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THE WAR ON DRUGS


Posted by Hartley On Jun 26, 2008

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Adam Granduciel is one of these singer-songwriter dudes who has a band called, War On Drugs, but his band is really mostly just him and his songs filled out by some of his musician friends and acquaintences. We know many artists who follow in, what I will now dub the "Bright Eyes school of misleading band-naming" and everytime I see this phenomenon I just have to wonder why singer-songwriters do stuff like this. It's prolly two-fold: 1) everyone wants to be in a band - can we really blame singer-songwriters for their self-loathing...I mean nobody really wants to be lumped in with the likes of Marc Cohen, Sheryl Crow, and Cat Stevens (I actually like Cat Stevens...but still). And 2) Musicians have always harbored hatred towards evil music critics - and really, what's a better way to mess with the rock-lit establishment than to give a name other than your own to what is essentially a solo project. It's genius really.

Anyhow. Yes, War on Drugs is one of these "solo projects." And it was with this slight air of confusion and mystery that I really didn't know what to expect when I popped in WOD's great new Secretly Canadian debut titled, Wagonwheel Blues. It's kind of an incredible listen. An idiosynchratic blend of shoegazey atmospherics, and 70's era roots rock - the standout, "Taking The Farm" sounds legitimately like Blonde on Blonde - era Dylan as interpreted by My Bloody Valentine. Somehow the track also manages to channel Peter  Gabriel's "Solsbury Hill" to me - yet, I can't place why this really is. Maybe it's because WOD mastermind, Adam Granduciel, is from Philly. On second thought, who knows. 

Here's "Taking The Farm" off of War on Drug's Wagonwheel Blues out on Secretly Canadian:

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