Band of the Week

The Pharmacy

A main part of life is friendship. When at work, at home, on tour, setting out on an adventure, or simply watching the day pass, friends are a necessity. Scott Yoder and Brendhan Bowers of Seattle's The Pharmacy, have been friends for a long time, and together they have built a reputation through their consistent touring and fun releases. A non-stop adventure, a journey of their choosing, and on this adventure their friendship has grown and expanded to include group of talented and ambitious individuals. One such ambitious soul is Megan Birdsall, Scott's roommate and long-time friend, who has single-handily created one of my favorite labels, Don't Stop Believin'. They release well designed and well packaged album and ep's abound, complete trading cards and beautiful vinyl releases.

Choose Yr Own Adventure (DSBR 011) is The Pharmacy second full-length album, and it roars and rocks and rhythmically rolls through twelve tracks. They are of course on tour right now, and are playing two shows in the area this weekend (4/5 8:00P Church of Rock Western Springs, Illinois / 4/6 8:00P Worloft Chicago, Illinois), and for a full list of shows visit their new myspace page.

Recently, Scott of The Pharmacy took some time out from touring to answer a few of my questions.

Orange Alert (OA): The new album, Choose Yr Own Adventure, is fantastic, and well worth the wait. Did your read Choose Your Own Adventure books when you were kids? What was your favorite CYOA book?
Scott Yoder (SY): I was more into Goose Bumps and Jurassic Park, actually. But recently I've really gotten into the Cave of Time

OA: You guys seem to consistently be on tour, what has been your favorite city to play, and what is your strangest tour story?
SY: Our favorite city to play is probably NYC. There's just such a huge concentration of awesome overwhelming things happening all at the same time. We have dozens of weird stories i guess. Our friend had her purse stolen in NYC last summer and while talking to this completely stereotypical bulldog-looking cop with a shaved head and moustache he determined that our band was "Grunge-Punk-Psychadelic." Pretty intuitive of him, I'd say...

OA: Having been both Kimya Dawson's opening band and backing band (on the same night no less) what is she like to play with? What are your thoughts on her long over due success?
SY: We're really happy for her. I feel like she'll always have the same core kids that come to her shows regardless.

OA: About a year ago a little known here is Chicago, Tic Tac Totally, released a 7" of yours containing one of my favorite songs, Tropical Yeti. How did you come to release that single through them? What has your experience with Don't Stop Believin' been like?
SY: They just approached us to do a one-off limited edition single. We had those two songs recorded already. We actually got to record them at Bear Creek where Lionell Richie recorded a bunch of stuff with Eric Clapton in the '80s. Don't Stop Believin' is essentially my roommate, Megan and we've been best friends for 6 years or so, so its super comfortable.

OA: Follow the release of your new album, Don't Stop Believin' released an ep of Pharmacy covers performed by The Terrordactyls. What is your connect to the terrordactyls? What are your thoughts on the Mike Bowers Ep?
SY: I think Ty and Michael did an awesome job. We all went to school together. Brendhan and I were actually in an early incarnation of the band where we dressed up like sock puppets and broke mic stands while screaming the "Happy Birthday" song. Stefan had a quick stint as their temporary keyboard player when he was 14 or so...

OA: What's next for The Pharmacy?
SY: Another US tour with our favorite band, Japanther in May. We've also started confirming shoiws for a European trip early this fall. I think we all might spend a lot of time in LA recording this summer as well.


Choose Yr Own Adventure (DSBR 011)
Choose Yr Own Adventure/Black Ice Cream/Mirror (mp3)/Tropical Yeti (mp3)/Warm and Untorn/My Friends/Little Toys on a Shelf/Try To Explain/Five Five Five/Turned to Granite/Old Man and The Sea/Adieu Adieu (mp3)

For more information of The Pharmacy please visit their website and to order your copy of Choose Yr Own Adventure visit Don't Stop Believin' Records.