Labels: Grizzly Records
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Not many months go by without me wishing that Goldenrod still put out records, even though I only own a fairly small proportion of their hefty output. Drug Wars fortunately sound like a band that could have been on that label. Over the course of these four songs they fuse together the San Diego sounds of Drive Like Jehu with something else that I can’t quite put my finger on (oh wait, it’s Hot Snakes), to create some driving punk rock muck. The production is muddy and basic, which suits their sound to a tee. I like that the vocals are sort of high pitched and snotty, and get buried under the swathes of sinewy guitar work, you can barely make out a thing that is being yelled. The guitar tones are familiar to anyone who has enjoyed the work of DLJ and sons, but in a world where similar bands are 0.0001 a penny, I am not going to complain a jot. This is a really solid seven inch, but I’d like to hear Drug Wars maybe explore some other avenues on their next stuff, maybe even go as far to throw in some Chune or Boilermaker dudes!