September 17, 1993 press release

MEDICINE COMPLETES NEW AMERICAN RECORDINGS RELEASE "THE BURIED LIFE"

American Recordings' artist Medicine has put the final touches onto its new album, The Buried Life, the follow-up recording to the band's critically acclaimed 1992 debut, Shot Forth Self Living. Although the project remains veiled in secrecy, Medicine guitarist/ vocalist/ songwriter/ producer Brad Laner has given a few clues to the album's style and substance. "It has," he says, "something to confuse almost anybody." The Buried Life is due October 26.

Recorded in the San Fernando Valley almost entirely on a home 8-track machine in Laner's living room, the new album will pose a striking contrast to the last. "This one is kind of a song cycle," says Laner, "but none of us know what it's about. It's a more concise and subtle set, containing some of the most extreme noise we've ever done and some of the sweetest pop songs we've ever written. We're still far from being radio-friendly, but this time, you can actually hear the vocals on most of the tracks."

As before, Laner is joined by songwriter/ vocalist Beth Thompson, and drummer Jim Goodall. Also performing is mystery guest bassist He Goak, a former lemur trapper from Madagascar in this country illegally on a pilgrimage to Graceland. he was deported immediately after the recording of The Buried Life. Also guesting is the legendary Van Dyke Parks, who contributed keyboards and the string arrangement on the track, "Live It Down."

Celebrated on Shot Forth Self Living for their eerie sonic approach, Medicine was no less inventive on the new album. "All our equipment was falling apart while we were making this record," says Laner. "It forced us to improvise and create interesting sounds without depending on digital effects. For example, I have this one old instrument, we call the 'shit-guitar' because it makes these horrible noises. We used it quite liberally on the album."

Formed in 1990, Medicine's Laner, Thompson, and Goodall have their roots in several highly-regarded L.A. art rock bands. All southern California natives, the members of Medicine avoided the city's commercial pop scene, gravitating rather to L.A.'s darker musical underside.

Critics lavished praise on Medicine's Def American debut, with Guitar for the Practicing Musician hailing it's "eardrum-piercing feedback, gentle cooing vocals, massed acoustic guitars, and screeching tape loops," the New York Times Reader said of the album, "Very few discs have been as enduring, consistently satisfying and thoroughly draining as this," while Music Express concluded, "A daily double dose of Medicine is the antidote to the complacent and predictable -- you might even get addicted."


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