When most bands say goodbye, they ride off into the sunset on a sonic carriage of past memories and familiar tunes. Blackbutton have done the opposite, as the Boston grunge trio has disbanded right at the release point of a new album, The Absence Of The Other.
Blackbutton said goodbye last month with a Northeast tour and grand finale party at Great Scott this past Saturday, but also leave us with a punishing new collection of nine songs led by pile-driving, and aptly-named, single “Physical.” Listen to the full LP below via their Bandcamp page.
A few weeks ago, Blackbutton explained to Vanyaland their decision to call it a day.
“After three-plus years, we knew that our time together would be coming to a close in the near future,” they say, in a collective statement. “About a year ago, we decided that we wanted to capture and document all of our hard work and creativity with one final record, The Absence Of The Other. While we have enjoyed our time together as a band, our personal lives have taken us in different directions. Dave [Koslovsky, bassist] has decided to move to Chicago, and Justin [Emile, drummer] to Portland, Maine. We are proud of all the songs on our final record and hope to catch friends and fans at one of our final shows in the coming weeks.”
Is it too early to start calling for a reunion?
The Absence Of The Other was engineered by Converse Rubber Tracks producer and Berklee College of Music alum Aaron Bastinelli, who also engineered Blackbutton’s recent single “AM Clouds PM Sun.” About the theme of the new LP, frontman/guitarist Jordan Tavenner says: “The speaker changes in each song, but they all share the commonality of experiencing their own conflicts with the ‘other.’ They explore varying perspectives of how each character deals with their own conflict differently; some stories become angry, some vengeful, some are lamenting, and some passive.”
Let’s pour one out…
