Kevin Bronson on February 3rd, 2021

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In our latest pandemic-fueled fever dream, it’s a hot summer night in the early 2000s and we’re in a long line to get into Spaceland to see some buzzing indie-rock band from New York or the U.K. — and also to support the local band that’s opening. That band may or may not actually be the Drives, but it certainly might sound like them.

In reality, the Highland Park trio — singer-guitarist Andrew Levin, producer-songwriter Casey Chen and drummer Geo Botelho — are keeping the indie-rock flame aflicker. Starting with last-fall’s “OCD,” they’ve hit their stride, releasing a couple more sharp, propulsive songs ping-ponging between ennui and hope, feelings that today are redlining compared to relatively tepid post-Y2K angst.

“The Comedown,” released last week, is the follow-up to November’s single “All This Boredom.” It’s a rhythmically slow-and-go rocker based, ostensibly, on the end of a relationship. Is there such a thing as Churn und Drang?

“I wrote this song in the aftermath of an intense breakup when I was pretty overwhelmed and stuck,” Levin says. “Nothing I could do could really get me out of the heaviness that surrounded me. I basically tried to capture what I was going through directly post break up. At times, it felt good, like it was the beginning of something. Then, sometimes I felt a sense of uneasiness. Then, other times I felt pure frustration.

“It’s weird now because even though I wrote this song a while ago about my breakup, it feels like the perfect time to release it. In a lot of ways I’m feeling similar emotions about the start of this year in terms of the state of the world and my own state of mind. Some days feel like a positive step forward, while others feel another disheartening step back into 2020.”

The trio plans to release a single a month this year. So, one down.

||| Stream: “The Comedown” and “All This Boredom”

||| Previously: “OCD”