Milwaukee’s Bicentennial Drug Lord have announced the forthcoming release of their new EP.  Entitled BDL, it will drop on August 27. The band has shared the first single, “Confessed The Sheets,” a mix of 1970’s The Who (complete with Townshend keyboards in the chorus), 1980’s Simple Minds, and 1990’s indie rock.   They note the track “describes the day after an endless summer night and the resulting damage assessment.”    

The single is the first bit of new music Bicentennial Drug Lord have released since their debut album The First Hit Is Free in 1997.  The band formed when longtime friends John Daniels (Soda, Maki),Rick Donner (Punchdrunk) and Alan Weatherhead (Soda, Maki, Sparklehorse, Hotel Lights) needed a side project where, as Weatherhead puts it, “we could play and record the sad-sack country songs we wrote and couldn’t play in our main bands” (sample lyric: “Are you alone enough to miss me, are you drunk enough to kiss me”).  Recorded by MikeWisti with original Hold Steady drummer (and Punchdrunk member) Judd Counsell, the Gear Daddies’ Randy Broughten on pedal steel, and Son Volt’s Dave Boquist on fiddle, BDL’s debut record The First Hit Is Free crystallized a Minneapolis winter with music that could thaw even the iciest heart.

For the forthcoming BDL, Bicentennial Drug Lord reunited in a cottage outside of Richmond, VA. The new songs reflect a fresh collaborative approach to songwriting and a shift away from the country focus of their debut.  The songs are more reflective of  “Confessed the Sheets.” with big choruses, subtle songwriting, and indie pop sprinkled with a dose of 70’s rock.  

Bicentennial Drug Lord is: John Daniels (vocals, bass), Rick Donner (vocals, guitar, harmonica) and Alan Weatherhead (vocals, guitar, keyboards, pedal steel, drums).

Photo Courtesy: Mark Cherek