Photo by Travis Newman
In case you haven't heard of The War on Drugs, we're here to set you straight. WOD is a band of musicians under the spell of Adam Ganduciel, one of Philly's next hopes for lighting the music scene on fire with his blistering guitar work and experimental noise rock. WOD released their first full length album earlier this year on Secretly Canadian, "Wagon Wheel Blues", which incorporated some earlier songs from the "Barrel of Batteries" EP and added lots of new twists. Granduciel, the heart and brains behind The War on Drugs, is joined by Charlie Hall (drums) and David Hartley (bass) as the face of the band. But WOD has always been more of a collective live, with help from all sorts of Philadelphia based musicians - everyone from Kurt Vile to Kyle Lloyd (The Capitol Years), Mike Zanghi, and JP McNeely. The band serves up a mighty racket, but it's melodic and beautiful and just plain awe-inspiring to watch and hear. It follows in the vein of Americana guitar rock - such as Dylan and the Velvet Underground - and will leave you breathless. "Wagon Wheel Blues" will no doubt be a piece of work that we look to very soon as we compile our best of lists for 2008, and you should definitely consider for yourself or your more sophisticated music fan friends this holiday season. And since we just learned that The War on Drugs will be touring in December, we hearby proclaim this War on Drugs month, since we will be listening. The band starts their tour in the midwest and then makes a triumphant homecoming at Johnny Brenda's just in time for the holidays.
Tour dates:
Dec 09 The Pike Room at The Crofoot // Pontiac, MI
Dec 10 Huckleberry's Pizza Parlor // Rock Island, IL
Dec 11 Schuba's // Chicago, IL
Dec 12 Bear's Place // Bloomington, IN
Dec 13 Brillobox // Pittsburgh, PA
Dec 14 Union Hall // Brooklyn, NY
Dec 15 Mercury Lounge // New York, NY
Dec 18 Johnny Brenda's // Philadelphia, PA
The War on Drugs - Taking The Farm
The War on Drugs - band site / secrety canadian / myspace
Comments