The War On Drugs
BIOGRAPHY
The War on Drugs first came into existence in 2005, when friends Adam Granduciel and Kurt Vile decided to put their shared love of Bob Dylan into a band. Granduciel had previously been a member of Philadelphia band Capitol Years, recording and touring with them as a guitarist, and puts his love for Bob Dylan down to the influence of his mother, who turned him onto the work of Dylan and Roy Orbison at a young age.
An early War on Drugs demo EP was recorded and self-released as a duo, before the decision was made to expand into a full band in order to play live shows. Early member line-ups were chopped and changed as people drifted in and out of the band, but by 2007 the band had settled on a line-up of Granduciel, Vile, Kyle Lloyd on drums, Charlie Hall on drums/organ and Dave Hartley on bass. The band were reluctant to give up their day jobs to focus on the band (Granduciel had a job as a maintenance man cleaning out students‘ rooms at Drexel University), and were therefore limited to performances in their native Philadelphia and the occasional gig in New York.
The band signed to Secretly Canadian and released a free EP, Barrel of Batteries at the beginning of 2008, in anticipation of their first album, Wagonwheel Blues, released later the same year. The album went on to gain extremely positive reviews, many of which praised the way the band adapted the sound of Bob Dylan to fit a more contemporary audience. Other influences inferred from the album included Bruce Springsteen, Sonic Youth and My Bloody Valentine, although the main influence cited in reviews was always going to be Dylan, with Granduciel’s vocal style unashamedly similar to that of old Bob.
The end of 2008 saw great upheaval within the band, with Hall, Lloyd and Vile all leaving to pursue other interests. Kurt Vile has gone on to release four highly successful solo albums, including the fantastic Smoke Ring For My Halo, released this year. The outgoings didn’t destroy The War on Drugs, as Mike Zanghi joined the band as a drummer, and the band continued on as a trio. The following year was spent touring and writing new material, before a new EP, Future Weather (just one track shorter than Wagonwheel Blues) was released in 2010.
The Future Weather EP received similarly positive reviews to their debut album, with reviews noticing a slightly darker direction in many of the songs that was not present on Wagonwheel Blues. The EP was mainly a result of scrapped sessions during the making of their debut, and mainly recorded by Granduciel on his own, but the recording quality was a step on from Wagonwheel…, replacing the hissy tape sound of that album with something more contemporary.
The band’s second full-length album Slave Ambient is released this month, featuring re-recorded versions of some of the tracks featured on the Future Weather EP, including single ‘Baby Missiles’. The album picks up where the EP leaves off, further polishing the band’s sound, adding more varied instrumentation and layering on even more swirling guitars. Recent live shows have proved that the band haven’t lost anything since dropping to a three piece, and demonstrated their potential to evolve into an even more formidable beast in the future.
Tour Dates
13th September - The Lexington, London
14th September - Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
15th September - The Harley, Sheffield
16th September - The Green Door Store, Brighton
Links
Website
Myspace
Facebook
Last FM
Twitter
Videos
Needle In Your Eye
Coming Through
Baby Missiles