Young Allies arrive with the kind of origin story that makes sense only after hearing the music. The New York-based band, led by singer, songwriter, and actor Fritz Michel, has released “Fingers Entwined,” the title track from their forthcoming debut EP, out July 24, while also announcing an ongoing Wednesday night residency at LIC Bar in Long Island City.
The single marks a clear shift from Michel’s earlier solo work into a fuller band identity. Rather than feeling like a singer-songwriter project with added players, Young Allies sounds like a group trying to make room for everyone in the arrangement. The music has an unhurried quality, leaning into atmosphere, repetition, and small points of tension instead of forcing a dramatic payoff too early.
“Fingers Entwined” is built around the idea of entanglement, using backgammon as a loose metaphor for chance, risk, and human connection. That concept could have easily become overly clever, but the song keeps things fairly restrained. Its best moments come from the way the band lets the emotional stakes sit beneath the surface.
Michel’s voice remains central, but the surrounding players give the track much of its shape. Guitarist and co-producer Tosh Sheridan, bassist Gavin Price, drummer Isaac Gardner, keyboardist Phil Kadet, and vocalist Shelly Bhushan help push the song away from a purely personal space and into something communal. Nearly everyone sings, which gives the band a broader texture without overwhelming the writing.
That collective quality seems to be the point. Price describes the recordings as a record of “habits and arguments, late-night jokes” and the small moments between takes. It’s a useful description because “Fingers Entwined” sounds less like a polished studio artifact and more like a song still carrying the memory of the room where it was made.
The accompanying video adds another layer, extending a surreal visual world Michel and Price have been developing across previous releases. With miniature realities, shifting scale, and references to what happens after the familiar journey ends, the video gives the song a slightly uncanny frame. It doesn’t explain the track as much as it complicates it.
The band’s LIC Bar residency may end up being the clearest expression of what Young Allies are trying to do. Weekly shows allow the songs to keep changing, which feels central to a project built around presence and exchange. The residency gives the band space to develop in public, a slower and possibly stronger route than trying to arrive fully defined.
With “Fingers Entwined,” Young Allies introduce themselves as a band still forming in plain sight. That openness is part of the appeal. The single doesn’t try to announce a grand arrival. It offers a first look at a group learning how to listen to itself.
