I really should have an “Alex Drum” tag on this blog by now. [OK, now I do, but I don’t know when I’ll get to retroactively tagging the other relevant posts.] It would at least be a start in trying to keep track of this mercurial Brooklynian and his many projects, from Whales/The Magic of Multiples to FUNSHIP, Shiv Hurrah, and, now, Goodies (an apt band name from a guy who’s delivered so many musical goodies to us over the years).
Unlike some of the bedroom (or attic, as the case may be) four-track pop we’ve heard from Whales etc. over the years, Goodies has the sound of a collaborative band project, the product of a bunch of people playing together in a room, bouncing parts off each other, vamping, seeing where the music takes them. Something about “Others” evokes a certain slice of ’90s or early ’00s indie rock to me. I can’t put a finger on the band or songs I might be thinking of, but I feel like there were a number of instrumentally-oriented groups that wrote great vocal parts but paid at least as much attention to creating a compelling musical bed, and integrating the whole thing together so no one instrument or voice was the lead. I thjink the world could use more of this approach, so I’m glad to hear Goodies is carrying it forward. It’s just bass, drums, two guitars, and two voices – a couple simple riffs, a pulsing beat, and some hushed words – but it makes for some lovely listening.