Posts Tagged ‘Adam Granduciel’

The WAR ON DRUGS – ” Accidentally Like A Martyr ” Warren Zevon Cover

Posted: November 14, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The War on Drugs have announced The Super High Quality Podcast, premiering November 23rd, a few days after the release of their forthcoming live album. That’s not it, though—they’re also sharing a live cover of Warren Zevon’s “Accidentally Like a Martyr.”

This cover is the second single from the forthcoming live album, which is titled “Live Drugs”. It, according to the press release, collects “over 40 hard drives of recorded live shows.” That’s a lot of hard drives. The podcast will feature the band discussing those live performances and why they decided to make the live album. According to the announcement, “The Super High Quality Podcast” is a four-episode series, airing weekly beginning on the album’s release day. Throughout, guitar tech and band confidant Dominic East listens as the band talks casually about how they arrived at the performances and the decision to release their new live album. 

“Live Drugs” is a collection culled from over 40 hard drives of recorded live shows spread out across years of touring behind multiple albums, according to the announcement — and anyone who’s seen the band live knows that someone heard an awful lot of soloing on those 40 hard drives. Sequenced to reflect how a typical 70-minute show would flow, it’s the first volume to capture the band’s live interpretations and a document showcasing the evolution of The War on Drugs’ live show over the years.

“Live Drugs” is not your typical live album. Rather than recording a board feed from a specific night at a specific venue in a specific city, this is a collection of live recordings from multiple live shows that the band feel best represents what they’ve done on stage. “Even though this recording is from a year of tours, this is really how these six guys evolved as a band from 2014 to 2019,” frontman Adam Granduciel says. In essence, even though these are all different recordings stitched and mastered into Live Drugs, the album is sequenced like how a live set would feel. And damn it if anything remotely resembling a real live concert ain’t exactly what we’re all craving right now. So if we can’t be at a live show just yet, we’ll gladly take the mind trip that Granduciel and company are so graciously handing us.

The group recently debuted a brand new single, “Ocean of Darkness,” on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.” The song is the first release of any new material by the band since the release of 2017’s Grammy-winning “A Deeper Understanding,” and a taste of what they have been working on in the studio these last many months. “Ocean of Darkness” does not appear on “Live Drugs.”

“Live Drugs” arrives November 20 via Super High Quality Records. 

The WAR ON DRUGS – ” Live Drugs “

Posted: October 6, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Culled from over 40 hard drives of recorded live shows spread out across years of touring behind multiple critically acclaimed records, “Live Drugs” is unlike anything previously available in The War on Drugs’ catalogue.

The first volume to capture the band’s live interpretations, Live Drugs is a document showcasing the evolution of the band’s live show over the years. Additionally, Live Drugs is a portrait of the enduring relationship between Adam Granduciel and Dominic East. A longtime friend, guitar tech and stage manager, East is Live Drugs’s co-producer and the presence Granduciel credits as holding everything together.

Sequenced to reflect how a typical 70-minute set would flow, Live Drugs thrives on live set staples immortalized on record for the first time. This includes Buenos Aires Beach from the band’s 2008 full-length debut, Wagonwheel Blues, and the long-time musical interlude flowing between Under the Pressure and In Reverse – which bookend 2014’s “Lost In The Dream“. There’s also the band’s essential cover of Warren Zevon’s Accidentally like a Martyr – a song “so true, you should ever be lucky to write a song that simple,” Granduciel says.

I keep returning to this version. It’s my favourite of the many on YT. The extended bridge in the middle… There is just something so pure and damn near hypnotic about it… The long foreplay opening…The sax just gently caressing your temporal lobe… The drummer is just in the zone… Then it all kicks back in… I can’t even with how much I love this

The War on Drugs – “Under the Pressure Live”

released on Secretly Canadian records 20/11/20

The WAR ON DRUGS – ” Pain “

Posted: December 28, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The Philadelphia sextet layer guitars and keyboards into a reverb-soaked swirl, landing at their trademark sweet spot of New Wave and heartland rock. Frontman Adam Granduciel croons abstract imagery about wires, falling dominos and “a demon at a doorway waiting to be born.” The track concludes with an atmospheric guitar that stretches out for nearly two minutes.

