Hard Drugs

Hard Drugs: It took one song for Vancouver, B.C.'s Hard Drugs to realize that the boards beneath the inch of sticky on The Comet's floors were the perfect accompaniment to their jangle folk. "We're glad to be here," said Jeffry Lee, one half of this husband/wife duo. "This is a good floor for us. I know that doesn't make any sense, but if this floor was carpeted, you'd know what I was talking about."

It made perfect sense. Hard Drugs consists of Lee on acoustic guitar and harmonica, and Jenni Lee Nelson on tambourine. They both sang, and kept time stomping their feet. Their back-and-forth was charming in the best sense of the word, and proved yet again that a man, woman, and good pair of boots still makes more compelling music than a laptop. - seattleweekly.com

Hard Drugs were anything but tough to take. This husband and wife duo just happened to be passing through town and picked up the gig much to the audiences delight. Their songs were basic and folky, but the charm and conviction with which they deliver their music was refreshing. "I wanna move to the country" was a good old fashioned knee slapper that connected with the audience and just when your dancing shoes were getting too tight, they slowed to a sweetly melodic song. They wrapped up their set like a warm hug "goodbye" to a dear old friend. - examiner.com los angeles

Jeffry Lee had a simple goal when he began working on the record that would become Hard Drugs: to tell a story that wasn't as bloated and impenetrable as two of rock opera's definitive albums.

“I wanted to write something that made more sense than Tommy or The Wall,” says the Brooklyn-based former Vancouverite, on the line from the Sunshine Coast, where his wife's family has property. “I have a background in film, and I've worked on some scripts. The idea of doing a rock opera seemed to be a challenge.”

It's a challenge that Lee proved more than up to meeting on Hard Drugs, which is also the name of the band he put together with his wife, Jenni Lee Nelson, drummer Jason Dana, organist Shira Blustein, and bassist Kevin Grant. The sprawling double LP tells the story of Lloyd and Aline, two star-crossed, drug-addled lovers trapped in the grindhouse that is Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. She's a hooker working the streets for a pimp named Slim; he's an addict too weak to do something about the fact that his girlfriend prostitutes herself. Over the course of 13 stellar tracks, the two do their best to extricate themselves from the life they're leading, which leads to people getting shot, drug dealers looking for revenge, and a tension-dripping saloon showdown.

Packed with the kind of details that separate great stories from good ones, Hard Drugs plays out like a stage production or movie waiting to happen, something Lee is quick to acknowledge.

“If that happens, it happens,” he says. “For me, I wanted to do this just to prove to myself that I could do it. But there's a fellow in Vancouver who said he was interested in working on a screenplay [based on the record]. I met with him, gave him some suggestions, and he's going to take it from there.”

With help from a small army of the Vancouver music scene's heaviest hitters, the music is just as epic as Lee's story. At a base level, Hard Drugs sound like the house band in shit-kicker heaven, with Lee and his massive supporting cast trafficking in an unvarnished brand of classic country. “Lloyd and Aline” finds Lee and his bandmate-wife trading verses like Johnny Cash and June Carter during the booze-drenched years, and “Terminal City” makes a good case that someone was mainlining melted-down Waylon Jennings and Loretta Lynn records.

But as much Hard Drugs aims straight for the hearts of those still mourning the demise of No Depression, Lee looks well beyond the badlands for inspiration. Listen for the Tex-Mex trumpet flourishes in the title track, the druggy prog-rock breakdown in “Salvation Blues”, and the crystalline piano in the pop-tinted “Happiness”.

Now located in Brooklyn, the singer-guitarist sees Hard Drugs as a gritty love letter to Vancouver. His mission was simple: to find the humanity of the lost souls that haunt the junk-wrecked alleys and streets of the Downtown Eastside.

“When I look down there, I see human beings, not the monsters which a lot of people do,” he says. “They go down there and don't know what they are seeing—they think they are in zombie-land. These people are humans, and they deserve to have a life, no matter what kind of choices that they've made.” - Georgia Straight

Black Mountain, Pink Mountaintops, Lightning Dust, Limblifter, Bend Sinister, Fan Death, Bonnie "Prince" Billy and other acts are among those who've lent their musical talent to alt.country rock opera Hard Drugs.

The project is the brainchild of Jeffry Lee, a former Vancouver resident who fronts a band that's also called Hard Drugs. The outfit includes his wife, Jenni Lee Nelson, drummer Jason Dana, organist Shira Blustein, bassist Kevin Grant and Colin McKill, Pete Dionne, Jason Dana and others.

