{"id":2252,"date":"2011-09-09T11:00:02","date_gmt":"2011-09-09T17:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=2252"},"modified":"2011-09-09T11:00:02","modified_gmt":"2011-09-09T17:00:02","slug":"the-war-on-drugs-buzz-band-gone-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2011\/09\/09\/the-war-on-drugs-buzz-band-gone-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"The War On Drugs – Buzz Band Gone Wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
photo by Graham Tolbert<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Kyra Leib
\n<\/strong>The War on Drugs<\/a>, formed in 2005, was a project created by Kurt Vile of Kurt Vile and the Violators<\/a> and Adam Granduciel. Now The War on Drugs has bloomed into something special. Their commendable ability to seamlessly blend American with euphoric instrumental elements reminiscent of Phil Spector\u2019s wall of sound delivers something like the joy of experiencing your first Springsteen record.
\nGranduciel, who describes his Philadelphia neighbourhood as \u201csemi-depressed,\u201d tells me how his environment influences him. He muses that his neighborhood \u2013 where some people have been living for eight to 20 years \u2013 has a \u201cbackwoods city vibe\u201d, but hasn\u2019t yet been gentrified. \u201cSome neighbourhoods are getting knocked down for new, beautiful houses and my section is still run-down,\u201d he muses.
\nI imagine their music is a testament to city life. The energy inherent in The War on Drugs\u2019 music is the same energy you\u2019d encounter biking or walking in urban areas. That is why this band\u2019s music is so universal. The timeless facet of their music is comparable to the neighborhood that Granduciel tells me about, this \u201cbackwoods city.\u201d The physical and social environment that inspired the golden age of American songwriters is still present. The War on Drugs have been affected by these environments just like Bob Dylan was inspired by the American landscape or Springsteen was influenced by American politics and his Jersey roots.
\nThe War on Drugs are often compared to Springsteen, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty and the like. This band plays punchy, adrenaline-filled highway rock \u2019n\u2019 roll<\/a> and does it well. Yet they never lose sight of their own identity. Granduciel explained to me that singing like Dylan is not something he ever strained for. That\u2019s just the way his voice has always been. It is for this reason that the group is able to blend genres so well. They aren\u2019t straining to emulate anything, it\u2019s all them.
\nGranduciel tells me about the music industry in Philadelphia and he describes it as \u201cnot competition-based.\u201d The War on Drugs has had a transient lineup. At one point they shared a drummer with Kurt Vile and the Violators. This changed when both bands took off, and it was too difficult to coordinate schedules and share a drummer. Only recently has the band gained a new permanent drummer in Steven Urgo, began touring with The War on Drugs on their latest tour supporting Destroyer. The band faced a four-hour delay at the Canadian border en route to their show in Winnipeg, yet made it in time for an opening set that gave Destroyer a run for their money \u2013 not that it\u2019s a competition, as Granduciel would say.
\nGranduciel told me about the early days of War on Drugs and learning how to put on a live show. \u201cWhen the first record came out the band was in this weird flux,\u201d he explains. \u201cSometimes it would just be me and Kurt and some samplers. We didn\u2019t really have any sort of live lineup and there was all this buzz surrounding the band. So we would show up to New York and play without ever having rehearsed. We were trying to figure out how to play the songs and to get the tones right. We were still learning.
\n\u201cAt the time that we were doing that, people wanted to see this buzz band and [instead] they would see a total train wreck. We got a lot of shit for that for a long time, especially from our booking agent. He actually quit and the label was upset when that stuff happened because we were a band that people were excited about.\u201d
\nDespite this, Granduciel hasn\u2019t soured on the music industry. \u00a0He tells me \u201cIt didn\u2019t really bother us that it was a train wreck, in retrospect I kind of like it that we had to go through that.
\n\u201cYou KNOW what it sounds like \u2013 why am I hearing it like this?\u201d he elaborates, giving insight into his songwriting thought process. It was this line that made it clear to me what kind of artist Adam is. Not a perfectionist \u2013 as some might suggest, considering Slave Ambient<\/em> was recorded over a four-year span \u2013 but an artist that hears music in his head and needs time and patience to coax it out. \u201cI worked on three songs for five years,\u201d Adam says of the EP Future Weather<\/em>. He spent three and a half years on the song \u201cBaby Missiles.\u201d<\/a> As I questioned Granduciel it suddenly made sense to me what he was talking about. Any artist knows what you mean when you say that a piece doesn\u2019t feel right or that it\u2019s not the way they\u2019d imagined it. It\u2019s admirable that The War on Drugs has not let the pressures of the music industry diminish the art that they set out to create.
\nRe-recorded for their latest release is the song \u201cBrothers\u201d<\/a> which was originally released on the Future Weather<\/em> EP. I asked Granduciel how his approach for playing this song had changed since 2010. He told me that the song was originally recorded by him in his home and the new version included on Slave Ambient<\/em> is the full band version. \u201cThe song on the EP was mildly improvised, I always do that, and when I listen back there are always little gems in there. In the moment, I wasn\u2019t really sure what I was saying but through slur I can almost hear a word. Then I rewrote [the lyrics] and re-sang them [for Slave Ambient<\/em>].\u201d<\/p>\n

Slave Ambient was released on August 16 and Adam says that we might see the band back in Winnipeg sometime this fall. Let\u2019s keep our fingers crossed people.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kyra Leib The War on Drugs, formed in 2005, was a project created by Kurt Vile of Kurt Vile and the Violators and Adam Granduciel. Now The War on Drugs has bloomed into something special. Their commendable ability to seamlessly blend American with euphoric instrumental elements reminiscent of Phil Spector\u2019s wall of sound delivers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[534,1078],"class_list":["post-2252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-kurt-vile","tag-war-on-drugs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2252\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}