In advance of The War on Drugs’s forthcoming live album, inevitably titled “Live Drugs,” the group has announced “The Super High Quality Podcast” and unveiled the album’s second single, a cover of Warren Zevon’s “Accidentally Like a Martyr.”
According to the announcement, “The Super High Quality Podcast” is a four-episode series, airing weekly beginning on the album’s release day. Throughout, guitar tech and band confidant Dominic East listens as the band talks casually about how they arrived at the performances and the decision to release their new live album. Check out a trailer here.
As for “Accidentally Like a Martyr,” Drugs frontman Adam Granduciel describes it as “so simple and true, you should ever be lucky to write a song that simple.”
“Live Drugs” is a collection culled from over 40 hard drives of recorded live shows spread out across years of touring behind multiple albums, according to the announcement — and anyone who’s seen the band live knows that someone heard an awful lot of soloing on those 40 hard drives. Sequenced to reflect how a typical 70-minute show would flow, it’s the first volume to capture the band’s live interpretations and a document showcasing the evolution of The War on Drugs’ live show over the years.
The group recently debuted a brand new single, “Ocean of Darkness,” on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.” The song is the first release of any new material by the band since the release of 2017’s Grammy-winning “A Deeper Understanding,” and a taste of what they have been working on in the studio these last many months. “Ocean of Darkness” does not appear on “Live Drugs.”