Short and sweet would be the best summary of my first impression of You, Me and Everyone We Know’s latest track, “Raise Them Bones,” from the upcoming Dogged EP. Short in regards to the fact the song clocks in at a mere 57 seconds and sweet in the sense that it’s the first release Ben Liebsch’s now one-man band has put out since 2013’s I Wish More People Gave a Shit EP. Well, outside of a surprise compilation of Christmas tracks in the form of A Mutty Christmas EP that dropped last month.
There’s no argument that the track is pleasing to the ears, but the shortness of it just left me wanting more, which could potentially be a genius marketing trick to boost EP sales when it drops. Regardless, it’s catchy and exactly what you’d expect from a You, Me and Everyone We Know track: a mix of cynicism and hopefulness delivered with a good old side of weirdness.
While it was difficult to fully make out many of the lyrics (especially when it came to the backing vocals), one thing I was sure of was Liebsch’s mention of “still pacing the room in [his] underwears,” a line that doesn’t come as surprising from a guy who also sang about binging on Doritos and “grow[ing] so stagnant that [he] breeds mosquitoes” in “Bootstraps” from 2010’s Some Things Don’t Wash Out.
Liebsch took over the reins of the Lancaster, Penn.-based band in 2011 after all of its members decided to move on in a messy he said, they said debacle (something once again mentioned in a mid-December label signing announcement on the band’s official site).
Liebsch promised the band was not breaking up then and that new music would be on the way soon, which ended up being the A Great Big Hole EP of 2012. That EP and the aforementioned one in 2013 were both pretty different sound-wise from what the band produced in its former state. However, it appears from what was heard on “Raise Them Bones” that Liebsch has pulled a bit from that previous sound certainly lyrics-wise as well as in terms of arrangement.
With three EPs under his belt as the current version of the band, Liebsch will add a fourth, Dogged, March 17 via South By Sea Music. According to YMAEWK’s twitter, it will be available for pre-order Jan. 6. In the meantime, “Raise Them Bones” can be streamed and downloaded for free via Substream’s sampler.