Pill Friends: Murder me for my sins (2013)

"Last night on Facebook Pill Friends member Ryan Wilson posted the band’s latest EP Murder Me for My Sins. Being such a huge fan of their first EP I quickly snatched it up and listened to it right away. After I made it through the whole thing I sat there sorta scratching my head for a while because, how should I put this? Well, it just wasn’t what I was expecting. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing but it definitely caught me off guard. On It’s Kyle’s Birthday Everyday the band wasn’t afraid to get dark with their subject matter. Outside of the obvious substance abuse references there were plenty of ponderings on death and misery, but on Murder Me for My Sins the band makes it a fixation. Half of the tracks feature sung vocals from Ryan and the others are these weird ambient piano tracks with bizarre pitch-shifted audio samples running over top of them. A lot of talk about death, the afterlife, sin, and penance and it all leaves you feeling despondent and sorta empty inside. They even manage to talk about skinning a dog and wearing its fur to school. Like, what the hell? These guys must be on some weird juju because this is some depressing stuff. And yet for all of their wallowing in all things ghastly I never once felt compelled to shut it off. I’m not sure what it is about the band, maybe it’s the way that they dress it up but I’m still into it, warts and all. I can’t guarantee you’ll feel the same way though" (cactus-mouth.tumblr.com)

Pill Friends: It´s Kyle´s birthday everyday (2012)

"If there is one theme that comes screaming through on the new EP by Philadelphia band Pill Friends it’s chemical dependency. I mean come on, the band is called Pill Friends, they’ve got tracks with titles like “Klonopin” and “Pillspillspills,” and they talk about stuff like methadone dependency. And although the tracks on It’s Kyle’s Birthday Everyday seem catchy and upbeat, I can’t help but coming away from it feeling a bit depressed. It’s the same sort of tongue-in-cheek bitterness that is shared by similar acts like Teen Suicide and Coma Cinema. Think of it as like an evolved form of emo without any of the cheese. "Sharing the same sort of home-recorded production vibe as the aforementioned bands, Pill Friends boasts some pretty good, catchy songwriting with elements of surprising instrumentation… well, surprising instrumentation for music that seems so fixated on manic depression. I guess I just never expected to hear cellos accompanying lines like “And I stab myself in the chest” which are being sung in rounds. But hey, if that sort of thing appeals to you, then you’ll probably gleefully gobble this EP up" (cactus-mouth.tumblr.com)