Advance Base, nom de plume of singer-songwriter Owen Ashworth, will release live album In Bloomington this July. The LP from the lo-fi pop artist formerly known as Casiotone for the Painfully Alone documents a rare performance featuring his full-band lineup.
While promoting last year's sophomore effort from Advance Base, Nephew in the Wild, Ashworth convened a six-piece band to perform the tunes. The assembly performed but two gigs: one in Chicago and a second at the Blockhouse in Bloomington, Indiana, documented on In Bloomington.
In Bloomington gives Ashworth's introspective, forlorn narratives a shot in the arm with its earthy instrumental accompaniment. Understated percussion, brooding piano and a snappy, overdriven lap steel guitar frame these wistful compositions from Advance Base in a different but compelling light.
Save for a satisfyingly tossed-off interlude of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven," showcasing Ashworth's creamy Rhodes chops, the majority of the album's songs stem from the musician's two solo records as Advance Base: 2012's A Shut-In's Prayer and the aforementioned Nephew. Only one Casiotone song is performed, 2006 single "Bobby Malone Moves Home."
Ashworth's songs -- heartsick anthems and stirring vignettes of memory and minutia -- are writ large with the six-piece lineup. Often considered autobiographical, the songwriter told Performer magazine that his compositions are not necessarily written as personal confessions:
"I'm not very interested in singing about myself." [...] "I know that it's natural to assume that the person singing a song is singing about themselves, and I don't mind that, but when I'm singing one of my songs, I'm picturing the characters in the songs, and most of the time, they are people I made up, even if they aren't all that different than me," says Ashworth.
In Bloomington drops July 8 on Orindal Records; the album will be available digitally and on limited edition vinyl LP. Ashworth will also promote the release this summer with a nationwide solo tour.
Below, check out the In Bloomington version of "The Only Other Girl from Back Home," originally from Nephew in the Wild.
