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What’s old is new again. The band t-shirt we wore years ago becomes vintage and fashionable. The car nobody would be caught dead driving becomes a classic. A sound we haven’t heard in a long time suddenly comes back into style.
Sat. Nite Duets don’t need to worry about that last one. Their indie-rock approach always finds an audience, even if that audience needs to wait patiently for new music from the Milwaukee band — as is the case for today’s premiere of “Wind-Up World.”
The track is Sat. Nite Duets’ first new song in six years and carries a history even longer than that. As the group explained in notes to us, vocalist Joe Guszkowski penned it in 2016 during a moment of geographic self-reflection. A Madison resident at the time, he was pondering whether a move might bring a little more happiness to his life and — based on the song’s content — realized location can only do so much to change your situation.
Talking about the long-dormant song, the band said, “Though it is about a decade old, it still feels true in a death-and-taxes kind of way: Life is an endless cycle of highs and lows, no matter where you go.”
It’s a straightforward message in a no-nonsense track. Guitar is the only instrument you hear in a 30-second intro that features Guszkowski’s wavery vocals setting the scene:
When I got to the bottom
Of what’s been bringing me down
I cried just like a baby
They heard it all over town
She's like a wind-up dancer
Spins me round and round
It's a wind-up world
And I'm finding out
The song introduces more sonic complexity as other players jump in, along with backup vocals and flourishes that catch your ear while the lyrics keep emphasizing the cyclical nature of life. “It’s the same old story …” “It just goes on and on and on and on …” This could be a freeing sentiment in a certain situation, but here it feels more like resignation. This is how life is, and there’s nothing you can do about it, so you might as well keep going.
It might not be the cheeriest thought, but we can feel at least a little brightened that it’s delivered as part of Sat. Nite Duets’ return to releasing new music. And it comes with more smile-inducing news: The band will be part of a Sept. 19 bill at Linneman’s that includes the reunited Fatty Acids, Mortgage Freeman and Josh Evert’s solo project (those last two are both celebrating record releases that night).