Their self-titled double vinyl album, which includes contributions from the above listed acts, along with The Mohawk Lodge, Blood Meridian and Bughouse 5, is in stores now, and you can hear the entire record here.

"I wanted to write something that made more sense than Tommy or The Wall," Lee told The Georgia Straight. "I have a background in film, and I've worked on some scripts. The idea of doing a rock opera seemed to be a challenge."

The album is about a hooker and an addict who are a couple navigating their way through Vancouver's drug-filled Downtown Eastside. - Chartattack

Songs: 'Bad Ideas (Don't Give Up)'
Album: 'Hard Drugs'
Sounds Like: Polyphonic Spree, Lucero - Spinner.com

Ladyhawk / The Dugout
There are lots of great bands from Vancouver, but my favourite is Ladyhawk. Hell, they’re one of my favourite bands period. Goddamn sweethearts. This song is one of their classics but the recording doesn’t do for it what they always pull off live.

The Oh Sees / The Guilded Cunt
Admittedly, I don’t listen to a lot of current music, but this band is the best. I highly recommend checking them out.

Relatively Clean Rivers / Easy Ride
On the other hand, I’m not one of those people who only listens to obscure music because I somehow think it makes me cool-er. Pete Dionne — who does some heavy finger-picking all over the Hard Drugs record — sent me this one and I don’t know where or how he found it. All I know is that it’s probably the best driving music out there and that means a lot to someone who hates driving.

Dead Moon / Time Has Come Today
I first got turned onto this band when we covered I Hate The Blues when I was in Blood Meridian. Listening to a lot of their older stuff lately, it’s so fucking good. Old-school punk married-core. Now they’re called Pierced Arrows.

Black Flag / Wasted
Don’t get me started on my opinion of the singers and eras of Black Flag. I could write a book! Most importantly, I love them all. In my heart, early Black Flag and early Raymond Pettibon? I explode all over you.

Reigning Sound / Find Me Now
Greg Cartwright’s Reigning Sound have a new record, which is great, but as much as I like this band, I love their mellower rarities album, Home For Orphans. Why don’t more bands sound like this? Probably the same reason why bands like Reigning Sound aren’t famous. Listen to the radio. It’s because most people have shitty taste in music.

John Doe and the Sadies / The Cold Hard Facts Of Life
You got John Doe from X — L.A. punk originators basically coming from the same scene as Black Flag and Gun Club (among so many others) — playing an old country tune made famous by Porter Wagoner. Ballads — songs that tell a story, popular in old folk and country tunes — was obviously an inspiration for writing an alt-folk-rock opera. This really doesn’t showcase the awesomeness of The Sadies, so go buy Favourite Colours and New Seasons.

Traveling Wilburys / Nobody’s Child
I guess this was on the first Beatles album. This version, though, is a Wilbury’s bonus track. Thanks dudes. You just saved me having to pick between five of my biggest influences for my last song. - My Secret Playlist

Junkies, johns and love on a bare mattress don't seem like common themes for an alt-country rock opera, but Jeffrey Lee has combined them nonetheless in "Hard Drugs," which released today.



For the project, Lee enlisted talent from bands such as Blood Meridian, Black Mountain, Lightning Dust, Pink Mountaintops, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Limb Lifter, Bughouse 5, Bend Sinister, Fan Death, The Mohawk Lodge and Bison. It will be performed at New York's Bowery Electric on Sept. 24.



This video for the track “Bad Ideas (Don’t Give Up)” has the same hollow-eyed glamour reminiscent of “Taxi Driver.” - Prefix Magazine

Hard Drugs is the brainchild of musician and former Vancouverite Jeffry Lee. Riffing off Tommy, We Will Rock You, and countless other rock operas, Lee has put together one of the first indie rock operas of note (first that I've come across anyway).

The opera tells the romantic tale of Aline, a hooker with a heart of gold, and her boyfriend, the junkie Lloyd. To be together Aline decides she needs to be rid of her pimp Slim whom gets offed in the dramatic "No Choice". After Lloyd's friend Hank spills the beans on who killed Slim, Lloyd has no option but to send Aline away for her own safety ("Happiness").

Musically Hard Drugs is a delightful mix of styles. "Terminal City" and "When It's Dark Out and It's Raining" are perfect examples of roots-based indie rock. The pop sensibility comes blazing through on the infectious "Bad Ideas (Don't Give Up)" while the band tug at your heartstrings with the touching "The Proposal".

Lee portrays the role of Lloyd while his wife Jenni Lee Nelson is stunning as Aline. Helping them out along the way are members of Bonnie "Prince" Billy, as well as Canadian indie rock luminaries from Black Mountain, Pink Mountaintops, Lightning Dust, and Limblifter.

