Song of the Day: Pillar Point - Part Time Love

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJ’s think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Morning Show with John Richards, is “Part Time Love” by Pillar Point from the 2016 album Marble Mouth on Polyvinyl.

Pillar Point – Part Time Love (MP3)

Named for both a bay in California and a town in Washington, Pillar Point was first conceived as an outlet for songs Seattle’s Scott Reitherman felt wouldn’t fit his other project, Throw Me The Statue. Decidedly more darker and dance-oriented than that band’s catalog, the first batch of Pillar Point songs focused primarily around a theme of dissolution (during its writing and recording, his parents divorced and he split, and later reconciled, with his longtime girlfriend). Accordingly, the buouyant, sharp rock tones and moods that dominated Throw Me The Statue have been replaced with analog synthesizers and DFA-type rhythms, and perhaps because of Reitherman’s natural pop instincts, the transition between the two styles feels like a natural next chapter in Reitherman’s story. His third and latest record, Marble Mouth, continues that trend of dark pop tradition. The album was produced in Athens, Georgia with of Montreal's Kevin Barnes, and its first single, "Part Time Love", takes a notable influence from its producer's fascination with warped, slippery funk. Paced around a gritty low end and a dirty pop-hiss rhythm track, the Reitherman elliptically rotates through distorted growls and pitch-shifted vocal lines that come across as an acid-soaked take on the similarly-titled Stevie Wonder tune. Reitherman has never sounded as haunted as he is on "Part Time Love", but he's also never sounded so alluring, unraveling his inner dungeonesque groove for four slinky minutes.

Pillar Point brings Marble Mouth to Seattle next month when he plays Chop Suey on February 11th. Get tickets and more info on that 21+ show here, keep up with Reitherman at his Facebook and website, and watch the band play "Diamond Mine" live on KEXP in 2013.