The Goddamn Draculas have a low tolerance for your bullshit.
Earlier this year, while at a private media listening event in Cambridge for the Boston rock band’s debut LP, the anthemic strains of album cut “I Hate Cocaine” blared through the speakers. As the song finished, I looked at frontman Chris Duggan, unaware of the song’s title, and asked “Are you singing ‘I hate cocaine?'” He nodded feverishly. “Hate it,” he replied.
The band’s self-titled album, known as either Goddamn Draculas or the Drax depending on who’s paying your bills, takes several stands. And now the winners of the glorious 2014 Rock And Roll Rumble are back with another track from the LP, once again about cutting out the toxic aspects of human life in “Say Goodbye.”
Only this time, it’s not a drug or drug user getting the hook — it’s a person close to your who can’t seem to get their shit together. So, actually, maybe the two songs are related, after all.
“It is about losing a significant other who refuses to live up to being his or her better self,” says drummer Jerry “J.R.” Roach. The new single is accompanied by a music video, shot over the summer at the Cambridge Masonic Hall in Porter Square and Montessori’s Riverbend School in Natick. It was directed and edited by Ian McFarland, “an old friend of virtually everyone in Goddamn Draculas,” adds Roach. Additional credits include colorist Tony Fernandez, director of photography Anthony Jarvis, and additional camera work by band photographer Heather McGrath.
Check out the “Say Goodbye” video below via Vanyaland premiere, and catch the Drax November 14 at the ONCE Ballroom at Cuisine En Locale in Somerville, there the band will be releasing a new single, one not featured on this year’s record.