Today, Kansas City-based alt-rock band The Greeting Committee return with their raw and radiant new single “Can I Leave Me Too?” and its accompanying video. Released via Harvest Records, the track is a bracingly intimate portrait of post-breakup grief, revealing frontwoman Addie Sartino’s gift for bringing the listener all the way into the world inside her head. This will be the band’s first release following their recent appearance in Netflix’s To All the Boys: Always and Forever, along with three of their songs on the soundtrack.
Produced by Jennifer Decilveo (MARINA, FLETCHER, Bat for Lashes) and mixed by Dave Fridmann (The Flaming Lips), “Can I Leave Me Too?” opens on a lyric that precisely captures the cruel haze of heartbreak: “Why does everybody drive the same car you do?/I’m scared of myself without you.” “My girlfriend drives a Nissan Rogue, and after we broke up I felt like I couldn’t go anywhere without seeing that car,” says Sartino. “I remember thinking, ‘There’s no way there are this many Nissan Rogues in Kansas City’ — but I think that’s a pretty universal thing to have happen when you’re going through a breakup.”
Sparked from a demo created by Greeting Committee bassist Pierce Turcotte, “Can I Leave Me Too?” ultimately took the form of a sprawling alt-pop epic. From its fuzzed-out intro to the bridge’s beautifully dizzying breakdown, the track’s lushly textured sound makes for a perfect backdrop to Sartino’s confession (e.g., “I’m filthy, clingy, and creepy for you always”). “That song holds a lot of desperation — it’s definitely about that moment when your self-esteem is just gone,” she notes. To that end, “Can I Leave Me Too?” pulls off the incredible feat of transforming its gut-punching chorus lyric into an irresistibly catchy hook: “If you leave me, can I leave me too?/I’m afraid that I might need you.”
Co-directed by Sartino and Malik Lemonthe, the video for “Can I Leave Me Too?” opens on Sartino lying alone in bed, then cycles through a series of spellbinding close-ups: Sartino brushing her teeth in front of her bathroom mirror, meandering along empty city streets, and — in a particularly brilliant sequence of repeat shots — brushing her teeth as she wanders the world. The result is an understated exploration of how time drags when we’re devastated, each day blurring into the next.
Comprised of Addie Sartino, Brandon Yangmi, Pierce Turcotte and Austin Fraser, the spirit of purposeful sharing has served as something of a lifeline for The Greeting Committee. Formed in 2014, soon after Sartino and Yangmi got their start playing local open-mic nights, the band self-released their debut EP It’s Not All That Bad in fall 2015. The EP’s lead single “Hands Down” quickly became a breakout hit, paving the way for The Greeting Committee’s signing to Harvest Records when they were all still in high school.
After making their Harvest debut with the Meeting People Is Easy EP in 2017 and the subsequent release of This Is It, the band spent much of the next few years on the road, with sold-out headline shows in major markets such as Chicago, Austin, New York, Los Angeles and Minneapolis. To date, they’ve toured with the likes of Bombay Bicycle Club, Tennis, Hippo Campus, and Rainbow Kitten Surprise and taken the stage at leading festivals like Lollapalooza and SXSW, in addition to delivering the I’m Afraid I’m Not Angry EP in late 2019 and appearing in Netflix’s To All the Boys: Always and Forever. The coming months have a lot more in store from the band.
Listen to “Can I Leave Me Too?” HERE, and check out the video HERE.
