Retail Drugs Presents "little dog," New Single/Video | 'rECKless dRIVing' out This Friday via Angel Tapes / Fire Talk
Retail Drugs is the NYC-based project of musician Jake Brooks. Earlier this summer, Retail Drugs announced their signing to Fire Talk Records’ emerging artists imprint Angel Tapes — home to the likes of shower curtain, Jawdropped, Sleeper’s Bell and more — and revealed news of their new album, rECKless dRIVing, out this Friday August 1st. Today, Retail Drugs presents rECKless dRIVing’s final advance single and opening track, “little dog,” as well as an accompanying music video. Charmingly lo-fi and recorded straight to tape in Brooks’ NYC apartment, “little dog” unveils one of the sweetest melodies across Retail Drugs’ burgeoning discography. “The hardest part is already behind, I’m done,” Brooks croons through fuzzy layers of percussion and acoustic guitar, before his smile turns into a scowl. Vocals harmonies stack and rECKless dRIVing begins to shift gears with a brutal declaration: “you’re fucking up my scene.”
Of “little dog,” Brooks adds: “In the middle of a late summer road trip back to NY from LA in 2021, I wrote ‘little dog’ in a severely hungover state while singing it to a strange dog. Ali [Genevich] and I had wrapped recording overdubs for [Laveda’s 2023 album] A Place You Grew Up In at the Zorthian Ranch in late August, and we were making the long trip back home with our friends Alice and Max. We were in Denver, CO at Ali's aunt and uncle’s and learned the hard way that we could not keep up with their ability to drink wine. We had a wild night that ended with vomit. The next morning we were all in quite a state. Ali's aunt and uncle have two dogs and one of them is named Fergus. Fergus kept coming near me as I was playing guitar as if he wanted attention, but then would bark at me if I tried to talk to him. Hungover, I literally couldn't move from my seat. So, I sang this little song to him as a joke. The song lived in my head for two years before I actually recorded it. It's heavily influenced by the music of my longtime friend and collaborator, Dylan Sky. Hearing his demos while recording in LA made me want to write a song with a similar vibe.”
Watch Retail Drugs’ “little dog” Music Video
rECKless dRIVing assembles b-sides and lost tracks from the cutting room floor of i love you so !, Retail Drugs’ recently-reissued 2024 debut LP. Touring with Laveda — the gnarled guitar-pop project formed by Brooks and Ali Genevich — inspired much of his initial work on i love you so !, and in 2023 he decamped to New York City. Throwing himself into the city’s storied community of rock enthusiasts as soon as possible, Brooks has spent the last 2 years writing, recording, and playing every DIY show that came his way. rECKless dRIVing presents what Brooks calls “the daily life of me,” and the 11 tracks across the project span from blown-out grunge scorchers, tender lo-fi ballads, to instrumental guitar numbers. “Sometimes goofing off, sometimes sad,” he makes of the collection, continuing, “all in all, it reflects my hatred of genre, and the joy of music.”
At the core of rECKless dRIVing and its predecessor is Brooks’ affinity for home tape recording. His current deck, purchased as a gift by Genevich and originally owned by Laveda’s drummer Joe Taurone, transferred hands when Brooks needed it most. During writing sessions for Laveda’s sophomore LP, Brooks’ mother passed away, “and then — bam — I couldn’t write the same way.” The deck allowed Brooks to tap back into experimentation, eschewing digital demo-ing and instead laying ideas down to tape. “I felt a certain spirituality from ditching the computer. It felt like the tape was another person that I was collaborating with, at least when I first started writing again.” This experimentation led to i love you so !, which Brooks looks back on as “a grief record.” Where themes of loss and pain are buried beneath layers of distortion there, on rECKless dRIVing Brooks sits with the emotions that accompany grieving.
More than the sum of its parts, rECKless dRIVing is a fully-formed collection that teases out buried themes, and establishes Brooks as a tape-recording tour-de-force. rECKless dRIVing picks up where Brooks left off, gesturing toward digital and electronic impulses yet to be explored in Retail Drugs’ soon-to-be prolific discography. To celebrate its release, Retail Drugs will perform an album release show at Trans Pecos this Saturday, August 2nd. Rounding out the bill are smush, warmachine, dogpisser, and a DJ set ICKY!, the moniker of labelmate Victoria Winters (shower curtain). Tickets are on sale now and available to purchase here.
rECKless dRIVing Tracklist
1. little dog
2. waiting room
3. just the thing
4. still..
5. manny
6. rECK
7. person A
8. i wanna be cool
9. i just want to bring you down
10. he hears us
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