Caustic Resin

The Medicine Is All Gone (Alias)
by Nik Rainey

The drug-drought implications of both the name of this band and the title of their third full-length are quite apt – the whole thing resembles nothing so much as Ziggy Stardust a few hours after all the coke ran out. You can hardly believe these guys can raise their arms high enough to play their instruments (applying eyeshadow and glitter is definitely out), but there’s something soporifically appealing to their Walkman-just-starting-to-die tempos and cubicle-divider-of-sound production valences when the lead singer isn’t (inadvertently, one hopes) channeling Perry Farrell’s dying-otter whine or cribbing Loaded lyrics more flagrantly than Queen Bowie ever did. (The Argent references – no, you heard right, the Argent references – are pretty hard to explain away, however. More ‘lude than lewd, more glum than glam – it’ll sound nice in between Lipstick Killers and that rare Jobriath bootleg at your next faux-fag filled ’70s/OD’d-party-guest revival party.