There’s a relentlessly brooding power and bruised melodicism emanating from the Pack A.D.’s sixth full-length, Positive Thinking (Cadence), that belies the album’s cheery self-help title. Drummer Maya Miller admits that she and guitarist Becky Black intended a certain irony in the LP’s nomenclature. “It’s facetiously hopeful, which pretty much sums up our band.” says Miller. The Pack A.D. has always been foundationally blues based, with a detour into poppier territory on Do Not Engage. Over the past few albums, though, the band actively shifted toward psych rock, a major thread in the fabric of Positive Thinking. Miller will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our feature on the band.
Miller: Before all the stoners get excited, I’m actually talking about the act of sleeping as opposed to the awesomeness of the band called Sleep. That post is for another day. This one is about sleeping or the inability to sleep. I’ve always been a nite owl. As a child, my average bedtime was 11 p.m. Yes, as a child. Mainly at that time, I was just exhibiting an intense FOMO. As an adult, I still get that a little here and there, but generally I don’t even bother trying to sleep till at least 1 a.m. because I have no faith that I will actually sleep. Yes, like many others, I suffer off and on from insomnia. I’ve tried all the things and the only thing that ever works is giving up, turning the light on and reading a book. But allowing myself to do that is another thing all together. As I’m sure many an insomniac will agree, if you get up and accept that you’re awake instead of lying there with your eyes closed willing your body to except the lie, then you have lost the game. And it is a game. That is why when sleep happens normally, I do all the sleep my body will allow me. I do sleep. Sleep does not do me.
