Drug Cabin comprised of onetime Ambulance LTD frontman Marcus Congleton and former Pretty Girls Make Graves guitarist Nathan Thelen, released their debut album,
Yard Work, on February 24 and have already announced its follow-up,
Wiggle Room. The album will be available on CD, cassette tape, and digital formats on April 7 via 401K Music. Earlier this week
Consequence of Sound premiered “Wiggle Room” from Drug Cabin’s forthcoming album and the track is also available to post and share via
SoundCloud.
Consequence of Sound said, “Thelen and Congleton’s voices meld sweetly, crooning about love and weather with a sense of candor. The lines between glee and longing are hazy, with a steel guitar adding a sense of desperation to the love story.”
In 2009, while traveling through Central America and Mexico, guitarist / singer songwriter, Nathan Thelen wrote what would be the first ever Drug Cabin song even before those two random words would be combined in this mind. The song was “On The Mountain” written in a cabin situated on a mountain in Chiapas Mexico. The name Drug Cabin materialized in Thelen’s brain in Chiapas too and it became the name of his largely solo LA based project culminating in a 2012 EP full of intimate down to earth alt folk songs that would often times deceptively blow up into dreamy ethereal indie pop.
As random chance seemed to inspire Thelan’s project, another chance happening occurred the day before Drug Cabin’s first show. While Thelan rehearsed with other musicians, Marcus Congleton (a friend of a friend) was invited to sit in on guitar. In a natural almost magical way, as if it was bound to happen, Marcus instantly became a part of Drug Cabin. In Thelan’s mind, Drug Cabin was never really built to last. It had always been intended to be side project but when Marcus entered the creative picture the faint spark once captured in Chiapas, Mexico burned into a full-fledged musical creation. Singer songwriters became confidants, became writing partners.
Both Thelen and Congleton were, after all, kindred spirits having left their mark on the indie landscape in the early to mid 2000’s. While Thelen was an integral part of the kinetic proggy alternative rock outfit Pretty Girls Make Graves based out of Seattle, Washington and the post punk Moonrats in Los Angeles, 2800 miles away Congleton, as part of Ambulance LTD, fused strains of shoegaze and dream pop into emotionally wrought songs. Whether crushed under the weight of bankrupt record labels (morally or otherwise) or falling prey to the normal “rock band” expiration date, those musical incarnations ended giving Nathan and Marcus the chance to find each other in the creative sun soaked wash of Los Angeles.
With the talented support of Brandon “Eugene” Owens on bass, Sheridan Reily on drums, and Frankie Palmer on pedal steel, Yard Work and Wiggle Room were recorded to analog 8-track at Gaucho Electronics in Downtown Los Angeles. Engineered by F. Bermudez , produced and mixed by Nick DeWitt (Pretty Girls Make Graves, Liars), together both records contain a vast collection of harmonious sweeping deep groove folk-ish indie pop with deceptively addictive hooks. The shape shifting tone of the compositions can feel very much like 70’s garden rock imagined by Brian Wilson as it feels so down to earth yet so dreamy.
Wiggle Room Tracklist:
1. Handsome
2. Wiggle Room
3. Ruby
4. Legends
5. Beverly Glen
6. Steely Dad
7. Easy
8. Wonderful
9. Emily
10. Stoner
11. Turkey Time
12. Space Program