All of it is done with a theatrical flare that will sweep you up in the story. Let's hope there's a traveling show that makes it to town soon.

We have a poster hand made by the band to give away. Send us an email, Twitter or Myspace message to enter.

Best tracks: "Bad Ideas (Don't Give Up)", "Somethings"

Rating: 8.0/10 - T.O.Snob's Music

Hard Drugs is an indie rock opera that trusts in spectacular songs rather than an elaborate stage production to tell a twisted story that could only happen in Terminal City. Aline is a prostitute looking for love. Lloyd is a drug dealer seeking passion. The two find each other, falling madly, deeply into a love few have ever known...that is until Aline’s pimp Slim learns of their affair. To continue riding the high, they must get rid of Slim and escape Terminal City forever. Murder, chaos, and heartbreak ensue.

Contributors include members of Blood Meridian, Black Mountain, Lightning Dust, Pink Mountaintops, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Limb Lifter, Bughouse 5, Bend Sinister, Fan Death, The Mohawk Lodge and Bison, among many others.

On “Bad Ideas (Don’t Give UP),” Lloyd regales the story of Slim’s demise- a bump of hard drugs to do the trick, the worst of the batch, straight from Lloyd’s private killer stash. - altsounds

Well, for your Tuesday quickie I give you �Bad Ideas (Don�t Give Up)� by Hard Drugs, which is this self-described �indie rock opera� project of Jeffry Lee, making the rounds today. The cast includes: Jeffry Lee himself, with Jenni Lee Nelson, Shira Blustein, Kevin Grant, Colin McKill, Pete Dionne, and Jason Dana (which include members of members of Blood Meridian, Black Mountain, Lightning Dust, Pink Mountaintops, Bonnie �Prince� Billy, Limb Lifter, Bughouse 5, Bend Sinister, Fan Death, The Mohawk Lodge and Bison) and like much of what�s going on in the indie blog scene, it�s psychedelic, folk rock. It evokes the same sort of feelings as acts like Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes did, remember them? This one, however, has a whole story to tell, it�s an actual opera of sorts. You can stream the entire thing over on Muxtape today, its release day. It�s being released as a double LP from Stay Gold Records, with 13 tracks and as far as I can ascertain, they�re performing it on Thursday September 24th @ Bowery Electric (NYC) with The Waldos (Walter Lure from Heartbreakers), you lucky New Yorkers! - Love Shack, Baby!

Rock has The Who’s ‘Tommy’, Punk has Green Day’s ‘21st Century Breakdown’. Alt Country needs it’s own opera and Hard Drugs has provided a good candidate for the cause. - The Alternate Root

Opening act just announced:

Hard Drugs

The husband and wife team of Jeffry Lee and Jenni Lee Nelson are the brains behind Hard Drugs. The former Vancouverites began riffing off Tommy, We Will Rock You, and countless other rock operas, to put together one of the first indie rock operas of note.

With a sound that skirts from Richard and Linda Thompson to Big Star, Great Speckled Bird to Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger to The Allman Brothers Band and beyond, you'll always find a home at any of their shows. - Flavorpill

HARD DRUGS
turning grime and love into a renewable resource
By Clinton Hallahan


If Hard Drugs (the band) were a hard drug (a substance), which would they be? Based on their eponymous alt. country rock opera, it would likely be a cocktail – the addictiveness of heroin with a touch of the lower lip-burn associated with some less-than-optimal ecstasy. It's a burn that stays with you for a few days, something the album has no problem doing and that listeners will have no problem dealing with – scabs and all.

The band previously bailed on Vancouver and are now returning home by circumstance. They're travelling back by way of concert tour, finishing up with a homecoming show at the Biltmore Cabaret. As a rock band going by the name of Hard Drugs, surely their road trip is peppered with cheap barbiturates and expensive misdemeanors, leaving a trail of empty liquor bottles and chaos across the American southwest, right?

"We're actually just stopped right now. My wife likes to stop at every thrift store along the way she can find. We just walked in the door." Jeffry Lee is of course talking about his better half, Hard Drugs bandmate Jenni Lee Nelson. Currently a husband-and-wife duo, the pair will be reunited with the full band in Vancouver.

Having long called East Van home, the band created a rock opera about lovers on the Downtown East Side before relocating temporarily to Brooklyn. "Jenni was transferred by her company, and I followed not long after that," says Jeffry from the store in New Mexico. It's an innocuous enough reason to uproot from a place so clearly ingrained in two people. "I knew we wouldn't be moving to New York forever, or at least that was my mindset. For me it was like an extended holiday. It was hard for me to get by that."

