After two decades of fronting successful art rock bands like The Curious Digit, Manishevitz and SONOI, Adam Ostrar (FKA Adam Busch) has taken the solo path. He is gearing up for the release of his second solo LP, Brawls in the Briar on October 13, 2017 on Super Secret Records. Today, mxdwn has the premiere of the video from one of the album’s singles, the sparsely arranged “Spare Me.” With stop-motion animation from artist Via Nuon, the video is an appropriate companion to the simple acoustic ballad.
The folksy vocal delivery of Ostrar is complemented by a soothing, finger-picked guitar figure. As he sings lines like “Sailing ships move past you / I find time is in the sand” the visuals transition to accompany the lyrics. The imagery jumps from various abstractly-designed clay and papier-mâché figures that move through kitschy backdrops that resemble a middle school shoebox diorama, replete with foam shrub material spelling out the song’s title. With the repeated line of “but I don’t really want your time,” it appears this delicate song is a bit of a kiss off – not surprising considering the title, “Spare Me.”
Ostrar released four albums with Manishevitz through the Jagjaguwar label while the St. Louis native lived in Chicago from 1999 to 2014. After the breakup of his band, he formed SONOI with a former member of Manishevitz, thought that group did not last long. In 2015 he made the move to one of American’s rising music capitals, Austin, TX. There he worked with African music scholar Nathaniel Braddock, who helped the rock veteran hone his fingerpicking skills through the influence of African and American Primitive fingerpicking as well as that of folk icons like Bert Jansch – influences which are immediately obvious throughout “Spare Me.”
Brawls in the Briar track list
1. Enemy
2. Another Room
3. Warlock
4. Spare Me
5. Drinking From A Candle
6. Hammered White And Barking
7. Cossacks In The Building
8. Hot Air
9. Boy
10. Color Of Bone
11. Cindy Tells Me
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