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about

‘Kilometres’ is a travelling song that invites the listener along for a backseat daydream; it’s a number that’s in conversation with the past while hitching a ride somewhere new and untravelled.

The aesthetic of the song is reminiscent of the ‘good old days’ with its worn-in acoustic guitar rhythm punctuated by melodic string runs and marching drum accents.

The production is honest with a light-touch, harking back to analogue recordings of the late 1960s and 70s akin to the output of Neil Young or Gillian Welch/David Rawlings.

Songwriter/singer Mark Curtis penned ‘Kilometres’ as a spiritual reply letter to Woodie Guthrie’s ‘The Car Song’; a naively fun ode to motor vehicle travel written and recorded in the 1940s and performed by everyone from Dylan, Springsteen and Donovan to (most likely) your own parents and grandparents.


Marks lyric evokes the novelty and enamour of Guthrie’s work and playfully marries it to unglamorous slices of banal modernity like paying for fuel, waiting at traffic lights and distracting phone use.

He creates a bittersweet stream of images held in subtle tension and uses ‘Kilometres’ as a vehicle to go panning in the murky waters between the timeless and the everyday.

Are the flannelettes releasing a song about the inexpressible, one-way directionality of time, linking all souls together in a mysterious continuum? or is it simply a song about the metric system? Have a listen and find out for yourself.

lyrics

Traveling little room, Kilometres kilometres
Take you riding in my car, car Take me riding in your car Kilometers miles from where you are.
Take it back, Drive it home. Navigate, use your phone. Kilometers, meter killers On the road.
Paying for gas,
Drives you broke. Walking, walking is a joke Kilometers miles for U.S. Folk.
(Pump the brakes)
We’ll wait at the lights all together now. We’ll wait at the light, just don’t look around. We’ll wait at the lights,
wait at those red lights
How long’s it been now?
Don’t ponder life,
And don’t catch eyes with the guy sitting next to you.
Automotive industry Woody’s songs, factories. Kilometers where you’d like to be.
Speed it up, Slow it down.
All these smiles, All these frowns Kilometers miles from your home town. Kilometers (s)miles from your home town.

credits

released November 23, 2022
Written, recorded and mixed by M. Curtis
Mastered by Alex Mader
Artwork by Hana Brenecki

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Mark Curtis and the Flannelettes Adelaide, Australia

Compelling songwriting with quirk, delivered by a fun, alt country, string band from Adelaide, South Australia Kaurna Yerta

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