Current tour mates Manchester Orchestra and The Front Bottoms have combined forces and released a new collaborative track, the single “Allentown”.
“Allentown” features Manchester Orchestra’s Andy Hull and Brian Sella from The Front Bottoms trading verses over minimalist instrumental backing. It’s downbeat, pensive, and certainly a long way from what little I’ve heard of The Front Bottom’s other work. It’s also completely beautiful stuff, with Hull and Sella’s vocals complimenting each other perfectly. Interestingly, the track had it’s genesis in a different collaboration, with Hull explaining that it initially began as a writing exercise between All Get Out’s Nate Hussey and himself:
“This song started as a writing exercise between Nate Hussey (All Get Out) and myself. Nate sent me the first four lines and asked what kind of music and melody I heard. I sent him back the melody and we started crafting out this character with as few words as possible. When I sent it to TFB, Brian wrote the cool narrator perspective as our chorus. TFB crew came down to Atlanta and we co-produced the track and gave it some proper clothing.”
Whether this is a once off, or whether there will be further collaborations between the two bands further down the track remains to be seen. But, either way it’s clear the two compliment each other remarkably well, and a collaborative album wouldn’t be amiss.
“Allentown” is available now. Make sure you follow both bands on Facebook: Manchester Orchestra / The Front Bottoms
