Your skin itches. Shadows in the corner of your eye jump out violently. You shake and sweat. You don’t want it; you lust after it and eventually nothing will stop you from getting what you want. These are the signs of addiction. And for four Vancouver musicians, addiction is a way of life.
Borne out of an unrepentant need to have songs and ideas brought to life, the Price of Drugs These Days started more as a songwriter’s workshop than a band looking to make a dent on the local circuit. Tired of the bottom-feeding politics of an overcrowded and under appreciated independent music scene, Graham Tuson, Mitch Andres, Tim Huston and Joseph Blood got together with the simple idea of playing music and writing songs for the sake of the craft and their own personal enjoyment; and to create another good reason to get drunk on a weekday. None of them cared less if anybody heard what went on in the rehearsal space every week; the point was to satisfy the internal desire to make music. But one problem arose. They started to write some damn good songs. And with that came the inevitable urge to take their songs to an audience and once again enter the seedy arena known as the music industry.
The four players, who collectively have played in some of Vancouver’s more notorious bands including GG Dartray/Uchu, Nim Vind, Taste and Brundlefly are no strangers to the stage and take playing music very seriously. Their unique meld of classic pop and rock songs with splashes of Neil Young and Mike Ness make for raucous singalongs and bittersweet melodies. Four to the floor dancebeats meld into searing guitar lines all the while fronted by four different singers who bring their own sense of style and tone. The freedom allowed by not worrying about contemporary radio song formats combined with each member’s inherent songwriting sensibilities make for exciting and original pieces that still manage to captivate the most musically illiterate listener.
The Price of Drugs These Days is Through the Roof. A bombshell waiting to go off. The sound of fury, remorse and joy brought to life by a passion to create and explore the always addictive realm of rock and roll.
