Saturday, July 10, 2010

Drugstore - Fader

Drugstore had the bad sense to start off their 1995 self-titled debut album with a remarkably Mazzy Star-ish song, which led to a lot of people dismissing them as Mazzy Star clones. But there were pretty significant differences between them: while both bands drew from shoegaze and psychedelia, Drugstore were on the fuzzy guitar end in contrast to Mazzy Star's dreamier sounds; Isabel Monteiro's voice is a lot deeper than Hope Sandoval's (it's often described as "smoky") and her lyrics are about a hundred billion times better. It was really an unfair comparison, but it was widespread and it unquestionably held them back.

Another difference was that Monteiro actually had an onstage personality, which made them immensely enjoyable to watch live. I've heard this even from people who don't like their records.

Bonus points for having dedicated a song to Salvador Allende and supporting the extradition of General Pinochet. I always like things like that in a band.

This is a great track from the debut.

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