by Manon Bushong

