Premiere: The Bourgeois Indulge in Darkness on “My Old Friend Misery”

The Bourgeois return with angst-riddled fury in “My Old Friend Misery,” an alt-rock anthem dwelling in, and released from darkness.

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Dark clouds have a nasty tendency to hang overhead, following us to and fro in spite of the weather. You could be bathed in sunshine, but still feel like the life’s been sucked out of you. In a nutshell, that’s anxiety; that’s depression; and for so many, that’s life.

The Bourgeois return with angst-riddled fury in “My Old Friend Misery,” an alt-rock anthem dwein, and released from darkness.

I used to feel like I was invincible
But now I think I might be invisible
Let’s raise a toast to wasted youth
Stare down the inconvenient truth

My old friend misery
Is always there for me
My old friend misery
Will not abandon me

Listen: “My Old Friend Misery” – The Bourgeois

Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering “My Old Friend Misery,” the first single from The Bourgeois following the release of their sophomore album, From the Darkest Corners of the Brightest Rooms, earlier this year. The Tulsa, Oklahoma-based trio of Zach Mobley, Ty Clark, and Vance Young, The Bourgeois first came under our radar through last year’s track premiere of “An Infinite Void,” on which the band “juxtapose[d] the numbness of inactivity with the restlessness of bystandership, crafting a dynamic dreamlike mix of engaged disengagement.” Meanwhile, From the Darkest Corners of the Brightest Rooms affirms the band’s prolific talent and charisma.

It’s been a long and exciting year for The Bourgeois, who returned to the studio to work with producer Jim Kaufman (Atlas Genius, Night Riots, Anti-Flag) on a string of forthcoming songs. The first of this batch, “My Old Friend Misery,” finds The Bourgeois fully embracing their sound as a left-of-center alternative rock band.

Lyrically embroiled in one’s own inner turmoil, “My Old Friend Misery” accepts stress and tension in a half tongue-in-cheek, half all-too-serious sense of overwhelmed anxiety:

I see your cup, yeah it runneth over
Yet I’m out here searching for four-leaf clovers
Let’s pour one out for wasted youth
Stare down the inconvenient truth

My old friend misery
Is always there for me
My old friend misery
Will not abandon me

Sometimes, admitting you’ve got stuff going on helps lighten the load – even if all that stuff is still there. No one wants to be friend with misery, but if this is the life you know, embracing that life for what it is may actually help you cope with its natural volatility.

“’My Old Friend Misery’ is the first single from a series of tracks we recorded with Jim Kaufman earlier this year,” The Bourgeois explain. “This was the strongest set of songs we’d ever entered the studio with, and Jim helped us expand our sonic horizons without abandoning our core sound.”

Diving further into the song itself, Zach Mobley tells Atwood Magazine, “This was a rare instance in which song lyrics came together pretty quickly for me. I’m not sure what inspired the song title, but once I had it, the rest of the lyrics seemed to write themselves.” He considers the song’s depth itself special for offering a moment of reflection: “People rarely get to live the lives they envisioned for themselves. I think I’m finally beginning to understand how ridiculous it is to define personal success by measuring my actual accomplishments against the ones I daydreamed about in my youth.”

A dark anthem, “My Old Friend Misery” is tight and fleshed-out, a bite-sized ready-for-radio single whose repetitions get almost too easily stuck in your head. The Bourgeois have already come into their own once before, but they’re continuing to hone in on their own electrifying aura with exceptional confidence and intense drive. Stream “My Old Friend Misery” exclusively on Atwood Magazine, and stay tuned for more from The Bourgeois before year’s end!

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? © Charles Elmore

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