Although they’ve been writing and rehearsing together remotely for almost a decade, Milliseconds are new to the public eye. The trio, which features two members of the Dismemberment Plan, announced their debut album So This Is How It Happens last month by releasing lead single “Time And Distance.” Today they’ve shared a second song, “Fallingwater,” which starts with a burst of punchy power chords and travels somewhere close to classic mid-20th century pop by way of post-hardcore.

Singer and bassist Eric Axelson shared the song’s backstory at Brooklyn Vegan:

On the third or fourth date with my now-wife, she told me about her fantasy to head to the airport some Friday after work, buy a ticket for Paris, and spend a weekend exploring, eating great food, drinking wine, flying back for work Monday. Without skipping a beat, my overly-practical tour manager brain kicked in and before I knew it was spelling out how expensive it’d be buying a last-minute ticket, how you’d need to figure out lodging when we landed, how raw the jet lag would be on a short trip…completely missing the romantic point of the notion, killing any spontaneity at all. Not my best moment, and I’ve gotten a little better about being spontaneous and staying present, even if it’s not natural.

The verses of “Fallingwater” are loose ideas of of fantastical dates wandering the world together, like she’d want, then the chorus flips back to my brain struggling with tapping into emotions, being spontaneous, admitting that it’s not what I’m good at.

Musically we felt like we were tapping into Hüsker Dü and The Kinks when writing this. Those chorus chords especially with the high strings ringing out as a drone definitely owes something to Bob Mould, and the riff in seven that separates sections of the song feels like some early / mid Kinks, or maybe “Alex Chilton” by the Replacements, but in seven. The weird twist comes in the bridge: initially it was just one voice, but in the studio we layered harmonies and it came out a bit Beach Boys, just maybe not as pretty.

Listen below.

So This Is How It Happens is out 10/13 on Spartan.