Jeffry and Jenni are a couple of many talents; in addition to their musical endeavours, Jenni is a fashion designer and Jeffry is a graphic designer and illustrator. "I moved there with a plan to do more graphics and less music. New York was and is a good place to do that." It didn't take long for music to come back to the fore, however, as an acquaintance took an interest in the work Hard Drugs had done and pulled him back into the fold. "I ended up still concentrating more on music than I'd planned. I still do both, though."

You would never guess that the musical aspect of their lives at times took a back seat to other ambitions. They created a wonderfully cohesive and emotionally raw rock opera before making their New York pilgrimage. A valentine to the city they left, the self-titled epic follows the trials and tribulations of Lloyd and Aline, two black star-crossed lovers trying to make it work while surrounded by poverty, drugs and prostitution. From a rousing and hooky introduction to the protagonists, through violence and strife and joy, Jenni and Jeffry take listeners down to the wrong side of Pigeon Park and into the lives of a couple you just can't help but root for.

"We had a record finished when we left. We didn't have any real solid interest and nobody was throwing money at us. We didn't have any big plans, but then we found someone interested in it," says Lee. The band then decided to book some shows in support of the album. It's a history that quickly repeated itself, with new contacts made in New York offering to produce new material. "I had the opportunity to do this recording with Michael Tudor, a producer that was willing to work with us. I was just like, that would be like the ultimate souvenir of living in New York: making a record while we were there." The new record remains incomplete—another record left in another city. Having a singular recording experience is on their list of goals. "Hopefully that will happen sooner than later. It would be nice to make a record where it got released in the same city that we were living in, but that probably won't be until the next, next one."

The album Hard Drugs tells the story of the two lovers trying their best to leave their circumstances behind, fighting addiction and hopelessness and a pimp named Slim over the course of the LP. It sways between country and folk and even flirts with some crooning piano ballads. It all combines into something that is not only intensely listenable, but something that grows with you over time, its emotional intensity amplifying over multiple plays. Standout tracks like "Happiness" and "Aline & Lloyd (Reprise)" exhibit so much talent and vision that it's baffling that the album found so many obstacles in the way of its dissemination. It spits and stomps and finds more moving moments in the span of a track than most albums find in their entire runtimes. It's a tour de force through the gutters of a dilapidated district.

Influenced heavily by Hedwig and the Angry Itch, the narrative was designed to be a multimedia project—fitting, given how soon the band members found themselves close to Broadway. "That was part of the original idea. The thing was, I didn't really have plans to produce it myself, but I did put it out there," Lee explains. The band shopped around the Hard Drugs story as a possible stage show, and in doing so, made contacts instrumental to the creation of their latest, unreleased work. As of yet, however, Lee says there have been no Broadway producers biting. "It could still happen someday if someone is interested. I don't really have the direct interest to take it to that next step."

The idea of being in a rock band with one's spouse has the historic precedent to be cringe-inducing, but Lee is unfalteringly optimistic about their musical interactions. "I think that maybe sometimes I have these expectations of her that you would have of someone in your band, which maybe isn't something you should probably bring into the marriage. But we make it work and we both have a good time doing it. It's sort of more my thing and I just love having her a part of it." Compromise and innovation are the keys to success, he says, adding that they "have fashioned this new approach to touring. We're basically, again, on holiday. There's no pressure for this tour to be anything but a fun time. It's working out really well." At this point, Jenni pipes in, jokingly telling Jeffry to "get off the fucking phone." He laughs, saying, "It's good. It's probably not great for the band, because we don't put any pressure on ourselves to succeed. It's just an excuse for us to be together."

While Hard Drugs remains the brainchild of Jeffry and Jenni, the record is the product of a an all-star roster of Vancouver musicians. Jeffry is a former member of Vancouver-based alt. country act Blood Meridian; the band's drummer Joshua Wells and vocalist Matt Camirand later went on to blow up with psychedelic rock outfit Black Mountain. "Black Mountain blows up, they go on tour and the other three of us were just like, 'Well, what should we do?'" Upon deciding to take up the task of making a rock opera, members of Bend Sinister, Fan Death and Lightning Dust were recruited to help out. "It was just gonna be a side project, so I just asked who I wanted to spend time with. Most of my friends have pretty similar musical taste. I just had a lot of friends who played music. Ninety percent of those people made time and we were able to make a pretty epic record."

