The Drugs
Music's In Trouble
Reviewed by ANDREW MURFETT

"The Drugs are unique to say the least. You might not like their music, but they definitely have some valid points in and under their shtick. Satire is the order of the day here folks and funnily enough, the humour here is hit and miss.

"Metal Vs Hip-Hop" is straight up hilarious, but the true challenge of this genre, is to produce songs that allow for repeat listens. "Burger King" does not implore repeat listens. I mean it's likeable enough, you agree with what it says. That is, a cynical anti-multinationals rave which begins and ends with the line "I'm a happy consumer" and features a collection of slogans from McDonalds to Mar bars. But it starts to grate after a few listens. The title track is a different story however; "Music's In Trouble! It all sounds the same!" they cry - well on the money there boys.

"The Bold and the Beautiful" - is The Drug's big hit and it is a beauty. A loving ode to afternoon tea in front of the telly and daytime TV in general, this big Triple J Hit is the major highlight of "Music's In Trouble". Another focal point is "Was Sport Better in the 70's?" - Well because what other song will name check Peter Landy and reminisce about footy in the 1970s: 'That was when men played in real football teams!' The spiteful "Nothing For Everyone" is another treat; whilst "Sons of Heir supplie" and "Situation Government" have their moments also.

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The Drugs
The Bold and the Beautiful
Review by Eddie Drury

As soon as you hit play on this cd it’s obvious that this is a band with a big sense of humour. In between every track is random, at times hilarious content, including a parody chat show called “Tonight Live, with David Live, Tonight” and, perhaps my favourite, a short but catchy ditty entitled “I hope I get my period soon”. In fact this cd has about as much filler as actual music.

The title track, “The Bold and the Beautiful”, is one that’s been getting a lot of airplay on Triple J at the moment. It’s a highly amusing rock/hip-hop number devoted to the day-time TV show of the same name, and while it’s piss-funny, it’s not actually taking the piss, which is good (revelling in the pure crassness that is trash-TV rather than telling us how bad we already know it is). It’s this kind of thing that seriously makes me want to bite the bullet, and begin a serious addiction/relationship (depending on how you look at it) with this soap that will no doubt last throughout my adult life and make me the subject of much derision and ridicule.

Whether clever marketing or pure chance, the release of the cd to coincide with the Australian tour of Ron Moss (the character that plays Ridge Forrester on the soap) is very good timing. During their performance of the song on Rove Live the other week Ron Moss even made a cameo appearance with the band, playing bass, proving the good nature with which the song has been received.

Writing a funny song is a great way to get airplay quickly, but funny songs can become old and irritating just as quickly as they became new and clever. No lasting musical career can rely solely on humour, so whether they go anywhere after this will remain to be seen.

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The Drugs
The Bold & The Beautiful
Reviewed by Michael Tran

If Regurgitator is music with a wry smile, then The Drugs is music with a fart joke. Nevertheless, for all of their crassness and at times puerile humour (“An Aussie limp biscuit is a soggy Sao”), The Drugs certainly can draw a chuckle from a listener. The Bold & the Beautiful is full of enough pop culture references to please any aficionado, from the title track’s explanation of the daytime soap’s wacky storylines to a Cold Chisel cover in “No Sense”.

The even-numbered tracks thread the songs together, with The Drugs weaving a ‘concept single’ (of sorts) of an afternoon in front of the TV. The detail in “The Bold & the Beautiful” is extraordinary, leaving a listener certain that the writers of The Bold and the Beautiful are twisted (something about Rick Forrester marrying a woman who is actually his mother?). This detail is infused in a musical collage of “Go Ricki” and “Go Jerry” chants, beats, buzzsaw guitars, rap and “go go go”s (surely a parody of 28 Days’s “Rip It Up”) that hangs surprisingly well. “No Place With Hip Hop” is a pointed take-off of nu-metal bands, with The Drugs able to reproduce the highly processed sound of the genre.

Undoubtedly, there is a lot to like about The Bold & the Beautiful - The Drugs lampoon their pop culture targets incisively and are damn funny. However, the longevity of the single is questionable; once the joke is over, only the music is left. Although there are catchy moments (such as the ironically melodic refrain of “The Bold & the Beautiful”), the music is there to prove a point about something else; it doesn’t stand alone. The Bold & the Beautiful is worthy of a listen or six, but there is nothing left to keep you once the humour grows old.

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The Drugs
The Bold & The Beautiful
Reviewed by ButterflyNet

I can't remember if I already blogged about The Drugs' new EP, The Bold & The Beautiful, probably because I'm senile as all hell, but in any case, it absolutely rocks. I LOVE it - it cracks me up every time and I've heard it about 400 times! You can purchase the single from RubberRecords. Excellent value for your money! It's funny and contagious. I also just found out that I'm in the video for the single, "The Bold & the Beautiful." Woo-hoo! It's funny cause I had a dream that I asked if I could be in it, and what do you know? Sometimes dreams do come true!

