Josh Woods
feels like another time and place, man. i hope so badly Drugdealer stays on this particular wavelength just a little longer.
Favorite track: Fools.
CD comes housed in Digipak with fold-out poster insert.
Includes unlimited streaming of Raw Honey
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
ships out within 3 days
Purchasable with gift card
$11.99USDor more
Streaming + Download
Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Purchasable with gift card
$9.99USD or more
Honey Gold LP
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Exclusive Indie/D2C edition comes on Honey Gold vinyl. Housed in a printed inner sleeve with liner notes and sleeved in a Stoughton Tip-On Jacket. Vinyl pressed at RTI.
Includes unlimited streaming of Raw Honey
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Sold Out
Black LP
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Vinyl comes in printed inner sleeve with liner notes, housed in Stoughton Tip-On Jacket.
Includes unlimited streaming of Raw Honey
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
In an era when networked access to information is nearly universal and wearing influences on your sleeve is normalized, it often feels like everything’s been done. Which begs the questions: What’s the point of creating? Does the world need another still life of fruit? Another film about love? Does the world need another melody?
On Raw Honey, his second album as Drugdealer, Michael Collins colors these existential conundrums with lush arrangements, memetic melodies, and a vulnerable tunefulness that tries to make sense of self-doubt and connected loneliness in our shared simulacra.
Collins, who never played an instrument let alone received musical training in any formal capacity, began experimenting with sounds in 2009 after traversing the US on freight trains. After a few years crafting abstract sampledelia, he decided to forgo his experimental exercises in favor of teaching himself how to write a traditional song. In doing so, he made the decision to approach songwriting from the perspective of a listener, rather than a “musician.”
In 2013, Collins headed west and enmeshed himself in the Los Angeles underground scene. It was there and then that he began collaborating with players in the orbit of Ariel Pink, over time crafting what would become Drugdealer’s debut album, The End of Comedy, a collection of sunlit songs as indebted to Laurel Canyon psych pop as it is Bacharachian orchestration.
Raw Honey continues where The End of Comedy left off, with Collins leading an ace crew of collaborators to coalesce the spirit of Drugdealer’s classically modern pop. Built on the foundation of a creative partnership among Collins, Sasha Winn (vocals) and Shags Chamberlain (bass, production), Drugdealer is more a collective than band. Raw Honey features contributions of Josh Da Costa (drums), Jackson MacIntosh (guitar), Danny Garcia (guitar), Michael Long (lead guitar), and Benjamin Schwab (backing vocals, guitar, organ, piano, wurlitzer), as well as guest vocalists like country balladeer Dougie Poole (“Wild Motion”), Harley Hill-Richmond (“Lonely”), and frequent collaborator Natalie Mering (Weyes Blood) whose dulcet tones sing low before soaring on “Honey,” a track as silky as the nectar itself.
Throughout Raw Honey, Collins and crew display their influences as a new tapestry, one woven with the fibers from thousands of tapestries that have colored our collective listening histories. As evidenced throughout Raw Honey, Collins ear for penning numbers that would sound as at home on Classic Rock radio as they would at Zebulon in Los Angeles, where any of the contributors to Raw Honey might likely be found on any night of the week, on stage, or in the audience supporting another Angelino’s modern pop aspirations.
Rather than hiding behind a curtain or casually sidestepping AOR tropes, Raw Honey adheres to a modern kind of creation — one that cultivates influences and espouses reverence. An honest totem, Raw Honey isn’t tangled up in social norms, with Collins prefering to air his self-doubt as a northern star to guide like-minded people wherever they need to go.
credits
released April 19, 2019
All songs written by Michael Collins, except “Fools” written by Michael Collins, Benjamin Schwab, and Shaggs Chamberlain, and “London Nightmare” written by Michael Collins and Sasha Winn.
Recorded at Michael Collins’s home (Los Angeles, CA), Sunset Sound (Los Angeles, CA), Jizz Jazz Studios (Los Angeles, CA), and Gary’s Electric (Brooklyn, NY), 2017 - 2018.
Co-produced by Michael Collins and Shags Chamberlain.
Engineered by Matthew Neighbor, Mac Demarco, Al Carlson, and Robert Aceto.
Mixed by Shags Chamberlain at Studio Avenue 54 (Los Angeles, CA).
Mastered by David Ives (Los Angeles, CA).
Lacquer cut by Bob Weston at Chicago Mastering Service (Chicago, IL).
Photography by Richard Quintero and Raymond Molinar.
Artwork and layout by Robert Beatty. Additional layout by Bailey Elder.
Natalie Mering appears courtesy of Sub Pop Records.
Oh how I long for this album in vinyl format! Such smoothness. Such warmth. Such execution. This music begs to be taken along and woven into memories. Everyone I’ve shared this album with has loved it. The music speaks far and wide. Shouting out to a fellow follower, Brian Lehmann, for his excellent taste in music. If not for him, I likely would have never stumbled upon this absolute gem! Plinchmo Larduktin
The Philadelphia group sharpen their hooks and internal dyanmics for a fun and non-dorky take on power pop anyone can get behind. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 26, 2024