Stimson’s Heavy Rotations
Drugdealer
East Coast bred/West Coast based musical group of friends and collaborators, Drugdealer, has a classic sound with simple grooves and musical flares that has caught much of my attention recently. I have friends Cullen and Jack to blame for how much Drugdealer I’ve been listening to. Their songs would play often in our van (RIP Mandy) throughout the last tour and their small discography has grown on me ever since.
Cullen showed me “Fools” (from their latest release, “Raw Honey”) on a drive to go skate one evening and I enjoyed how sunny, yet melancholic it felt. The chorus would get stuck in my head and i was drawn back to their albums again and again. I listen to them still as I close down in the evenings at the coffee shop I work at.
Their song “Suddenly” feat. Weyes Blood (from their first album, “The End of Comedy”) is special because it sounds like it’ll be a long slow ballad at first, jumps right into a dancy groove, returns back to just the piano and vocals, and then goes back into the same lively energy from before.
You hear Steely Dan melodies, Grateful Dead guitar tones, Beatles influenced drum production, and some parts that nearly steal directly from “Hey Jude” and The Kinks’ “Waterloo Sunset” but are playful enough to keep you in the song.
Weyes Blood, another musician worth familiarizing yourself with, sings gorgeously with heavy emotional conviction as the lead vocalist on several of Drugdealer’s songs, adding elements of great depth to them.
The lyrical content swings from lighthearted love songs to sad sober realizations of life with a common theme of lightheartedness about it all flowing throughout.
On a side note, most of the band skates and trumpet player Kenny Anderson is actually more well known in the skateboarding world than he is for being in Drugdealer. They post clips of lead singer Michael Collins landing tre flips at the local skatepark before soundcheck while on tour and it adds to why this band is just so cool to me.
When I listen to Drugdealer and I look at their content, it makes me want to excavate old artists their sound is reminiscent of, look up the musicians featured on their albums, learn how to groove more on the bass, and go skate outside with my friends.