$6.00
""Figure it out girl!"
Pill makes a triumphant return to Dull Tools to follow up their phenomenal debut LP "Convenience", released on Mexican Summer in 2016. Now they are giving the world their third collection of songs, Aggressive Advertising, where the quartet returns to the cassette format of their first EP, with five songs that emphasize the band's position as one of the most original and captivating bands to come out of New York's post-Vice evicted DIY scene. As the city quickly becomes a members-only club for the monied, hostile to the artists and culture that attract them, Pill defiantly answer this crisis in declaring "we take strength were order fails." Like the Upright Citizens Brigade (another one-quarter-female four piece) said before them: "Our only friend is chaos." In the case of Pill, chaos is the genderless fifth member.
Lyrically, Pill have the rare ability to fuse poetic syntax with brutal directness. The latter being the ideological core of punk, with vocalist assuming the role of sloganeer. Though with most bands who try to straddle this gap, attempts to affix literary depth to crude bluntness often leaves the message blurred behind an effort that is awkward and obvious. Yet when Veronica Torres stands behind a microphone, I find myself in awe of what she's saying and the way she's saying it. That's true of Pill the band in general, everything that comes out of them sounds effortless, natural and intentional. Ben Jaffe, who plays saxophone in an improvised and lyrical manner that compliments Torres' fierce cadence, blows each note as if he were speaking enthusiastic affirmations behind the singer.
The mood on Aggressive Advertising ranges from abrasive to laid back, if still on guard. Torres' voice feels natural when both venomous and velvet. On the groovy Piña Queen, she imagines herself as a fruit-enforcing matriarch, cooing "She'll take the banana and the mango and she'll make you eat it", which coming for Veronica I take as a promise, not a threat. Open wide and swallow, because Pill is back with a new dose. "