When he’s not flopping around on the floor as Twin Steps’ soulful, frantic frontman, Oakland’s Drew Pearson is working on something less sweaty with his side project Golden Drugs. New single “Appalachian Blood” opens with a straightforward theme, a percussive rhythm guitar line that the rest of the song snakes its way around.
Variations on that theme extend for nearly six minutes and carry the song through a number of transformations, from the matter-of-fact anxieties of the first verse, to the final verse’s call for connection. The lyrics go through the routine of oscillating between waking anxieties and dreaming ones, locating transcendence in the melodic declaration that “no one’s right/ in wide open spaces.” It’s a surreal vision, but it’s also an accessible one, and you could probably dance to it if you were so inclined.
