Mystery Pills: They've Got the Hooks, You've Got the Cash

I heard from a musician early this morning via email, a fella who calls Rapid City, South Dakota home. He told me that I had written about his previous band around five years ago, probably closer to six. He had only signed his first name in the message and that name was Jason. Now, it didn't take me very long to figure out who he and his previous band were, but they would like to remain anonymous (and mysterious, I presume).

As a mysterious spokesperson for Mystery Pills said:

“If we come right out and tell people who's playing what, their brains immediately begin to mentally arrange people on a stage and put instruments in their hands. If we use the standard indie rock storyline and tell people about how we recorded in the attic of our grandmother's cabin on the beach, those are just more visual details that peoples' brains start to fill in that distract it from the sonic elements we're hoping they will focus on."

“No one really knows who we are or what to expect from a band from South Dakota anyway.”

His new project for the past year, or so, has been Mystery Pills. They've got two songs produced by the band and mixed by Stuart Sikes (Walkmen, White Stripes, Cat Power), and now, at the tail end of a campaign to raise money to press some 7 inch singles, they need a little help. The campaign for "Anti-Pattern" and its B-side "Vital Signs" wraps up August 5, 2011 at 3pm MDT.

GO HERE to learn more about Kickstarter and to help out the band.

Now we've got the cash part out of the way, now on to the hooks. A-Side "Vital Patterns" is punchy, catchy, and percolates until you're ready for the sugar and cream. Something is happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear... until I read this from the mysterious spokesperson again:

"Even though we're trying to make things sound electronic, we're generally using real instruments... We really only use samplers and synthesizers to approximate some instrument or machine that is too impractical to use or too expensive or hard to find."

Mystery pills - anti-patterns by hipstereo