The Dismemberment Plan bassist Eric Axelson and drummer Joe Easley are now playing together in the new band Milliseconds, with Eric on lead vocals, and the lineup is rounded out by Leigh Thompson of The Vehicle Birth on guitar. Their upcoming debut album So This Is How It Happens was produced by frequent Dismemberment Plan producer (and Jawbox leader) J Robbins, and it comes out on October 13 via Spartan Records (pre-order). They recently released its lead single “Time and Distance,” and we’re now premiering second single “Fallingwater.”
Eric cites Hüsker Dü, The Kinks, The Replacements, and The Beach Boys as influences on the new song, and whatever he’s channelling is all filtered through the same kind of eccentric, off-kilter musical worldview that made The Dismemberment Plan such a special band. Eric says:
On the third or fourth date with my now-wife, she told me about her fantasy to head to the airport some Friday after work, buy a ticket for Paris, and spend a weekend exploring, eating great food, drinking wine, flying back for work Monday. Without skipping a beat, my overly-practical tour manager brain kicked in and before I knew it was spelling out how expensive it’d be buying a last-minute ticket, how you’d need to figure out lodging when we landed, how raw the jet lag would be on a short trip…completely missing the romantic point of the notion, killing any spontaneity at all. Not my best moment, and I’ve gotten a little better about being spontaneous and staying present, even if it’s not natural.
The verses of “Fallingwater” are loose ideas of of fantastical dates wandering the world together, like she’d want, then the chorus flips back to my brain struggling with tapping into emotions, being spontaneous, admitting that it’s not what I’m good at.
Musically we felt like we were tapping into Hüsker Dü and The Kinks when writing this. Those chorus chords especially with the high strings ringing out as a drone definitely owes something to Bob Mould, and the riff in seven that separates sections of the song feels like some early / mid Kinks, or maybe “Alex Chilton” by the Replacements, but in seven. The weird twist comes in the bridge: initially it was just one voice, but in the studio we layered harmonies and it came out a bit Beach Boys, just maybe not as pretty.
Listen to both singles below:
Tracklist
1. Every Day is Decided
2. Time and Distance
3. Fallingwater
4. No Peaches
5. Killed by Convenience
6. Words Like Sparrows
7. Wake Me When It’s Over
8. I’m Trying
9. Lost and Found
10. Drones
11. So This is How it Happens
12. We’ll Never Know
