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May 10, 2021 By Caleb Campbell

Woody Goss and Jeremy Daly, known together simply as Woody and Jeremy, have been creating music together for years, even predating Woody’s time as keyboardist for Vulfpeck. The duo made their full-length debut last year with Strange Satisfaction, with Woody as composer and Jeremy as lyricist. On their sophomore follow-up, Gravy In My Coffee, the band shifts those boundaries, resulting in a genre-sampling pastiche of indie, funk, punk, and psych. The duo has now returned with the latest single from the project, “My Old Bassist,” premiering with Under the Radar.

The band’s latest track explores the unattractive side of nostalgia, putting the listener in the shoes of an unwilling audience as an aging punk recalls the glory days. The instrumental, initially tightly wound and driving slowly unravels into a mix of bursts of guitar and tumbling organ lines, all while the narrator regales the audience with stories of “My Old Bassist.”

The duo explains of the song, “There’s a certain type of business person you may meet, who once was an artist and through whatever series of events has become a suit. Maybe the transition happened because of a kid, or the pay was too good to pass up or they experienced too much sustained failure as an artist or that’s just the way it went. Whatever the reason, if liquored up enough and placed within a social situation where they feel the need to impress, they may draw on the details of their glory days to attempt to do so. Over one too many drinks they may regale you about time in the van, on tour, playing that show with that band, and getting in that situation.

They may even tell you about their old bassist. An emblem to them now. More a symbol of their youth than real person even. A figure they can recall and say “Yes I was young and dumb and carefree once. I lived life.” And if you feel uncomfortable with their candor, with their allusions to drugs and debauchery, with their maybe somewhat casual cruelty? Then all the better because then you’re the square, man, and they’re still hip and all is right with the world. Meanwhile, somewhere out there, the old bassist in question (who in no way would think of themself as being “theirs” at all) is living a life and probably not thinking of this business person at all. But maybe they are, and there is something about that that is a bit melancholy to me. Maybe they can get the band back together one day. That would be nice.”

Check out the song below and watch for Gravy In My Coffee, out June 4th.