Song of the Day: Drinks - Laying Down Rock

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJ’s think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Morning Show with John Richards, is “Laying Down Rock” by Drinks from the 2015 album Hermits On Holiday on Birth Records.

Drinks - Laying Down Rock (MP3)

Cate Le Bon and Tim Presley's project Drinks is far removed from Le Bon's sharply crafted pop tunes or Presley's grimy garage rock, but its unpredictability is only matched by its charming, fun-loving approach to writing intentionally skeletal songs and filling in the holes spontaneously (or not at all). When Le Bon and Presley met as tourmates, they quickly became fast friends, but a musical collaboration between seemed unlikely due to geographical differences (Le Bon was based in Wales, Presely in California), but when Le Bon moved to Los Angeles to record her 2013 album Mug Museum and Presely found time in between his work with White Fence and his numerous other projects, a musical partnership was back on, eventually resulting in Drinks, who released their debut full-length Hermits on Holiday earlier this month. Written with a high degree of spontaneoity by "playing guitar and laughing maniacally at each other", Hermits on Holiday veers slightly into psychedelic, punk, acoustic, and experimental territory without ever comitting to any one idea, save for the goal of having fun. (Case in point: there's a track called "Tim, Do I Like That Dog?" where Le Bon periodically repeats the titular phrase while Presley noodles in the background and even though it sounds like it was written and recorded in ten minutes, it sounds like they were ten really fun minutes.) "Laying Down Rock" is one of the album's most focused tracks, but it still feels magnetically loose across its four minutes. Over a plinking, simple guitar riff, some gently strummed chords, and a rudimental drum beat, Presely's voice wafts across the track while Le Bon fills the space with her wiry guitar. On paper, it sounds like a demo track, but for Drinks, having good sketches is the end goal: "Laying Down Rock" shows that Presely and Le Bon's songwriting talents shine through even when working with little more than some simple arrangements, lo-fi recording, and a highly whimsical muse.

Drinks will embark on a European tour later this month, but if they make plans to tour in North America, that news will be over at the band's and Le Bon's Facebook pages. Below, watch the gloriously low-budget video for "Hermits on Holiday" below.