“Pain” is one of two songs the band tracked almost entirely live as a unit on their first night working with engineer Shawn Everett in Los Angeles. The band, utilizing this organic recording style, aimed to make A Deeper Understanding more of a true “band record.”

The War on Drugs previously previewed the LP, came out August 25th, with lead single “Holding On” and album tracks “Thinking of a Place” and “Strangest Thing.” The band  performed “Pain” in August on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

The WAR ON DRUGS – ” Holding On “

Posted: December 8, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The War On Drugs set to release new single 'Holding On'

The War On Drugs released single ‘Holding On’ as the Philadelphia-born band ramp up excitement around their latest album. Everything got bigger for The War On Drugs in 2017. If ever the “indie-rock” label fit these Philly daydreamers, they’ve shed the qualifier to become one of America’s leading rock acts, period. It wasn’t just their fan base that grew this year: A Deeper Understanding feels built for big crowds, from the dreamy, 11-minute sprawl of “Thinking Of A Place” to genuine song-of-the-year candidate “Strangest Thing,” which builds and builds to multiple crescendos, slathering some stadium-sized riffs over its infectious hook, soaring synths, and frontman Adam Granduciel’s mythically romantic musings.

The standouts would conquer the charts in a more guitar-dominated era, but as with any other War On Drugs release, the pleasures here are cumulative—this is a richly enveloping listen, front to melancholy back. As for the bugaboo of influence: A Deeper Understanding doesn’t dispel the Dylan and Springsteen comparisons The War On Drugs has been provoking since back when Kurt Vile was still with the band.

Having released the track “Thinking Of A Place” for Record Store Day 2017, their first new music since their acclaimed 2014 album Lost In A Dream, The War On Drugs have kept their cards close to their chest in regards to the record . “I kept thinking about an LA record and what that means,” frontman Adam Granduciel told said in an interview with Pitchfork. “To me, it means the second Warren Zevon record, but it could also mean Tonight’s The Night. Then I threw my hands in the air and just wanted to make a record with my friends, wherever that may be.”

For much of the three and a half year period since the release of Lost In The Dream, The War On Drugs‘ frontman, Adam Granduciel, led the charge for his Philadelphia-based sextet as he holed up in studios in New York and Los Angeles to write, record, edit, and tinker-but, above all, to busy himself in work. Teaming up with engineer Shawn Everett (Alabama Shakes, Weezer), Granduciel challenged the notion of what it means to create a fully realized piece of music in today’s modern landscape. Calling on his bandmates – bassist Dave Hartley, keyboarding Robbie Bennett, drummer Charlie Hall and multi-instrumentalists Anthony LaMarca and Jon Natchez — continuously throughout the process, the result is a “band record” in the noblest sense, featuring collaboration, coordination, and confidence at every turn. Through those years of relocation, the revisiting and reexamining of endless hours of recordings, unbridled exploration and exuberance, Granduciel’s gritty love of his craft succeeded in pushing the band to great heights.

The WAR ON DRUGS – ” Holding On ” Live at Electric Lady Studios

Posted: November 30, 2017 in MUSIC
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When Adam Granduciel croons “He never gonna change; he never gonna learn,” it’s vague, like the best Americana lyrics, easy to try on like a coat in the mirror of Goodwill, it fits just right. You can imagine the War on Drugs changing, but don’t count on it. When he sings “Now I’m headed down a different road,” its obvious that he isn’t talking about music or writing choices. The War on Drugs are here to stay, wearing in this sound like a butt groove on a 1970’s leather couch. Granduciel still sings like Bob Dylan, and rocks like Bruce Springsteen. In every promo photo he looks like he just smoked a pack of Marlboros in his worn-in jeans and is ready for an apple pie. He is as American as the long dusty highways and grain filled horizons his songs emulate. This one in particular, like the best songs on his last two records, spends its energy in an exercise in repetition and consistency.

