Gateway Drugs

Make no mistake: Gateway Drugs is back with ten tracks to shake us all out of our collective stupor.

Following up on their 2015 LP Magick Spells (Dine Alone) comes PSA, a record that retains their characteristic shoegazy, psychedelic sound that Hellbound likened to "The Stooges meets My Bloody Valentine and the Brian Jonestown Massacre all at once—a little dark, a little eerie and a little grainy and all intoxicating." Liv, Noa and Gabe Niles, the three siblings that make up the LA-based band, are joined by longtime friend James Sanderson on bass/guitar, whom they met and formed an instant
bond with back in 2010 while on a tour of the US.

The result is an album that reflects “everything that is wrong in the here and now: eternal pop culture reruns, the entertainment industry's lack of authenticity, protest fashion and the almost total state of apathy we all find ourselves in due to feeling powerless to effect any change with respect to all this,” says the band. PSA is an attempt to connect with others who feel the same way and regain a sense of our ability to change things for the better.

On the way there you'll encounter musings that are a bit more personal, like “Slumber,” sung by Gabe Niles, a reflection on unrequited love, with all the attendant rejection and "I'm Always Around," sung by Liv Niles, a real look inside a failing relationship. “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” an allusion to Gil Scott-Heron's ground breaking 1971 track, is perhaps the most overt expression of PSA's overall theme. This fuzz-bass driven dirge is a take on how rebellion, protest, counter-culture and what they represent and mean have been manipulated, packaged, commodifed and sold back to us in ads for jeans and car insurance.

Produced by Sune Rose Wagner of the Raveonettes, the album was recorded live at Josh Homme's Pink Duck Studios, PSA is raw, wild and chaotic, much like the last few years of the band members' lives.