There’s something immediately catchy about indie rock quartet Active Bird Community’s latest single “Spend The Night” that’s hard to put a finger on. Maybe it’s the band’s earthy garage rock feel, mixed in with a few drops of whiny punk essence. Maybe it’s faint guitar distortion, the driving beat, or the rousing group vocals. More than likely, it’s a combination of all of the above. This track captures the jaded, slacker vibes that we’ve come to love of bands like Modern Baseball and The Front Bottoms, but ABC does it differently.
After 13 years as a band, they seem to mastered the art of the slow build. Where younger indie guitar bands dive in headfirst with layers of electric fuzz and blatant lyricism, these guys from Brooklyn have got making an impact down to a science, adding in a stereo guitar line here and a falsetto-laden vocal track there, while still leaving room for individual interpretation. The song’s narrative centers around the fate of a relationship that seems to have lost its spark. Singer/guitarist Tom D’Agustino elaborates “’Spend The Night’ poses a question to the listener about relationships, mainly how to navigate them when you feel them slipping away. Is it better to stay in a place that isn’t working anymore for the sake of the relationship, or is it okay to move on?” Give “Spend The Night” a worthwhile spin below, and look out for an upcoming album on the horizon via the band’s freshly minted label, Barsuk Records.