Pretend You're Alive

About the Artist
Like many great bands, there is something hauntingly spiritual and honest about Lovedrug. The Ohio-based rock band delivers highbrow sound akin to Spiritualized, Sunny Day Real Estate, or Muse, crossed with the pop sensibility and arena grandeur of Queen. A unique crossbreed of art and accessibility, powerful melodies are driven by smartly crafted lyrics of truth, intrigue, love, death, and damn near everything in between.

Only those who have seen the band live can truly understand the growing phenomenon that is Lovedrug. Regardless of how cliché it may sound, Lovedrug live is truly less a show and more an experience. In playing to a variety of audiences (the band has shared the stage w/ Cat Power, Creeper Lagoon, The Killers, Braid, Elliot, Mewithoutyou, The Casket Lottery & Noise Ratchet, to name a few), Lovedrug have won over virtually every audience they’ve met.

Formed in June of 2002, Lovedrug is the brainchild of Michael Shepard and Adam Ladd. Both artists of some pedigree, the two friends joined forces in several previous avant-garde projects including the widely respected Kerith Ravine. Rising above the indie-rock contour of Kerith, Shepard’s current vocal melodies breathe a grand soundscape in a tender but bloodcurdling timbre. Ladd’s bass in turn securely moors the project’s course, providing quality arrangement to Shepard’s guitar and piano innovations. Longtime friend but first-time contributor David Owen became Lovedrug’s full-time lead guitarist in July ’03, bringing his own accomplished creative presence in both writing and performance. Matthew Putman, a phenomenal writing and touring drummer (Ester Drang, Unwed Sailor), completes the band’s permanent lineup.

In less than 2 years, Lovedrug have gone from start-up to standout on the mid-western rock scene. Lovedrug recorded a self-titled 5-track demo, selling out two pressings within three months of its July ‘02 release. Such interest led to further preproduction and early ‘03 saw the band head into the studio with producer Tim Patalan (Sponge, The Fags, Peter Searcy) with astounding results.

Those lucky enough to hear the full-length results frequently give it the nod for ‘best first record by any band in recent memory’. Hinting at the full-length to come, the band released the 6-track "Rocknroll EP" in summer ‘03 to overwhelming acceptance. Cleveland’s Scene magazine hailed Lovedrug as the #1 band to watch in 2004, describing live favorite Down Towards The Healing as "one of the most affecting songs of the year -- local or otherwise." Numerous college and independent radio stations picked up the record for regular airplay, leading to dozens of top rankings coast to coast, from Hartford, to Milwaukee, to Seattle.

With the deal inked, and with the full backing of their new label, Lovedrug began preparations for the July debut of "Pretend You’re Alive". The band hit the road hard in both the spring and summer, visiting the west coast for the first time and gaining national touring exposure with label mates Copeland in May, the Braid reunion tour in June, and the national Mewithoutyou and Noise Ratchet run in July. With the highly anticipated bow of Pretend You’re Alive set for July 27, 2004, the close of July will see Lovedrug play a handful of release shows in regional strongholds, supporting key markets within Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Illinois. Another national tour with Copeland is slated for August, with a headlining college run and other tours in the works for the fall…

Pretend You're Alive,Lovedrug,Militia,Indie Rock,Pop,Rock,Rock/Pop

Pretend You're Alive

Average customer rating:

Lovedrug Matches up with Edward Scissorhands?
side effects of the drug are pleasurable
Hauntingly Perfect Tales
Fascinating
Simply soothing.

Pretend You're Alive
Lovedrug
Manufacturer: Militia
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Indie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Reset
Ghosts
Beneath Medicine Tree
In Motion
Everything Starts Where It Ends

ASIN: B0002IQJX2
Release Date: 2004-07-27

Tracks:

In Red
Black Out
Spiders
Rock N Roll
Pretend You're Alive
Pandamoranda
Down Towards The Healing
The Monster
Angels With Enemies
Radiology
Candy
It Won't Last
Paper Scars

Customer Reviews:

Lovedrug Matches up with Edward Scissorhands?.......2007-04-14

Hey,

I just wanted to give you the scoop that I was talking to some of the guys from the fairly popular indie rock band Lovedrug and they mentioned that their album is based on the tim burton movie Edward Scissorhands and that their music fits up to the movie perfectly. Here is the kicker though...it matches up best when the cd/ipod is on shuffle. They mentioned that you can even better the experience by turning on repeat so it plays for the whole movie. That's how perfect it is. I think the album is called everything starts where it ends. It's their new one.

