Philadelphia’s psychedelic The War on Drugs made a new album and book a fresh tour… finally.
After a weekend’s warning where a short form, teasing Instagram Story video featured fresh music, and an oddball emoji from their Atlantic Record label, Philly’s The War on Drugs came clean. By Monday morning, guitarist, composer and frontman Adam Granduciel and company announced that after a four year studio hiatus (2017’s Grammy-winning “A Deeper Understanding” was its last, followed by the band’s first concert album released “Live Drugs” in 2020), “I Don’t Live Here Anymore,” would be WoD’s next album. As for the upcoming single, “Living Proof,” that video would precede the album’s release by dropping… now.
Due for release on October 29, on Atlantic Records, and according to the band’s label, the process for “I Don’t Live Here Anymore,” commenced right after The War On Drugs’ “A Deeper Understanding” snagged a 2018 Grammy for Best Rock Album. At that time, Granduciel, bassist Dave Hartley, and multi-instrumentalist Anthony LaMarca hit a remote space in upstate New York, began lengthy jam sessions, changed up instruments and predetermined roles each member usual plays in a live setting and cut new demos.
From there – and a pandemic to contend with – The War on Drugs recorded at treasured studios such as Electric Lady in New York City and Sound City in Los Angeles, with Granduciel and longtime War on Drugs co-producer and engineer Shawn Everett “spending untold hours peeling back every piece of these songs and rebuilding them.”
According to the label legend, one of the more memorable recording sessions, occurred in May 2019 at Electro-Vox Studios, in which the full bore War on Drugs line-up — keyboardist Robbie Bennett, drummer Charlie Hall, saxophonist Jon Natchez — convened to record “Living Proof.”
“Typically, Granduciel assembles The War On Drugs records from reams of overdubs, like a kind of rock ‘n’ roll jigsaw puzzle. But for ‘Living Proof’, the track came together in real time, as the musicians drew on their chemistry as a live unit to summon some extemporaneous magic.”
The War on Drugs will also summon extemporaneous magic for their first full tour in a minute. One whose tickets go on sale July 23, and one with local shows at The Met Philadelphia (January 27 – Jan 28) and a massive gig at New York City’s Madison Square Garden on January 29.
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