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The Drugs
The Bold & The Beautiful
Reviewed by RICHARD KWONG

If you don’t find their humorous conceptuality all that humorous, it’s pretty tough getting through this set, but there’s still some solid sonic armoury here. The title track is slick, comic hip-hop, while ‘No Place With Hip Hop’ is biting stuff. ‘Daytime TV Remix’ is a worthy house effort, though perhaps their cheesy take in Cold Chisel’s 1983 rambler ‘No Sense’ holds most interest. Not always beautiful, but occasionally bold.

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The Drugs
The Bold & The Beautiful
Reviewed by Lori Shea

...it's hilarious ear & brain candy that will have you dancing hunched over because you're laughing too hard to stand up straight.

The Drugs wonder boys are back, and in finer form than I've ever heard before. Maybe it's all those Vitamin C pills they've been popping, or maybe they've been working out. Frankly, I don't know what they're doing, and I probably don't want to know, but I like it. I really really like it.

The new EP is called 'The Bold & the Beautiful,' with the new single of the same name ready to sweep the country of its soap-loving feet. Soon the whole nation will be singing:

"Each afternoon, there's nothing as suitable
As tea and bickies with the Bold And The Beautiful."

The entire EP is extremely well crafted, providing you with a welcomed dose of 'Daytime TV' on The Drugs' terms. The first track, 'The Bold & the Beautiful' is a sure hit. Even Triple J have no excuse not to latch on to it. It's partly a poppy love-song and partly a cock-rock rap track with the best lyrics ever written about the soaps. Complete with shouts of "Go Ricky" and "Jerry, Jerry!", "The Bold & the Beautiful" is hilarious ear & brain candy that will have you dancing hunched over because you're laughing too hard to stand up straight. Kudos to Ian Baddley's pretty vocals and the superbly funny rapping by David Live and Ian Baddley.

All the odd tracks on the album are legit songs and the even tracks are comedy bits that make me laugh just as hard even 20 listens later. I don't know if that's signalling a sharp decline in my sense of humour or what, but if so, I'm not too worried. "No Place with Hip Hop" sounds like just what it's about - the mixing of two musical families from the wrong side of the tracks - metal and hip-hop, but The Drugs can pull it off because they're in on the joke and may I suggest someone mail Fred Durst the following kick-arse lyrics from this song:

"Now Mr Durst as rehersed could you
put your cap on back to front
So the visor don't bump my tum tum
when you fucking blow me!"

Oh, those crazy Drugs. That bit gets me every time.

The EP also features a cover of "No Sense" (Jimmy Barnes) and gems like "The Period Commercial" and the "Bold & the Beautiful" Remix.

The Drugs making a song that's club-able? I never really thought of the possibility before, but now it's already happened. I kid you not

this remix version of the "Bold & the Beautiful" is so contagious, all the little boys and girls in Sydney-town and beyond will be getting their groove on to it. By the way, it makes for a great driving track, and I know this, because I've forced it into the CD player of friend I have who owns a car. We got pulled over for reckless bopping one night, but once the cop came over and heard the new dance sensation, he let us off with a warning and a wink.

This EP is excellent value for your money, and that's very rare these days. And it gets my vote for EP of the Month, hands-down. Huge kudos to the infamous Jorden for slick and sexy production. People are going to be surprised, probably no one more so than The Drugs themselves, but the boys have created something so freaking hilarious, smart-arse, and contagious, they are in immediate danger of finally getting taken seriously.

p.s. I won't ruin the surprise by telling you to listen to the great non-existent hidden track. It doesn't exist. Trust me.

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The Drugs
From Beat Magazine

The continuing soap saga of the drugs involves drag queens and an aria (nearly), ian baddley tells melanie sheridan.

Last time on The Drugs Ian Baddley proposed marriage and a ménage à trois to Melanie Sheridan's Swedish Lesbian flatmate. Did the wedding take place? Did Inga leave Ian at the alter, to go skiing off piste? Did Melanie giggle endlessly at that stupid term for cross-country skiing? Did Benny Drill really attempt to sabotage the show by breaking his ankle? What was David Live doing with that Tele Tubby, and when did Harry Snow reveal he was actually an undercover cop? Did anyone else know about Mark Tracks and the incident with Ronald McDonald and Burger King?

Tonight! Ian tells Melanie that Music's In Trouble, while Shoal finds a giggling Shyna under the sheets with his patient in Randy's hospital room. As Flint leads him away in handcuffs, Block tells Chastity he never loved her. Later, Essence corners Pompom and demands some answers––Oh, hang on, that's the wrong show. Tonight! Melanie corners Ian and demands some answers.

