'MY DRUG HELL 2'

LP REVIEWS

My Drug Hell’s guitar hooks get right into you. You’ve heard them before, on the radio, at a party, in a record shop, you might even already own several of them, particularly if there are any Arthur Lee albums in your collections.  But whereas today “Forever Changes” sounds audacious and not a little challenging in its determinedly right/left stereo channelling, My Drug Hell is determinedly harking back to mono, and to a quite specific mid-60′s moment that possibly never actually happened. Right when the beat boom went a bit folk rock, My Drug Hell’s imaginary precursors stuck their necks out and downright refused to leave the garage.

My Drug Hell’s first album was released in 1998, and when you’ve spent around a decade re-assesing your ability to place your own indelible stamp on a style of music that can include the work of bands as diverse as The Kingsmen and The Archies, the big questions are how to make certain that you not only get heard but also actually take things more than one step beyond the near-iconic originals that My Drug Hell so obviously wish to emulate? Firstly, there’s the band name, and that’s undeniably an attention grabber. But secondly, My Drug Hell chooses to underproduce its songs, relying on the band’s playing and writing skills to carry the day rather than layering on great swathes of reverb and phasing as you might expect a bunch of reverential mid-60s recreators to do. This gives parts of the album the feel of practically a demo recording, one whose live-in-the-studio energies provide the songs with an impetus a more involved production style might drain them of.

So the members aren’t perhaps great originals or even innovators, but this hasn’t prevented them from making one of the most interesting albums I’ve heard this year. The enthusiasm carries, the trio crank it out like it is actually 1965, and those deceptively throwaway song intros don’t really sound like anyone else. The album opens with “You Don’t Need Me Today”, a tale of rejection and pride taken at a breakneck pace, and My Drug Hell songs are for the most part fast and frenetic (“Nightgames”, “Garden Party”) or soulful or even a bit funky (“Waiting For Anna”, “Mysteries Of Love”) while the imagery is garage punk gone 70mm cinema (“Nowhere Town”, “D Is For Delinquent”). The band take a spin around some counter cultural reference points (“Goblins, Mermaids And Things”) but it’s the blank shrug of “Something’s Not Quite Right” that most succesfully captures the air of defiant nihilism My Drug Hell really wants to create, a song that expresses the sullen nervousness of real and far better known classics such as The Seed’s “Pushing Too Hard” or even Iggy Pop’s “I’m Bored”.

My Drug Hell is obviously made up of either serious perfectionists, or their lucrative day jobs take up a lot of valuable guitar time. It’s been worth the wait though, My Drug Hell 2 is both a tribute to some of the greats of the 60s garage scene and a very listenable and modern sounding album in its own right.

'THIS IS MY DRUG HELL'

LP REVIEWS

Once in a while something comes along which you just know is really special. Whether it is a book that has you mesmerised from cover to cover, someone you meet, or even a rather exceptional portion of fish and chips, when the chips are cooked just right and the batter is crispy and golden-you just know that whatever form it has chosen to take, it has quality and greatness stamped all over it. This album is one of those things.

My Drug Hell are a London based trio utilising the much loved guitar, bass and drums line-up who have released an absolute classic album, each song has been lovingly crafted and marvellously executed in gloriously rich analogue tones. Recorded at the completely digital free, valve heaven of Toe Rag studios in London, the songs have completely lost that 'crisp round the edges' overcooked sonique that typifies modern digital recording techniques and as a result, have been lifted into another dimension. Warm, rounded bass lines, beautifully toasted drums and a great oven baked guitar and vocal sound all add to the album's 'timeless' atmosphere that is usually reserved for precious artefacts like old Blue Note records, early Bert Jansch recordings and 60's Kinks albums. This is actually a good reference point in which to start, for these guys have distilled that 60's UK beat/pop essence which firmly embraces the Beatles, The Kinks and The Pretty Things as well as possessing the spirit and spark of lesser known acts like The Smoke, The Poets and in places, even elements of legendary freakbeat hooligans Wimple Winch. Don't get me wrong-these guys aren't just pulling off a straight retro snapshot of that era-they have injected a certain something which brings their sparse, simplified beauty bang up to date with the times. Green Pajamas fans will love this to death.

