A peppy psych-rock throwback, “Late Summer’s Eve (Rustling Leaves)” sounds a gorgeous lost cut from the ’70s — enamoring with a dazed vocal immersion alongside twangy guitars and thumping bass enthrallment. The effort comes via Sherbet Tone, a project led by Stephen Leisy, and formerly known as Moon Shy.
A surf-y guitar sequence at the three-minute mark dazzles, with the “I never realized,” vocal culmination lending a hypnotic hookiness into the warming conclusion. “Late Summer’s Eve (Rustling Leaves)” is a blissfully melodic success from Leisy, who elaborates further on the track’s narrative and creative process:
“Late Summer’s Eve is the true story of two teenagers trying to drink some mad dog 20/20 and maybe fool around a little bit at night in the graveyard at the top of the hill but instead, they are chased off by a lumbering, dedicated groundskeeper (who may live there? It’s super late, so super strange he’s still there doing his job). It’s sentimental and also about how fleeting these memories are.”
“I don’t remember recording this song. When the world came to a halt in 2020 I had a four-month-old son and I was recording music like crazy during his naps and while unable to sleep at night. A year later my basement studio flooded and while salvaging items I found a box loaded with 2-inch reel-to-reel tapes with my handwriting on them. This was among the first tunes I spun up and listened to and I was amazed how familiar and foreign it sounded. It was definitely my memory put to lyrics but the tune felt familiar only in a deja vu kind of way.”
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This and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Best of December 2023’ Spotify playlist.
The track is also featured in the genre-based, best-of Spotify compilation Emerging Psychedelic Rock.