Hard Drugs was fashioned as a story-driven epic in the vein of Hedwig, but something that made more sense and was easier to follow than Ziggy Stardust or Tommy. The idea is one with precedent, but it is not without its disadvantages. "I wanted to do something that had a bit more of a story to follow." The effect on listeners has been varied. "You're trying to listen to lyrics in a song and some people catch on more than others just based on how they listen to music. Some people are like, 'I rarely listen to words so it took me about twenty listens before I found out what was going on in the story.'" In a live setting, Lee shies away from playing out of order. "I certainly like to play them all together. It was written as this narrative. It's fun to play it with a full band. There's a couple songs we have had to play with the instrumentation. I don't have a nine-piece band so we have to work with whoever is available."

While the album deals with current political and social issues, Lee does not consider it a political album. "I don't think I'm offering any solution, but I think it's a lot about raising awareness." Lee notes the lack of knowledge of the situation in East Van outside of the city, and bemoans some of the opportunistic coverage of the area during the 2010 Winter Olympics. "It was certainly just negative. What I read was not focusing on the good done by volunteers and organizations on the Downtown East Side, just on how rundown it is and how much of a drug problem there is. Basically, for me, all I wanted to do was say, 'Yes, anyone who has been there knows that there is something going on down there, but there is two sides. There is some light in the darkness.'"

On second thought, maybe some arcane cocktail of entirely illegal substances doesn't peg Hard Drugs for what it is. More appropriate is love. Love surrounds and seeps out of the band and has found itself pressed squarely into each track they've made. The album is a chronicle of tragic love and romance, and the struggle of protagnoists Lloyd and Aline only serves to endear them to us. Jenni and Jeffry even state matter of factly that "love's the hardest drug of all." If that's the case, how do Hard Drugs make it look so easy? - BeatRoute

Sled Island Report! Hard Drugs!!! Because love is the hardest drug of them all…

July 7, 2010 by Tsuru

Photography by Me!

We got one more Sled Island report for ya! Our last full day in Calgary was filled with absolute laziness from a long and epic vacation, 2 days in Vancouver, 2 days on a train exploring western Canada, 2 days in Banff & Lake Louise, and now these few days venturing around checking out band after band, while still exploring Calgary (yay zoo & Recordland!) we were just done! We made it out for breakfast but instead of bands or the museum, it was back to the hotel for a bit more lazy morningness…. Mmmm….

Eventually we went to 17th ave, Calgary’s “Uptown”, for the sole purpose of catching a band tagged as a rock opera in Hard Drugs.

Oh my.

Oh my indeed! We cozied in the Local 511 or 512 or 5-something (really, just looked like a bar by any other account), got us a sweet spot and waited for “Hard Drugs” to begin!

First song kicked in, no drums, no bass, and the volume set to high-pitched tinniness filled with electric guitar, a harmonica set to dog-whistle pitch, and some country-fried vocals. I looked at Baby and wondered how much longer we’d stay. But, they recognized the volume was set to “wtf” in a place the size of my living room, turned it down a smidgen and settled in to what Baby & I both agreed was the best set the whole weekend!

NOTE TO BANDS: Don’t fall into the record label “loudness war” seen by the over compressed super-loud CDs/mp3s going on out there in your live sets. If you turn it down, just a smidgen, we’ll actually hear the subtle additions you work so hard to include in your set, you know, like that harmonica or that drum buddy… Just saying.

I grabbed a bit of vid, though the SLR didn’t get the best sound, you at least get a moment of Hard Drugs, eh?

Just wonderful rock music, the end! Baby & I kept looking at each other throughout the set, smiling, bobbing our heads, sharing through the wonderful sound a moment of joy for getting our asses up and over to this little section of town… After the set, I picked up the album:

Wow. Okay, where to start? It’s a concept album, so already my love-tendencies were super high. It’s the story of Lloyd, a drug dealer, and the love of this life, Aline, a prostitute. I’m not going to give the story away, you really need to let Hard Drugs tell it, but I’ll say Lloyd & Aline are tired of the life they are living, wanting to just be together, and conspire to kill Aline’s pimp Slim and escape Terminal City.

That’s all I’ll give you.

Sound-wise, it’s basically Cracker meets Rocky Horror Picture show! Roots rock, some theatrics (especially side 4), male/female vocals, and just brilliant!

Fun facts? Apparently Hard Drugs (really, how is it I never heard of these guys til now?) are built from members of East Vancouver’s Blood Meridian and the album includes collaborations with folks from Black Mountain, Lightning Dust, Pink Mountaintops, Bonnie “Prince” Billy, among a shit ton more! Seriously, I need an app or something that announces periodically announces potentially tsururific bands, because this “discovering” older bands is getting old!

Oh well & c’est la vie! Here we are and we have them now, so let’s rejoice in the tale of Lloyd & Aline, a tale of true love, the hardest drug of them all. - tsururadio