The album kicks straight in with the frantic rocker 'Don't Say Goodbye' and follows on with '2am', a hook laden power pop track which grooves the verses along with a stoned staccato guitar line. 'You Were Right, I Was Wrong' gallops along nicely, having one of those pleasantly annoying song structures that reminded me of a clutch of other songs from my distant memory, but strangely enough, I was unable to lay a recognisable finger on any one of them-a good sign if I may say so. Spooky. There's really not one bad track on this record; the songs are all great. Each one is a stripped down pop nugget that sticks straight to your brain. Simple and effective. 'Maybe We Could Fly' is another absolute diamond of a track. A mellow shuffling bossa nova flavoured guitar strum through a lonesome valley, strewn with the lyrics of a doomed love; the flavour of the tune nicely complemented with some foot tapping drum rhythms and some exquisitely well crafted guitar hooks. Flip over the vinyl and the kicking drive of 'Jinx's Hole' comes at you all bitter and twisted, with more great hooks to keep everyone on the boil. 'For Your Eyes' is a sizzzling slab of funky wah wah and the rockin' tongue in cheek rant of 'Teen Psycho Nightmare No. 99' could be about-brace yourself kids-drugs. Fabulous. The album closes with the absolutely god-like 'She Flies So High', a sublime, pastoral stroll through green fields on long forgotten stoned summer afternoons. Languid strokes of slide guitar adding lazy atmospherics to the overall sound. Simplicity is the key here. Less is definitely more.

The fourth track on the album, the sumptuously whimsical, 'Girl At The Bus Stop' should have you staring nostalgically into space with a dreamy smile-it has a certrain naivety and charm which is instantly appealing. Oh, yeah, if it sounds familiar, it's the same track used on the Miller beer advert, but don't take any notice of that. If the song excerpt from the ad helps them amass the money to create more marvellous albums like this, then surely nobody's going to be as shallow and ignorant as to dismiss them as "cashing in" or whatever, (insert derogatory phrase like "sell out" or something similar here.....). You usually find that these phrases are only used by music snobs who become miffed when some of the nice obscure music that they like (and maybe nobody else has heard) suddenly becomes available for mass enjoyment. Thus rendering them unable to quote the band's name or song ever again while engaged in "muso" conversation, for fear of being labelled as liking something "mainstream" or "popular" to which, horror of horrors, the rest of the population also have access. It's a funny old world. Don't worry about it though, just go out and buy this album and give yourself a break.
(Paul Simmons)

Check out:www.terrascope.org

My Drug Hell are a Brit-trio with the stripped down, skeletal punch of The Velvets, and the fervent clang and melodic strum of the Go-Betweens. In other words, this is good stuff. More than '60s smiley pop revivalists like Oasis or Kula Shaker, My Drug Hell can mix that happy-go-lucky jangle with contempo "love has burned me again" lyrics as on the Doors-like swing of 'You Were Right, I Was Wrong'. It's not all glower and gloom, as the lads bust out the tambourines on the catchy 'Girl at the Bus Stop' which builds like The McCoys' "Hang on Sloopy" without falling into a charging chorus. Here, the girl stays at at the bus stop, and vocalist Tim Briffa just keeps on
walking. Briffa keeps himself at a distance, mostly moping, yet the songs bristle with edge and urgency, sometimes even breaking into a dancey, latter-day Jam/Paul Weller groove as in 'For Your Eyes'.
While it may sound like My Drug Hell are all over the map, their sound is consistent and infectiously their own.
(John Chandler)

Check out: www.musicuniverse.com

It's often the case that a "sixties influence" implies a bunch of indie clothes horses knocking out some horrid Bootleg Beatles routine in the hope of catching a ride in the slipstream. All the more pleasant then to be surprised by My Drug Hell; their reference points might date back thirty years, but they at least have the decency to go somewhere with them. Dragging the analogue desk (along with the super 8 camera in the promo vids) into the 21st Century, it's a wonder this album has been released on CD at all (rest assured that a vinyl version is also available).

In spite of the band's name, we can dispense with the preconception that they're some sub-goth doomfest. Ok, they're a bedraggled, pointy-booted trio and are certainly penumbral in nature, but there's a stripped-down pop sensibility to their act that could well take them a lot further into the public eye.

It's apparent from 'Don't Say Goodbye' that this three piece boast a certain agility; a nimble rickenbacker-fuelled rhythm section carries the material with jazzy dexterity, grooving in the way those cool 60s soundtracks used to. The bare-bones production affords us an unobstructed view as Tim Briffa sketches his dioramas of life's highs and lows amid the bedsits and tower blocks of the capital. 'You Were Right, I Was Wrong' is love on the skids, a venomous bust-up to a sardonically swinging beat while 'Girl at the Bus Stop', conversely, is a far more tender affair, a tale of love at first sight that's never fulfilled-"she smiled sweetly, but she said no", on the route of the number 31.