The War on Drugs performs “Holding On” live at Electric Lady Studios Recorded 6/6/17

The WAR ON DRUGS – ” A Deeper Understanding ” Best Albums Of 2017

Posted: October 25, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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It doesn’t take a musicologist to detect the influence of Dylan on Adam Granduciel of The War on Drugs. When he sings, Granduciel leans into a line with the same needling inflections as Bob, aping his world-weary wheeze as well. The music Granduciel writes can’t help but make you think of another Dylan-devotee Mark Knopfler.

The War on Drugs explores the dreamy realms Dire Straits once roamed. The songs tend to last long—at least six minutes a piece, and up to eleven on the new album—luxuriating in sumptuous production, gripping melodies and guitars that glisten. Granduciel has been honing his valorized view of classic rock over four albums now, culminating in the new . He formed his band in Philadelphia in 2005, though they didn’t release their debut until three years later. The disc, titled , Wagon Wheel Blues glazed through an ambient haze. Granduciel has been clarifying his sound ever since. The latest album, the band’s first on a major label, shows the escalating budget in the lush production.

It also focuses Granduciel approach to his guitar. In his recordings, he favors sustained notes and repeated refrains over the more elaborate extensions he allows live. Luckily, the parts he writes for his sterling instrument have enough urgency to make his repetitions hypnotic. Some songs feature freer guitar work and a faster pace, like “Holding On” , with its bossy bass, and fleet drums. But more often the music holds to a measured beat and a cowed mood, mirroring lyrics that explore what Granduciel calls “the space between the beauty and the pain.”

Still riding the momentum from this recent release and their acclaimed fourth album A Deeper Understanding, The War on Drugs have shared the video for “Nothing to Find,” starring young actress Sophia Lillis (of IT fame), who embarks on a road trip with some sort of plant man.

Directed by Ben Fee, the offbeat video “presents the bittersweet story of two friends on a not-so-classic road trip adventure,” per a press release, following Lillis’ character and Plant Man as they commit petty theft, commune with nature, shoot pool and have a dance party, until eventually Plant Man falls ill and returns to the earth. For all its sweetness, the video is awfully sobering: Whether plant or person, we all have our time, it reminds us—or as Adam Granduciel sings, “There is nothing I can do if I am going away.” But the video’s closing moments, which we won’t spoil for you here, offer a glimmer of hope for what we may find in the hereafter.

The WAR ON DRUGS – ” Up All Night “

Posted: August 15, 2017 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The War On Drugs have ready for release a new album tiltled “A Deeper Understanding” its due out on August 25th via Atlantic Records, their first for the label (previously they were on Secretly Canadian). Now the band has shared the album’s six-minute long glorious opening track, “Up All Night.” They have now shared five tracks from the album, which is half the album.

Previously The War on Drugs had shared the 11-minute long A Deeper Understanding cut (and Record Store Day single) “Thinking Of A Place” . Then they shared another song from the album,  “Holding On” and then went onto perform the song on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.  Then the band shared two other songs from the album, the atmospheric slow-burner “Strangest Thing” and the expansive “Pain”. The band have also recently covered Warren Zevon’s ” Accidently Like A Martyr”  recorded for a Spotify session.

The War on Drugs‘ main creative force Adam Granduciel worked on the album in studios in New York and Los Angeles, with help from engineer Shawn Everett (Alabama Shakes, Weezer). Other members of the band (bassist Dave Hartley, keyboardist Robbie Bennett, drummer Charlie Hall, and multi-instrumentalists Anthony LaMarca and Jon Natchez) were also involved in the recordings from time to time and thus a press release calls A Deeper Understanding “a ‘band record’ in the noblest sense, featuring collaboration, coordination, and confidence at every turn.”

