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: Coffee, in all its many delightful variations, has been my favorite drink since I was nine years old. Blame my dad, but don’t blame the coffee; the Millers are not a tall people to begin with. I’ve happily been a two-to-four-cups-of-coffee-a-day person, but I don’t think I ever really knew just how good it could be till we went on tour to Europe. You really, really can’t get a bad coffee over there. You can in the U.K.; in fact, I refuse to ever have a coffee in the U.K. again, but Europe? They know their coffee. Gas stations don’t have a shitty pot on a burner or a pump box of vanilla-flavored strychnine swill there. Their gas stations have real live humans making cappuccinos. And if there are machines, they are espresso machines. Every time we are over there, I think something has to change. Finally, change has come. I now have my own home espresso machine. Every day is the best day when you take the time to make a perfect shot.
