52 Albums a Year

Album of the Week

Week 10: A Man Alive by Thao & The Get Down Stay Down

4:51 PM

Week 9: Tigermilk by Belle and Sebastian

5:01 PM

Artist Highlight

Eli August & The Abandoned Buildings

9:05 AM

Thank you, Road-Trip Gods, for blessing us with 60-degree weather this weekend. I have been rejuvenated with some much-needed Vitamin D, and am now lusting after warm weather and cruising the Appalachian back-roads. I even said a couple nice things about the south, which is a rarity.

Being in such a good mood about all this, I was serendipitously pointed in the direction of Eli August & The Abandoned Buildings.

At first glance, it is easy to quickly mis-categorize Eli August in the slew of urban-dwelling, suspender-wearing baristas chasing authenticity. While there's nothing inherently wrong with handlebar mustaches, or curated lifestyle pursuits, when you listen to what Eli has produced and hear him talk about what he creates, it instantly becomes apparent that he isn't wearing a persona for the sake of art. Eli August's music is the truest form of himself.

He recently released a music video for his single Honey, which will be featured on his forthcoming album Is This Darkness.

After watching the video, it wasn't a surprise to me when he said he drew inspiration from the words of Poe, Faulkner and Twain. Like the writers he admires, Honey attempts to highlight the inseparability of the joys of life and the inevitability of death. It is difficult for the literary-inclined not to jump to these words:

The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins?

-Edgar Allen Poe

While Eli August showcases a range of emotions in his songwriting, Honey addresses death in a way that is everything but foreboding. The video features a parade of mourners processing through the countryside, but his lyrics access a depth that doesn't invoke obvious sadness. Like Poe, Eli August knows death is far more complicated than that. It is clear that he is not trying to mimic these writers, but instead transport his listeners to a time and place that is integral to his being.

After all of this, I found myself wondering who the Abandoned Buildings were. It's an apt name for his fellow band-mates. Eli is the primary song-writer, and says the band itself could have 1-9 people, given who is available, or what he feels the song needs. It's not that his band-mates are "abandoned" necessarily but there is some poetry to the idea of buildings that aren't always in use, but are occasionally "explored" by this songwriter.

Whoever the lineup may be, there is no doubt that the Abandoned Buildings are genuinely committed to the creation of "Antebellum Anthems" and "Bygone Ballads."

Amid his Youtube portfolio of shaving ballads, Steampunk showcases, Edison bulbs and ever-evolving facial hair, I was caught off guard when Eli told me he was a Back to the Future fanatic. Really? A series of spunky 80's flicks, full of puffy vests, possible incest and hover boards? That Back to the Future?

Then it clicked: Eli August is a man who uses his music to illicit nostalgia, and transport his listeners to another era. Of course he would be infatuated with a film that captured the hearts of multiple generations, myself included, and took us through time.

If you like what you hear, you can pre-order Honey here.

Follow @EliAugust on Twitter and Instagram to stay updated on the May 2016 release of Is This Darkness.