DIY LONG BEACH LABEL
DRUGS
MERCH
Click photos to order the limited edition 12” LP
MUSIC
(digital album released via Park The Van)
BIO
Before Drugs, Joel Jasper and J.P. Bendzinski were playing in everyone else’s band, but their own. In 2018 they rented a small practice room in Long Beach to make space for their own ideas and began writing and self-recording Episodic. With help from some of their favorite musical weirdos, they became the local scene’s preeminent avant-garde noise-rock band.
In a sea of gentle singer-songwriters and derivative rock, Drugs is a safe haven. “It’s for the freaks,” says Jasper, the band’s main lyricist and songwriter. Creating a terrain so unruly and jagged it defies the edifice of the traditional linear songwriting form in favor of a more abstract stream of consciousness style. “I don’t want anyone to be able to predict what’s coming next unless they’ve listened to the song before.” Jasper’s desire for the mercurial is shared by Bendzinski, who says they didn’t “set out to make anything intentionally,” proving Drugs’ Episodic was as much an act of discovery for them as it is for the listener.
Drugs’ efforts to venture into new territory echo the sentiments of mutant predecessors like DEVO, The Who, Mothers of Invention, and Deerhoof while still retaining some hints of Paul McCartney, Durruti Column, and Prefab Sprout to create something that can only be described as Yacht-Punk. Despite their spontaneity and free-wheelin’ creative process, there’s one thing Drugs knows for certain, says Jasper, “I want to freak people out.”
Episodic is scheduled to freak you out Summer 2020.
VIDEOS
PRESS
The Typescript - “a tribute to their ability to create really catchy, bouncy, and yet, jagged music that explores themes of mental health and stability.”
DIGITAL ALBUM
Episodic released on all digital formats via Park The Van
Streaming Sites - ffm.to/episodic
LINKS