An infectious rhythmic pulse is employed on the last single 'Maybe We Could Fly', which patters along gently but insisently. There's even a taste of blaxploitation further on with 'For Your Eyes', where Briffa's wah-wah guitar locks into the groove and gets as funky as these three spindly white boys are likely to, as grimy urban reality gets a lyrical dissection, with pleading shades of vintage Curtis Mayfield. The pace drops however, to the closing-time stagger of 'She Locked My Heart Up', a brittle paen to loserdom that allows hope no space to glimmer. Mercifully the album wraps up on a prettier note with a pleasing , eastern melody of 'She Flies So High' which , at least on the CD, fades into the repeat clicks of a stylus caught in a run-out groove! But wait! A comedy secret track appears, a sharp pisstake of big label A&R men which is entertaining but a bit unneccessary at the end of such a strong album.

Minor gripes aside, it's plain that My Drug Hell have come up with a contender here, directing their obvious influences into some snappy takes on the travails of love and life in the modern urban environment, and while the sixties may be their sound's bedrock, this record is refreshingly free from woolly headed nostalgic escapism which lesser bands would inflict upon us.
(Hugh Gulland)

The full sound that comes from this trio is remarkable! Tim Briffa's guitar is superb throughout the entire album. My favourite is th wa-wa and funkiness on 'For Your Eyes'. While most people love 'Girl at the Bus Stop', the band's tale of finding love via public transportation, it by no means exemplifies the versatility of this group. 'She Flies So High' is the perfect album closer, almost easing one back into the real world after giving oneself over to the band. The band also pays homage to vinyl on the CD version with the sound of a runout groove with the crackle of vinyl before the bonus track....and a very good hidden bonus track at that!. My Drug Hell also promises an added treat for the people who purchase the vinyl version. The only thing better than listening to My Drug Hell play on this CD is seeing them live! (Which I've done!) But if they can't be in your favourite hometown venue, they should at least be in your living room. 'This is My Drug Hell' is a MUST-HAVE for anyone who appreciates great music.
(Kristen Leep/kristen@kristenleep.com)

Check out: www.amazon.com

This is the first time I've heard of My Drug Hell, a three piece band out of the UK.

The whole album was recorded on a 4 track and 8 track without, as the band quotes "no digital shite". They also thank UK record labels for nothing (ra ra) and take the piss out of record companies and A&R people on the last song 'It's Good But....'.

The band definitely keeps the mid 60's alive using authentic sounds and equipment but some may ask do we need to step back in time once again? Just remember the circle of music trends is always turning and if you like what your hearing why judge it? I've listened to this album 10 times and I love it.
(Gene)

A foray into the indie charts with 'Girl at the Bus Stop' and some plays on Radio One's Evening Session hinted that something was just round the corner for London three-piece My Drug Hell-especially with a name half-inched from one of the nineties coolest t-shirts. This steaming debut shows they're spoiled for choice on the follow-up front. They barge into the Britpop picture somewhere between Supergrass and Gene, but singer/guitarist Tim Briffa's crew are neither as foppish nor laddish. They don't sound like The Smiths, either.

Sixties-style tunes, with hints of McCartney and Arthur Lee, rub up next to some rickety, funky rock. And Briffa knows that at times it's cool to be gauche. Offhand lyrics and lean, pristine pop constructions weave suddenly with incongruous wah-wah guitar-with eyebrow-raising lines like: "Kept thinking of the time our lips first met/Now there's a hole in my television set/Well I guess/Well, I was upset", and a real howler: "It's not hard to foretell/They'll have your name in lights/And my name mis-spelled". All human life is here, from the bus stop to the drug hell that is 'Teen Psycho Nightmare'. This could be recommended as one to look out for, but trying to resist it might be the issue.
(Mike Barnes)

Check out:www.selectbestoftheweb.co.uk

'GIRL AT THE BUS STOP'