But first, in our special highlights preview package of tonight's show, we reveal some of those answers, although it's mostly just verbal shots of Ian moving his mouth dramatically and making sounds come out.

Ian On answering the phone:

"You left me on hold too long and I had to listen to their hold music. Don't do that again."

On Melanie's suggestion that the password on every copy of Music's In Trouble, giving access to the "members only" area of The Drugs' web site ought to be Scott Cain, not Alex Lloyd:

"I got ripped off. I saw Scott Cain in The New Weekly standing next to my date from the ARIAs. It said 'Scott Cain set tongues wagging when he was hanging out with MTVs Drag Queen, who was chaperoned by The Drugs.' She was my date, not the fucking Drugs'. I took the drag queen."

On the ARIAs:

"The ARIAs were heaps of fun from what I can remember, but not only were they heaps of fun from all the bits that I can remember but people are regaling me with these stories – like old sea faring ship dogs – of things that I did. That's better than the fun that I had."

On the things that he did:

"Benny Drill did himself a mischief [at the Metro in Sydney] and he's got pins and plates in his ankle. It was a big show, a big deal, he was rocking hard and he jumped off the stage, landed badly and fucked himself. It was Rock and Roll. So not only was he not drinking much given his recent operations and trauma, but he wasn't very mobile either, so we got a chair for him – he and Daniel Johns fought over the wheel chair for the red carpet, only Dave sat down and ate a steak. That would be the big difference between the two, and Dave didn't carry a handsome little Man Bag – anyway, we put Dave on a chair in front of the DJ console at the after party and it's alleged that I was so drunk that–"

We interrupt this monologue for an ad break.

The Drugs new album, Music's In Trouble, "is brilliant, buy it."

We now return you to your programming.

"...So in any case I was jumping and dancing at the same time – or so I'm told – and the drink that I had in my hand I threw – unwittingly at the time, but I'm so delighted it happened now – all over Jeff from The Wiggles..."

On almost winning an ARIA:

"Hey, it was a tough field. I was like going up against 12 men. Impossible."

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The Drugs
Pop Song
Reviewed by Rob Hansley

Warning: This single is addictive

The Drugs are a perfect combination of pop sensibilities and punk angst, featuring keyboards, great driving beats, bass and rock guitar.

Launch tour commencing in Sydney at the end of April will see the band make their way around the country appearing at a venue near you. Live they are awesome -they have recently played with Bodyjar, 28 Days, Machine Gun Fellatio and The Testeagles

Posters and stickers will be distributed nationally from 10 April. No wall will be left bare - The Drugs will be everywhere.

Shocking video to media April 10.

Pop Song was produced by Chris Dickie who has worked with Sinead O'Connor and Morrissey.

The Drugs Everybody's Taking Them.

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The Drugs
The Only Way Is Up
Reviewed by PG Gleeson

Take Teddy Sexuals, TISM and Frenzal Rhomb, place them, wearing either Ronald McDonald-styled suits, NSW Police uniforms or silk “Sergeant Peppers”-styled outfits in front of a logo allegedly derived from the Centrelink logo (hence the Legal Action), and you have Sydney’s The Drugs, the best thing to come out of Riverstone since the 7:56 “all to Lidcombe, Strathfield, Burwood, Redfern, all to Gordon...

I have witnessed one of their live shows, traded pre-gig banter with them, visited their website and read the enclosed press so as to gain a little understanding of what goes on in their “minds” and to try to pre-empt an expectation from their ARIA Award nomination-winning EP “The Only Way Is Up” on Rubber / Elastic Records through BMG.

According to the track listing there are 6 tracks and a CD ROM component, but inserting the disc will reveal an extra two tracks.. Realistically you only get two new songs, as Pop Song and Burger King appeared as their first single release. I think I know casts things off with a song the style of which, if you have witnessed a live gig, would be considered typical of the band and Robert Bonjourno would appear to be a tribute to an Italian friend of theirs in not-quite-the-same style. The other tracks (David is Talking…, Pam & Sam and the phantom / bonus tracks, one of which is the title track) are added to further enhance the band’s view on life.

The ROM Component is something else yet again. Containing the Pop Song video and the Pop Song (Melting Tape In The Car Stereo Mix), they seriously have to be seen if you’re still wondering what they’re on! The Video, which would feature on Rage but not after 6am, and definitely not on Video Hits, takes the piss from Boy Bands and from the last couple of Green Day videos. Meanwhile the Pop Song (Melting Tape In The Car Stereo Mix) mix appears to be someone’s experiment with Macromedia that would make a great screen-saver… well done gents! And then there’s Ian Baddley’s “Guide to Becoming a Punk Rock Star”... some phases of one’s life just weren’t meant to be captured on film!

These guys are seriously bent and could not have packaged anything to express this any better. The Drugs “The Only Way Is Up” on Rubber / Elastic Records through BMG: just do ’em!

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