Matt's Track of the Week: "Absinthe Party at the Fly Honey Warehouse"

Song: Absinthe Party at the Fly Honey Warehouse

Artist: Minus the Bear

Album: Highly Refined Pirates

Year: 2002

Every time the seasons change, there are certain bands that I can no longer listen to, and bands that I suddenly have an urge to listen to. It's a weird phenomenon to say the least. Like how I can't listen to the Postal Service or Ra Ra Riot unless it's winter, or how every summer, I go on a Built to Spill binge. For the fall, there are a number of bands that this also occurs with, but one that never fails to follow the trend is Minus the Bear.

"Absinthe Party at the Fly Honey Warehouse" is at the same time, both calming and jarring. It begins with simple, sleepy, looping guitar parts, that gradually pile, one on top of the other to lull you into a state of ease. At this point, you become so used to what you're hearing, that you don't even expect it when the drums finally kick in, and the song grows legs. It remains mostly reserved for its entirety, except during the choruses, where the band lets loose long enough to

make their point and then return to the song's structure with a little momentum leftover from the outburst. Only at the song's very end do the guys let the seams come undone, and we come to a close with the singer repeatedly alternating between a sigh and a yell, "Let's get a bottle and drink alone tonight".