Benjamin Miller of The Federales says of ‘Cardboard Cocaine’ that “I was hanging out with a buddy of mine from high school, and he mentioned that he and his wife were going to the bar every Friday just to play pull-tabs. ‘We can’t get enough of ’em — they’re like cardboard cocaine.’ I started asking around and nobody outside Minnesota seems to know what pull-tabs are, so I knew we had to pay tribute with a song.” Which tells you all you need to know…except what pull-tabs are. Well fortunately Wikipedia has a page…seems to be some sort of combination of proto-scratch card and a tombola where the remaining prizes and the remaining tickets let you know whether there’s still a point in playing.
Anyway, seems it’s a Minnesota thing – as are The Federales who have been combining country and country rock with the aim of pinning down a sound that’s kinda circa1975. Since they’ve been doing it since 2012 they’ve gotten kinda good at it too.
