LunaRover with Throw Me A Line: Survival Gets Funky

Life, when you think about it, can feel similar to surviving a plane crash. You’re floating somewhere, grabbing onto whatever is still floating, wondering how you ended up there. The plane could be your job, your bank account, your love life. You hold on, improvise, and wonder if you’re actually going to make it.

Hopefully, though, your debris has Wi-Fi. That’s what came to mind when I heard LunaRover with Throw Me A Line, their latest release. They took that everyday feeling and turned it into an actual plane crash.

More than ten years together

LunaRover comes from Silver Spring, Maryland, and these three guys have known each other for quite a while. Kevin Rieth met drummer Tench Tillman in high school, then later met Ben Pelletier during a college internship. They’ve now been making music together, on and off, for more than a decade. Kevin is on lead vocals, synths, guitar, bass and samples, Ben on backing vocals, synths and guitar, and Tench on drums.

Much of LunaRover happens in basement studios around Washington, DC. My kind of setup. They do everything themselves, usually starting with the drums and building from there, experimenting and changing things as they go. They take inspiration from St. Vincent, Alabama Shakes and Beck, which probably explains why they’re quite happy mixing things up and having some fun with vintage synths too.

Now about that plane crash…

Throw Me A Line follows a survivor floating in the ocean after a plane crash, clinging to debris and trying to find enough strength to keep going. Love gives him something to hold onto mentally, while one question keeps returning: Am I enough?

Then LunaRover start playing with his hallucinations. We’ve got that dreamy feel throughout, some funky elements here and there, and towards the end this revolving synth groove comes in and adds a bit of colour. The synths begin falling apart while a sped-up guitar arpeggio floats over the outro. At that point, I’m somewhere in the ocean with him.

[SPOTIFY EMBEDDED LINK]

Alex Newport, known for his work with At the Drive-In and Death Cab for Cutie, mixed the track. Chris Longwood, whose credits include George Clinton and Khruangbin, handled the mastering. So yeah, these three guys have been making music together for more than ten years, and here we are now with funk, synths, plenty going through your head and some poor bloke in the middle of the ocean, holding onto a piece of a plane.

But somewhere in between all those waves, the message is there. Throw Me A Line is out now. You can keep up with LunaRover on Instagram and TikTok, and if you want to hear what all this sounds like, Throw Me A Line is waiting for you on Spotify. Just try to stay on the boat.

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