Official audio for The War On Drugs “Up All Night”
‘A Deeper Understanding,’ the new album from The War On Drugs,

The WAR ON DRUGS – ” Strangest Thing “

Posted: July 18, 2017 in MUSIC
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 Adam Granduciel and his band The War On Drugs keeping upping the ante with each quality track they release in anticipation of their new album next month; most recently with the release of the latest single, “Strangest Thing.” The War On Drugs frontman  appears to be in a thoughful mood with this track taken off of their newest album,”A Deeper Understanding,” scheduled for release via major label, Atlantic Records due August 25th.

Look out for the pride of Philly to hit the road come September for an extensive run of dates.

The WAR ON DRUGS – ” Holding On “

Posted: June 5, 2017 in MUSIC
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2015 Landmark Music Festival - Day 1

Three years after 2014’s standout album “Lost In The Dream” Philadelphia favorites The War On Drugs are looking for new terrain. Spinning classic riffs into a haze of classic radio rock, the band has long locked-in on a lush, guitar synth-drenched formula spanning their trio of past releases on the indie label Secretly Canadian Records. But then signed to a major label and unveiled a new single “Thinking Of A Place” the band seems set on something bigger this time.

The second track from their forthcoming album A Deeper Understanding, “Holding On” stretches the band’s meditative formula into a 6-minute track starts with a splash of stoned synths, quickly teasing in slide guitar and glockenspiel cut straight from Springsteen-esqe Born to Run or Tunnel of Love.

Adam Granduciel voice has the haunting low-end grovel, which slaps against the staccato bassline with a bright, up-beat bounce. As the chorus hits, the track ascends to a soaring, anthemic spiral with voice and guitar overlapping in a messy, monophonic ecstasy.

What once began as a bit of a simple “Springsteen plus reverb” punchline, the band has now expanded the palette into something transformative and newly striking.  ‘A Deeper Understanding,’ the new album from The War On Drugs, available soon

Three years after 2014’s standout Lost in the Dream, Philadelphia favorites The War On Drugs are looking for new terrain. Spinning classic riffs into a melancholic haze of classic radio rock, the band has long locked-in on a lush, synth-drenched formula spanning their trio of past releases on the indie label Secretly Canadian. But after signing to a major and unveiling their dreamy and crystalline new single “Thinking of a Place,”  the band seems set on something bigger this time.

The second track from their forthcoming album A Deeper Understanding, “Holding On” stretches the band’s meditative formula into crisp, streamlined hi-fi. The 6-minute track starts with a splash of stoned synths, quickly teasing in slide guitar and glockenspiel cut straight from Born to Run or Tunnel of Love. Adam Granduciel voice has the haunting low-end grovel, which slaps against the staccato bassline with a bright, up-beat bounce. As the chorus hits, the track ascends to a soaring, anthemic spiral with voice and guitar overlapping in a messy, monophonic ecstasy.

What once began as a bit of a simple “Springsteen plus reverb” punchline, the band has now expanded the palette into something transformative and newly striking. Years after 2011’s Slave Ambient betrayed its namesake with a liberating hypnogogia, “Holding On” lets go of the past with an elegy of mutating soundscapes.  But as it slowly drops back into its last wisps of spectral echo, the track pangs with something familiar, the future taking shape through reflective introspection.

Our new album ‘A Deeper Understanding’ is officially arriving on August 25th, 2017. Listen to ‘Holding On’ now.

WAR ON DRUGS – ” Thinking Of A Place ” Record Store Day Release 2017

Posted: April 23, 2017 in MUSIC
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Following the release of 2014’s excellent album release “Lost In The Dream” , Philly rockers the War On Drugs signed a two-album deal with Atlantic Records . Now, after a few years of silence barring a lone Grateful Dead cover , Adam Granduciel and co. are finally set to reveal what they’ve been working on at their new label home. The band confirmed today on Twitter that they’ll be releasing a new 12″ on Record Store Day (4/22) featuring a song called “Thinking Of A Place.” That’s the artwork above.

Side A has part one of the single, and side B has part two.

RECORD STORE DAY IS THIS SATURDAY!

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