{"title":"Pill","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"convenience-1","title":"Convenience","description":"\u003cp\u003e'Convenience' skids like a garbage truck with no brakes, barreling through passages of guitar chording bent at the wrong angles and ring-modded riffs aligning with Benjamin Jaffe's expressive sax before splitting apart into chaos. Veronica Torres assumes double-duty between vocals and bass, while Jon Campolo plays three instruments in the live setting and Andrew Spaulding four, including circuit-bent noise rigs of their own invention. Veronica's words are delivered with the speed and frenzy of someone with their life on the line, but she's also able to slow things down in a gesture of dominance, confidence, and trust. This band is wise enough to know that safety is fleeting, so they take their digs when and where they can. Given Pill's backgrounds, their music advances a notion of what the punk spirit of NYC might be: the capture and distillation of the energy and friction that comes from living amongst so many people in such a confined space. The idea seeds in free jazz and improvisation; reached adolescence in galleries and loft spaces in the '70s; found politics in squats and independent spaces; and it grows stronger the more these several sensibilities are practiced ands stewed. Call them No wave, post-punk, noise; they are immune, content to head off in a direction of their own design.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mexican Summer","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50471142588747,"sku":"403175","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50471144980811,"sku":"403174","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/8b49f66d-1c0f-416b-bda7-2164e2fdf3cf_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727392979"},{"product_id":"the-dull-tools-tapes","title":"The Dull Tools Tapes","description":"\u003cp\u003eOut now for the first time on vinyl! The world first heard Pill on their self-titled cassette release on Dull Tools. And the world took note. Evan Minsker, writing for Pitchfork, says “they are loose with form, they pack in a lot of ideas, and they successfully deliver an emotionally complex narrative where joy is accompanied by an impossible-to-ignore undercurrent of danger. The band's debut outing is enigmatic—a Dull Tools record through and through—but it's also well crafted, full of stellar performances and unflinching lyrics.” The band then signed to Mexican Summer, releasing their debut LP. Shortly after, prolific in a way that has become a hall- mark of Dull Tools artists, they release another cassette, 2017’s \u003ci\u003eAgressive Advertising\u003c\/i\u003e. If one thought the self-titled cassette couldn’t get more acerbic and confrontational, Agresstive Advertis- ing proved them wrong. Now both releases are available on one LP. This LP is an important document of New York City’s DIY scene and one of the best bands to emerge from it. Pill are an ever present force in NYC’s scene. Playing small clubs like Baby’s All Right, DIY spaces like Silent Barn and even the Museum of Modern Art. When the art and culture of New York is examined in, much in the way we examine culture from the past, you can bet that Pill will be a shining example of this moment in time. For fans of The Slits, Suburban Lawns, DNA, Theoretical Girls and Lydia Lunch. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Dull Tools","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50471563985227,"sku":"1033281","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/016798a3-6ab1-49e8-bc86-cba5bf3671e8_thumbnail_4096.png?v=1727408029"},{"product_id":"soft-hell","title":"Soft Hell","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eSoft Hell\u003c\/i\u003e, Pill’s second full-length album, is a raucous, splintering dispatch from New York City, animated by the madcap ingenuity of a foursome finding a palpable sense of joy and play in expressions of caustic, black humour. Like the contradiction of the album title, which references our acceptance of everyday miseries, it’s a slew of dichotomies, a frenzied cutup. It’s bleeding saxophone and lustrous feedback sounding somehow pastoral, and winking hooks subtly infused with venom. Pill’s lyrics are severe and funny, cryptic and straightforward, but never didactic. They reliably interrogate power. Vocalist and bassist Veronica Torres, a poet and visual artist, has cited as influences J .P. 'The Big Bopper' Richardson and Ian Svenonius, apt references for her wildly expressive range. Atop the clattering rush of opener \u003ci\u003eA.I.Y.M.\u003c\/i\u003e she uses an ambiguous narrator to complicate gendered stereotypes, while \u003ci\u003eFruit\u003c\/i\u003e, a coolly pulsing vamp, explores the paralysis of political anxiety. “What am I allowed to create or destroy?” she asks in \u003ci\u003ePower Abuser,\u003c\/i\u003e highlighting the inanity of needing to ask for permission. Pill resent complacency, whether in political or creative senses. “For me this band’s about being provocative with sound,” said saxophonist Benjamin Jaffe. Drummer Andrew Spaulding said the album title,\u003ci\u003e Soft Hell\u003c\/i\u003e, critiques the “work-to-play” cliché of New York life, with its breakneck, competitive pursuit of comfort. Torres added that it evokes sexual bondage, describing Soft Hell as a reference to the cyclical monotony of humans harming one another.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mexican Summer","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50471743357259,"sku":"1041259","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP","offer_id":50471744569675,"sku":"1041260","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/4d69d56a-2923-4632-bb7d-0643d95fa916_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727411380"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/collections\/pill.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}