Advance Base’s “Dolores & Kimberly” is a weirdly touching modern love story

First as Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, and then later as Advance Base, Owen Ashworth has always made songs with a certain literary quality. So it feels natural that "Dolores & Kimberly," a sluggish tearjerker from his forthcoming Run For Cover Records full-length, Animal Companionship, is literally a somber short story set to music. It's full of bleakly romantic imagery that was, according to an email from Ashworth, partially inspired by "all of the weird nights [he's] spent on buses and in bus stations over the years."

"The streets were so empty / You’d think it was the rapture," he sing-speaks in his trademark baritone, over dusty-sounding pedal steel and a languid drum machine loop. "Our midnight world / Just me and you." It's a bizarrely heartwarming modern love story, even though its protagonist may not be entirely likable.

"[The song] is a fictional story about a person who, for unknown reasons, has abandoned their family and moved to a different state to start a new life with a person they met on the internet," Ashworth explained. "They experience simultaneous feelings of guilt and relief, plus the strange excitement of starting all over again. The music was inspired by Joe Meek, Bruce Springsteen, and Patsy Cline, among others." Listen below.

Advance Base tour dates:

9/23 Lakewood, OH @ Mahall's Locker Room *
9/24 Toronto, ON @ The Baby G *
9/25 Rochester, NY @ Small World Books *
9/26 Brooklyn, NY @ Baby's All Right *
9/27 Cambridge, MA @ Atwood's Tavern *
9/28 Portland, ME @ Apohadion Theater *
9/29 Burlington, VT @ Light Club Lamp Shop *
9/30 Montreal, QC @ Bar Le Ritz PDB *
10/1 Greenfield, MA @ Root Cellar Bar *
10/2 Kingston, NY @ BSP *
10/3 Philadelphia, PA @ PhilaMOCA *%
10/4 Washington, DC @ Studio Ga Ga *
10/5 Charlottesville, VA @ Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar *
10/7 Columbus, OH @ Cafe Bourbon Street *
10/17 Chicago, IL @ The Hideout ~%
10/18 Iowa City, IA @ PS1 %
10/19 Omaha, NE @ O'Leavers %
10/20 Sioux Falls, SD @ Total Drag %
10/21 Fargo, ND @ Aquarium %
10/22 Winnipeg, MB @ The Handsome Daughter %
10/23 Grand Forks, ND @ Ojata Records %
10/24 Duluth, MN @ Red Herring %
10/25 Minneapolis, MN @ The Warming House %
10/26 Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club %
11/8 Louisville, KY @ Surface Noise Records
11/10 Knoxville, TN @ The Pilot Light
11/11 Durham, NC @ The Pinhook +<
11/12 Greenville, SC @ Cabin Floor Records +
11/13 Athens, GA @ The World Famous +
11/15 Lafayette, LA @ Artmosphere
11/16 Galveston, TX @ GAR <
11/17 Austin, TX @ Hotel Vegas <
11/18 Denton, TX @ Dan's Silverleaf <
11/21 St Louis, MO @ Foam
12/6 Vancouver, BC @ Wise Lounge >
12/7 Seattle, WA @ Barboza >
12/8 Anacortes, WA @ Kennelly Keys >
12/9 Portland, OR @ Turn Turn Turn >
12/11 San Francisco, CA @ Hotel Utah >$
12/12 Los Angeles, CA @ Bootleg Theater >
12/14 Tucson, AZ @ 191 Toole >?
12/15 Phoenix, AZ @ Trunk Space >?
12/17 Denver, CO @ Hi Dive >?

* w/ Gia Margaret
% w/ Friendship
~ w/ Spencer Radcliffe & Everyone Else
+ w/ Greg Jamie
< w/ Moon Racer
> w/ Lisa/Liza
$ w/ Stephen Steinbrink
? w/ Karima Walker