Retail Drugs gets raw & real with new album ‘rECKless dRIVing’

NYC’s own fuzz-fiend Jake Brooks — the force behind Retail Drugs — is back with ‘rECKless dRIVing,’ a new full-length arriving August 1st via Fire Talk Records imprint Angel Tapes. And if the album title feels chaotic and capitalized in all the wrong ways, that’s entirely the point.

This isn’t just a batch of leftovers. While Brooks casually refers to ‘rECKless dRIVing’ as a collection of b-sides and demos from the cutting-room floor of ‘i love you so !,’ the truth is it’s got its own gravitational pull — a lo-fi galaxy swirling with fuzzed-out emotion, tape hiss, and a whole lotta heart.

The record kicks off with manny, a track born from a sleep-deprived, spliff-fueled jam session in Eagle Rock. Built on acoustic strums and a touch of smoke-induced magic, manny grows into something beautifully blown-out. As Brooks puts it, “The spliff wrote the song mostly.” Sometimes the best art shows up when you’re just messing around — and ‘rECKless dRIVing’ leans hard into that spontaneity.

Retail Drugs isn’t a solo show either. Brooks keeps it in the family, teaming up with longtime collaborators Ali Genevich (guitar), Aaron Scannell (bass), and Josiah Martuscello (drums) — a crew that first linked up way back in high school in Saratoga Springs. Together, they cut their teeth in Albany’s DIY scene before hitting the road with Laveda, Brooks’ other band with Genevich. All that touring, late-night demoing, and city-hopping laid the groundwork for the sound of ‘rECKless dRIVing’ — raw, emotional, and unbothered by genre.

Where ‘i love you so !’ was steeped in grief and distortion, ‘rECKless dRIVing’ offers a more vulnerable follow-up. Think gritty guitar jams, spacey instrumentals, lo-fi love letters, and everything in between. It’s a scrapbook of feelings, scribbled down on tape and left unpolished — on purpose.

Brooks’ analog obsession plays a big part in the record’s soul. After his mom passed away during sessions for Laveda’s last record, he struggled to write. Enter: the tape deck. Gifted by Genevich, previously owned by Laveda’s drummer, the recorder became a kind of spiritual collaborator — a tool that pulled Brooks out of a creative rut and helped him process the weight of loss through sound. “It felt like the tape was another person,” he says, and ‘rECKless dRIVing’ is the result of that emotional reconnection.

And if you’re thinking this is just a glorified demo tape? Think again. Ten of the eleven tracks are brand new. The whole thing stands on its own, capturing the unfiltered, sometimes messy, sometimes magical moments that make up real life — and real music.

Listen to manny now.
Watch the video for Person A.

‘rECKless dRIVing’ track list

1. little dog
2. waiting room
3. just the thing
4. still..
5. manny
6. rECK
7. person A
8. i wanna be cool
9. i just want to bring you down
10. he hears us
11. euphoria

Pre-order ‘rECKless dRIVing’ before it skids off without you.

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‘rECKless dRIVing’ drops August 1st — buckle up.