For someone also in a band called Coke Weed, this song doesn’t bring either to mind. It’s probably pretty fond of whiskey, though; not so much the ‘sad sack crying into their drink’ style of alt-country, more the ‘I’ve been through some shit, let me pour something up and reminisce’ kind of alt-country. The author of this song certainly has been through some shit.
Say hello to Maine’s Milan McAlevey. That’s Milan as in Rylan as in this song by The National. That helps with the pronunciation guide because the first proper album McAlevey is releasing under his own name is called Islands of Milans. It both is and isn’t a follow-up to the 2008 ‘lost album’ Admiral of the State of Maine which surfaced earlier this year. We’re premiering a lyric video for new single ‘Whatever It Was’.
Of the song, McAlevey says: “[It’s] about finding spiritual refuge in friendship and authentic connection, seeking an antidote to the 3am scaries, that terrifying existential dread that comes from overly engaging in the human world. I’ve been very lucky with my friends my whole life, and the dude in the song was a real guy, but you can’t really drive from Monhegan Island, you have to take a ferry to the mainland. But we did really drive from Maine to Memphis back in the 90s. Every boy growing up in New Hampshire dreams of going to Graceland, it was a bucket list trip. Walter Martin handles the drums and congas on this track, so you know it’s going to groove.”
Martin wasn’t the only member of The Walkmen to help out; Peter Bauer’s putting the album out tomorrow through his label Fortune Tellers. Check out the video below.
