Metro Pulse/Music/Bitter Pills

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The Bitter Pills are just what the doctor ordered

by Matthew T. Everett

It's weird to watch the crowd at a Bitter Pills show. The kids in the audience, struck by the simple genius of four chords and tastefully selected organ fills, actually dance. They don't just sway their arms and nod their heads, like they do at other alternative/indie rock shows. No, they really dance, swiveling their hips and moving their feet and generally shaking all over the place. What's even weirder is that these are the very same kids who just stand around in a circle, holding tight to their PBRs, when other bands play.

"That's a gift to us," says Nathan Moses, who plays guitar and organ and shares lead vocals in the Bitter Pills. "People feel comfortable enough that they physically get into it. It makes us feel better."

The Pills' rock revivalism—shaped mostly by '60s garage rock, with hints of mod rock, punk, classic R&B and the British Invasion added—is designed to get people moving. Their tough sound, with punchy four-chord arrangements and propulsive keyboards, reflects the music education that the band's members share as obsessive music collectors—not just the kind who spend a lot of money on new CDs, but the kind who spend hours in record stores, poring over lost classics and tracing the most obscure 45s and seven-inches and LPs from the last 40 years. It's no surprise that Moses owned the now-defunct Modern World Records in the Old City, or that he works full-time at Lost and Found Records on Cumberland Avenue.

"I collect 45s, and with me being at Lost and Found all the time, I can't even listen to it all."

There are lots of bands made up of music geeks, but this particular combination is a staggering collection of pretty specialized pop music knowledge.

"I tried for years to find three other people who wanted to be in a band like this," says guitarist/ singer Matt Juroff. "I didn't think it was ever going to happen. I thought I'd always be stuck in bands that were good, but weren't doing what I was into."

It's a tight sound, and the Pills are among the loudest bands in Knoxville. "The whole band is a rhythm instrument," Juroff says. There's rarely a wasted note in a Bitter Pills song, and even fewer exhibitions of individual flamboyance. Most of the effect comes from simply constructed melodies and a pounding beat.

"I love the idea of having a formula for a song, a verse then a chorus then a verse, things that are catchy to people and make them dance," Moses says, illustrating his thought by humming the riff to "You Really Got Me" by the Kinks.

But the Pills aren't just into reliving an era that was already past when they were born—"We're not all about recreating something or digging it up again," Moses says. "We all listen to this stuff." And their formula for songwriting isn't necessarily mechanical.

"We can go from pure '60s garage rock to psychedelia to folk to country rock to blues. There's so much to do," says bassist George Gondo.

Even with that variety, sometimes the Pills' approach doesn't quite fit with the venue. One of their first shows was at the old Great Southern Brewing Company on Gay Street, which typically hosted jam bands and jazz groups who could play a couple of two- or three-hour sets a night. "We played '96 Tears' for 30 minutes," Juroff says. "And we played the longest version of Booker T. and the MGs' 'Green Onions' I've ever heard."

But now they've established a routine of semi-regular shows at the Pilot Light, usually about once a month, and draw some of the largest and most enthusiastic crowds the club's ever had. That's not even going to be interrupted by the departure of drummer Daniel Moore, who's going to spend the fall semester at school in New Mexico. The Pills have a new drummer, Graham McCorkle (Gram Slam, when he was a member of the Malignmen), who will debut with them at the Pilot Light on Thursday, July 12 with the Bloody Hollies, and they have a seven-inch single due for release in the middle of July on their own Domesticity Records. That will be followed by a fall tour of the East Coast with the Makeout Room, from North Carolina, and maybe a split single with the Faults on Domesticity.

It's important to the band members that they put their first record out on vinyl. "CDs have the same stigma that cassettes used to have," Juroff says. "We want to put out a 45 first. That's the original order that bands used to do it. It was like, 'Hey, if the single flies, let's put out an LP.'"

But it's not just the records they love. "We just enjoy getting up and playing songs we love and seeing people hear two bars and start moving because they just can't help it."