SINGLE REVIEWS

I haven't written anything in a while, but I felt compelled to share with you a nice little success story we're having here at the Jersey Shore. About seven weeks ago Shelley Miller and I were heading into our music meeting, and we came across a band on an indie called My Drug Hell. We knew absolutely nothing about them and, honestly, the reason we checked it out was because of the cool name. We instantly fell in love with the song 'Girl at the Bus Stop'. We put it in light rotation, expecting nothing. We just thought it was a cool record we'd stay on for a few weeks. We started getting a couple of curiosity calls, bumped it a few spins, got more calls, and soon it was blowing out. Sometimes a top requesting song will have five calls a week. We were getting at least five calls a day! Well, here we are seven weeks later, and My Drug Hell is in power and has been number one phones for the last three weeks. The full-length ('This is My Drug Hell') is a current staff rave, and every day I try turning someone else onto this cool English trio. I think you'll dig it as much as us and our listeners.
(TJ Bryan-Programme Director)

I once saw My Drug Hell at the now derelict Moonlight Club in West Hampstead, and they showed all the unrehearsed signs of being capable of some gloriously daft beat-poet moments if only they could get the drummer to work. A joy then to discover that 'Girl at the Bus Stop' is so lo-fi meek'n'mild the only people it is possible to compare it to are soppy old Donovan and, erm, Al Stewart (who he?-three quarters of the readership).

Singer Tim tells us he has fallen in love with a French girl he sees waiting for the bus. It is almost unbelievably wet. Somehow, I love it!.
(Paul Moody)

Check out: www.nme.com

If Morrison, Jagger, and Dylan had a dinner party, My Drug Hell would be their musical guest. Retro viva galore, this sometimes folky, sometimes psychedelic sound should be a welcome favourite for the hippie parents of Gen X while appealing to the younger masses as something "new" to the alternative scene. Reminiscent of 'Like A Rolling Stone', 'Girl at the Bus Stop' is a subdued accoustic guitar ditty, and the tambourine will take you back to a peaceful, free-lovin' era of bell-bottoms and fringe. Already a favourite for many pioneering speciality show hosts beyond college radio, 'Girl at the Bus Stop' has seen the successes of major radio play and video rotation abroad. Having taken the title of MTV Europe's "Alternative Nation Best Video" as well as forays into the NME and Melody Maker Indie charts, this fun, summerish tune is one of many from this UK band just waiting to break the American market and share their drug hell with all.
(Trace Palmer)

Get on the bandwagon now for this is undoubtedly a band destined for bigger things than a Miller beer ad.

Already the darlings of the indie scene with a unique style amalgamating early 60's sounds with a very 21st Century perspective and attitude, this is no retrospective but a refreshing cocktail of past and present.

'Girl at the Bus Stop' is a little gem, a tragic tale of unrequited love that can't help but raise a smile.

To watch their future career, simply light the blue touch paper and stand well back.
(Rob Cowley)

Check out: www.the-sun.co.uk

I've been to My Drug Hell, and I'm gonna take you with me! Buy this and be treated to two of the most striking songs of the nineties! I really mean that. 'Girl at the Bus Stop' perfectly captures that missed opportunity feeling you get when the girl/boy of your dreams appears in a fleeting instance and the loss that occurs after that person "gets off the bus", so to speak. Utterly heatbreaking and I can identify! All sung over a gorgeous melody to die for!

The flip side 'Don't Say Goodbye' is sharp, jagged, damn catchy, new wave styled speed pop. A cool vocal over a chugging herky-jerky guitar that recalls the "angry young man" of the late 70's (Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, Joe Jackson). An absolute must!
(Kevin Brown)

'YOU WERE RIGHT, I WAS WRONG'

SINGLE REVIEWS

This would appear to be the final paragraphs of a suicide note, set to a suitably jaunty, do-the-hokey-cokey acoustic dance beat (if that makes any sense). Yet another nerd getting dumped and pondering the meaning of it all. But at least he has the good grace to bequeath us all a nice tune, not to mention a ruddy good laugh.
(Johnny Cigarettes)

Check out: www.nme.com

'2am'

SINGLES REVIEWS

Why isn't My Drug Hell's LP in the shops yet? I've been listening to it on a tape for about a year now. Well, the wait is over and here's a two-sided hint of the heights we're about to hit. On with the show, this is it. Tim Briffa writes absolutely perfect pop songs. There's not an ounce of bullshit here, and truth loves to go naked. '2am' is an unadorned jewel that you polish with your ears. The more you listen the more it'll glisten. Internal rhymes, loneliness externalised. Harmonies and discord.

My Drug Hell reinvent pure pop for now people. It's good to have John Sebastian back.
(Mark Luffman)

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