Back in high school, flaunting a Marlboro-branded beach towel or a denim jacket was the badge of a total jerk. If a friend owned something like that, you could assume they’d been stocking Marlboro Miles — coupons tucked inside every pack of cigarettes that could be exchanged for a range of grubby merch. Camel had a comparable scheme with Camel Cash, but Marlboro Reds were the quintessential bad-kid cigarettes. While our society has slipped in countless ways since then, tobacco brands don’t have quite the same easy route to reach kids who want to broadcast their rebelliousness. (If there exists a vape-cartridge analog to Marlboro Miles, I’m blissfully unaware of it.)
Next month, the Lancaster, Pennsylvania formed band American Motors will unveil Functional Music, their new album full of abrasive, foreboding sounds crafted in collaboration with Jawbox luminary J Robbins. We’ve already shared the lead track “No Horses,” which earned a place on one of our weekly best-songs lists. Today, the band offers their clangorous, terse new cut “Marlboro Miles,” which radiates its own dangerous appeal. Here’s what band member Dustin White has to say about it:
A track without a chorus? Sure thing, baby. In the days before thrift stores discarded all photos and slides, I found a photo of a woman lying in bed surrounded by Marlboro Miles. It might have been Camel Cash, but I’m 100% certain it was some cigarette-related currency. Tragically, that photo is lost to the void that comes with endless cross-country moves, the passage of time, and a general “fuck it” attitude, but it lives on in my head. The first verse centers on a science fiction convention in Columbus, Ohio that we used to party at every year. It was magical. I even saw a Star Wars Stormtrooper and a Klingon kissing there once. This song feels like the connective tissue between our first record and the new one. It seems to signal that not everything on the album contains big pop moments and that plenty of it remains in that same murky reverb-drenched, hit-then-pause world that we love. It’s really fun to play live.
Amanda Lee McCarty, aka Clotheshorse, directed the “Marlboro Miles” video, and it’s below.
Functional Music is slated for release on 11/6 via The Ghost Is Clear/Expert Work/Vina.
