Former Casiotone For The Painfully Alone mastermind Owen Ashworth is about to launch his latest tour under his current guise, Advance Base. In preparation for the outing, he's shared two more of his signature "melancholic electronic story songs," one of which features guest vocals from Moontype's Margaret McCarthy. They're called "Movie Theater Manager" and "Blue Christmas 2," and Ashworth wrote the following about them in a message to his Bandcamp followers:
I recorded these songs at home. Margaret McCarthy from the wonderful Chicago band Moontype sang "Movie Theater Manager" with me. Jason Quever mixed both songs. Thank you Margaret, thank you Jason. I wrote more about these songs on the Bandcamp page, but I’d like to introduce them to you as two distant companions, both inspired by real life movie theater & bank robberies, some recalled from my younger days as a San Francisco movie theater employee & others from further back in American history. I think of them as two parts of a loose trilogy with the Casiotone for the Painfully Alone song "Traveling Salesman's Young Wife Home Alone on Christmas in Montpelier, VT." Feel free to draw your own conclusions. It feels good to let a couple of wild ones loose every once in a while. I'm grateful for the chance to get these songs out of my head & into yours. I sure hope you enjoy them.
Both songs are slow, wistful, and painfully gorgeous, but what else would you expect from Ashworth? Listen below.