I tried it and it did work, weirdly enough :)

Thought it was kind of cool so I wanted to share....

side effects of the drug are pleasurable.......2006-11-08

I love this bands sound. Great vocals, and they have a great sense of melody.
I am very glad to have found out about this band (actually two years after the release) they really are a fresh breath of air in the indie scene. Blackout really stands out for me, because of the haunting imagery and sound. I guess I'd place them in the indie-ambient-pop category.

Hauntingly Perfect Tales .......2006-09-08

How can you describe something that makes you feel so at ease, then want to kill everything in the world, then want to fall in love with an angel? This album is so intense with metaphors with the most amazing music to match.

Everyone should own this album. Plus the guys in the band are super nice, which makes it definately worth going to a show or two.

I have yet to share this cd with a friend and have them say they don't like it. So, i challenge you to listen, and try to feel nothing.

Fascinating.......2006-04-22

I saw these guys live in Maryville, Mo. The vocal delivery is simply unique, although it does remind me somewhat of Filter, a similarity that I also heard on many of the heavier songs (especially Pandamoranda, which felt it could be lifted straight off Filter's Short Bus) but Lovedrug dips down into soft, acoustic performances with an ease and beauty of few bands. A certain gothic sensibility pervades the whole thing, as it drips with this cool, strange blackness.

So, I like their sound, and the lyrics have a compelling, Radiohead like weirdness to them, but in actual technical abilities I can't rate them in the top ten. Also, for me they got a little bit old once the novelty wore off.

Simply soothing........2006-03-09

Quite possibly one of the better bands out there, and Pretend You're Alive certainly doesn't disappoint. One song after another will get you hooked (get it? Drug? Hooked. Awful pun.) and it is certainly one of the most talked about Indie albums out there in recent years, and with good reason.

So listen to it and be elitist with the rest of them too. You will have plenty of reasons to be "too good" for the rest of them if you own this album.

Average customer rating:

Pretend You're Alive
Lovedrug
Manufacturer: Red Int / Red Ink
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Indie Rock | Indie & Lo-Fi | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

General | Hard Rock & Metal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000BFNZDI
Release Date: 2006-03-21

Tracks:

In Red
Blackout
Spiders
Rocknroll
Pretend You're Alive
Pandamoranda
Down Towards the Healing
Monster
Angels with Enemies
Radiology
Candy
It Won't Last
Paper Scars

Average customer rating:

Just "Pretend"

Pretend You're Alive?
Lovedrug
Manufacturer: Cutting Edge
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music

Rock | Imports | Stores | Music
ASIN: B0002L4DVE
Release Date: 2004-10-04

Album Description

Japanese pressing of 2004 release, scheduled to include one bonus track. Details TBA. Maximum.

Album Details

Japanese Release featuring a Bonus Track

Customer Reviews:

Just "Pretend".......2005-04-16

Indie-rock, pure'n'simple. That's what comes to mind when you listen to Lovedrug's solid debut, "Pretend You're Alive." They sound like the love child of Spiritualized and Sunny Day Real Estate, but they have a classic-sounding rock rhythm and some truly exceptional songs. This is a band to watch.

"Out of love for the hunt/out of love for the catch," Michael Shepard sings mournfully at the start of "In Red." It's not the most alluring start, but it is a pretty good one. And the mix of angular rock and lament continues, in a series of serious songs that dip into the topics of abuse of women, alcohol, hopelessness and angels. It finishes off on a quiet piano song with wistful lyrics, "Paper Scars."

Two years is pretty young to be a band, let alone a breakout one. But Lovedrug has plenty of talent, and a sort of steady, enjoyable sound that most bands don't achieve in their entire lifetimes. Most surprisingly, they establish a key "sound," while avoiding monotony by having the songs not sound TOO alike. What's more, it has the polished, experienced sound of a band much older than two years.

The core of each song is a powerful, layered melody: Sheperd's trembling guitars and quiet piano serve as a good counterpart to Adam Ladd's versatile bass. Woo, that bass -- listen to it roar, buzz, and roil. And the drumming is also quite good, although it tends to be buried under the guitars and bass -- it's there, but it blends in well. The cymbals are the easiest part to locate.

Sheperd has a high, flexible voice that always sounds heartbroken -- at the start of "Paper Stars," he even sounds kind of like a woman. But that perpetually sad sound works out well, especially since the tone of "Pretend You're Alive" is pretty dang melancholy. Brilliant, but melancholy. "If God was on the radio/I know he'd say to thee/love is spiders on the edge/and we're hanging by a thread," or "You don't know how cool you are/to find the ways to love me/without shame..."

Lovedrug make an auspicious full-length debut, and they leave you merely wondering where they'll go and what they'll do after "Pretend You're Alive." A powerful, melancholy debut, and one to check out.