Wasted Wine hails from South Carolina, but upon hearing the band’s darkly romantic music, one is transported not to the American South but rather to an imaginary Eastern European cabaret where wine is aplenty — far from wasted. Evoking the macabre hues of Matt Elliott and the Black Heart Procession, Wasted Wine’s minor key-centric songwriting is lush and enveloping, with the ability to fog one’s mind in shadows. This is plenty evident on “Fall Upon Me”, a track from the group’s forthcoming LP Wasted Wine vs. the Hypnosis Center. The song opens with a sensuous and foreboding violin intro, which then gives way to an intense chorus driven by distorted guitars. The video to “Fall Upon Me”, which you can watch exclusively below, only adds to the tune’s air of intrigue, with mysterious gazes and drawn guns creating an opaque narrative.
Frontman, violinist, and multi-instrumentalist Robert Gowan tells PopMatters, “‘Fall Upon Me’ is one of those songs that, no matter where we play it, people seem to be truly awestruck. When the chorus kicks in it washes over you and pushes you in deeper than you meant to go.”
Wasted Wine vs. the Hypnosis Center is out on 17 February via Bear Kids Recordings.
You can stream much of Wasted Wine’s discography via Bandcamp.