Spring Onion’s “I Did My Taxes For Free Online” is a low-key slice of life

When she’s not busy playing bass in Remember Sports, Philadelphia musician Catherine Dwyer writes and records the occasional tune as Spring Onion. The project has been around since 2014, but has stayed fairly low-key as the recently name-changed Remember Sports (formerly known as just Sports) has gained more and more attention.

Now, Dwyer is preparing to release her first full-length as Spring Onion. It’s called I Did My Taxes For Free Online and it comes out on April 13 via Sleeper Recordss — effectively guaranteeing that this’ll be a better Tax Day than most years. The new album was written and recorded over the duration of a year, from August 2016 to August 2017, and marks the project’s first release since 2016’s please relax.

Spring Onion has shared the forthcoming album’s title track ahead of the release. “I Did My Taxes For Free Online” is sparse and folk-tinged, filled with descriptions of mundane day-to-day life (like doing taxes and making smoothies) that slowly betray the deeper emotions lurking underneath, as Dwyer sings “I will love you always baby / just don’t look at me.” Dwyer’s twangy vocals and the use of pedal steel (an underutilized instrument, if you ask me) add to the song’s heartachingly homespun sound.

Dwyer told The Grey Estates:

“This song is about relishing the painful aspects of doing something unpleasant (though ultimately beneficial). ‘I Did My Taxes for Free Online’ represents a big step forward in my own arrangement and production abilities, and I was honored to have Pete Gill (of Philly’s own Friendship) play pedal steel.”

Listen below, and keep an eye on Spring Onion’s Bandcamp page for the full release. And don’t forget Remember Sports — that band is keeping busy, too, with a new LP Slow Buzz out May 18 on Father/Daughter Records.