Photo via Bandcamp
Milwaukee group Bicentennial Drug Lord’s dossier could be a crossword puzzle. Listeners can connect the dots among bands like Punchdrunk, Wobble Test, The Blow Pops, Soda, Maki, The Lost Toothbrushes, Hotel Lights and Sparklehorse. In 1997, John Daniels, Rick Donner and Al Weatherhead, veterans of the above-named bands leaned into Bicentennial Drug Lord and released the album The First Hit Is Free.
The trio needed a side project where, as Weatherhead puts it, “we could play and record the sad-sack country songs we wrote and couldn’t play in our main bands." Now, 24 years later Bicentennial Drug Lord is releasing a follow up.
If the debut dabbled in country, the upcoming EP, out August 27, is a horse of a different color. Debut single “Confessed The Sheets” recalls the dream jangle of Jesus and Mary Chain, with a nod to Pete Townshend’s keyboard experiments. The other five tunes range from the laconic drive of “Salt” to the veiled, nagging dread and anticipation lurking in “The Pulse Of My Friends.” Only “The Traffic Outside” hints at the group’s earlier twang, lamenting “ I would trade places with you, if you asked me to.” All in all, a fine soundtrack to ride out the summer.
