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| Date |
City |
Venue |
| Sat 6/7/08 |
Philadelphia, PA |
Johnny Brenda's |
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The
War On Drugs push the boundaries of a quintessentially American
music. Guitars soar and colorful clouds roll past whatever sun
or moon you are cruising under, through whatever old bar you
are reveling within. The War On Drugs point toward a tireless
horizon in the distance that you will never reach but are compelled
to chase. It's a tail you've chased your whole life and will
continue chasing because your life is more poetic when you are
moving toward it - your cinematography is more rich. Wagonwheel
Blues is one of those albums that each of us holds onto tightly.
They get moved from apartment to apartment through the years;
they are songs on the radio that follow us from town to town.
They evoke waves of nostalgia and grow more poignant with each
new bump along the road.
In The War On Drugs we have a fresh face that already sounds
like an old friend. Bringing a dose of the West Coast to the
hard streets of Philadelphia, their songs recall the '80s guitar
army of Sonic Youth with the captivating lyrics and vocal stylings
of Tom Petty or Bruce Springsteen. Songwriter Adam Granduciel
(vocals/guitar) leads the attack with his lyrical paintings
of his own American landscape, along with the help of Kurt Vile
(guitars), Dave Hartley (bass), Kyle Lloyd (drums), and Charlie
Hall (drums). Walls of guitar - acoustic, electric, and twelve-string
- douse each track of this debut album, threatening to cast
the band into space rock territory, but the melodies and immediately
identifiable lyrics soldier on to keep these songs from blasting
into the esoteric beyond. With Wagonwheel Blues, Granduciel
joins a distinct set of songwriters in a new golden era of polished-yet-subcultural
underground music. The War On Drugs have that unmistakable singularity
that comes along only so often, with the spirit of invention
and playfulness lying earnestly at the forefront of their creative
process. |
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Wagonwheel
Blues
Secretly Canadian
June 19, 2008 |
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