When Matt Keenan of Loveseat Pete originally sent me “Pajama Sam” I emailed him back saying I liked the song a lot but that we were particularly swamped and that its just kinda difficult to write about a musical act with only one song out, but that I liked the young band’s sound and to keep sending me their stuff to figure out something in the future. I then went on to listen to “Pajama Sam” for an hour straight and have listened to it most days since. I started to feel like a dumbass for not figuring out a way to write about the track. Loveseat Pete is from my home state of New Jersey after all, and I should be doing everything in my power to uplift my fellow paisan. More importantly though the song just slaps. Lead singer Vinny’s voice sounds a good deal like Will Toledo’s, though with Will’s neurosis replaced with the cool calm confidence of Julian Casablancas. As you could imagine he track feels heavily influenced by both those men’s bands. Loveseat Pete starts “Pajama Sam” slow before counting down to the monumental riff that drives the song, eventually slowing back down only to ramp back up to that massive riff for a ripper of a close. It’s is the kinda track you feel like you’ve heard a million times the first time you hear it, like they it buried deep in the Humungous Entertainment games of the same name and its only now being brought up from your subconscious.
The bands second track, “Harry/New Song”, gave me a warm familiar feeling the first time I heard it as well, so I figured I’d pen this piece on both tracks to make up for lost time. The track starts quiet and sparse, driven by a quick acoustic guitar, then about a minute in the gang plugs in the amp and kicks things into overdrive. It’s all very cinematic, you know the slowdown a minute later is setting up for a monumental finish and it all feels properly earned. Loveseat Pete closes out the song with a familiar refrain, “Where are your friends tonight,” sung quite a lot like how James Murphy sings to close out “All My Friends” from 2007’s Sound of Silver. It sounds fresh in this new context and puts a wry smile on my face every time I hear it. Something about borrowing that line from that band in that context feels like it could easily fall flat and have me rolling my eyes, but something about the way the callback rounds out the song kicks ass every single time. “Pajama Sam” has a fun video where the gang takes a trip to Grizzly Park, Coloarado and films the area as Vinny sings whenever they find a good spot for it, but I’d imagine “Harry/New Song” being a short story about our friend Harry as he figures out who and where his friends are.
So far I’d say Loveseat Pete is 2 for 2, this is a great little run they’re having out the gate here. The band does wear their influences on their sleeve but they’re all great influences so I really can’t complain. They haven’t teased any longer release with these singles, and while I’m excited to see what Loveseat Pete does with a longer format I am really enjoying this freewheeling early singles era of the band. If they just wanted to release ten singles over the course of a year or so and call it an album when they were done, well that’d work for me.
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