Shame Release New Single “Concrete”; Debut Album Coming In Early 2018

There’s a certain tingly, effervescent hum that pervades truly solid post-punk. A three-coffees-deep jitter, an anxious buzz. Well today, one of the UK’s most talked about young bands Shame share their new single and video “Concrete”. It’s a bracing jolt of a song, liquid lightning and a rumble of thunder. “Concrete” races forward on a tightly wound post-punk riff, it’s call-and-response vocals capturing the turmoil of schizophrenic internal dialogue of the song’s subject matter.

“It’s about someone who’s trapped in a relationship and they’re being pummelled into surrender,” says singer and lyricist Charlie Steen. “It’s not about a physically abusive relationship – more an emotionally and psychologically draining one. The call-and-response vocals [between Steen and bassist Josh Finerty] is the central figure’s own internal dialogue. They are dealing with two different things that they don’t want to address.”

The band cite The Fall, Parquet Courts, Country Teasers, Television Personalities and Wire among their biggest influences, and the icily claustrophobic sound of “Concrete” sets it in a lineage with Magazine, Joy Division and Siouxsie & The Banshees.

As a lyricist, Steen is a modern flâneur, forensically observing the lives of others around him as they unspool and fracture, with Hubert Selby Jr. and Irvine Welsh his primary literary influences.

“That graphic and harsh style of writing always interested me,” he explains. “It’s not about the shock factor; it’s about the fact they are talking about these things in such great detail without stripping anything back.”

The London five piece have swiftly earned a reputation as one of the most visceral and exhilarating live bands in the UK, their combustible shows being honed through a heavy touring schedule in the UK and across Europe. Cutting their teeth on the squat-punk scene in the Queen’s Head in Brixton in 2015, where they were taken under the wing of Fat White Family, the white heat of their gigs quickly landed them support slots with Slaves and Warpaint. They were also personally invited by Billy Bragg to play the Left Field stage at Glastonbury this year.

Following two official singles – “The Lick”/”Gold Hole” and “Tasteless” on Fnord Communications as well as the digital-only Theresa May-baiting “Visa Vulture” (described by Steen as “the worst love song ever”) – “Concrete” is the first track to be released as part of their record deal with Dead Oceans.

“We started this band as a joke that went too far,” deadpans Steen. “What we do is quite strange and quite weird, but I get to meet a lot of people and I get to hear a lot of things. I am interested in the surrealism of reality.”

Watch the video for “Concrete” and see Shame’s full list of tour dates below.

SHAME TOUR DATES
Saturday, Sep. 30 – Margate, UK @ By The Sea Festival
Mon. Oct. 9 – Bristol, UK @ Louisiana
Tue. Oct. 10 – Leeds, UK @ Lending Room
Wed. Oct. 11 – Manchester, UK @ Soup Kitchen
Thu. Oct. 12 – Edinburgh, UK @ Sneaky Pete’s
Fri. Oct. 13 – Liverpool, UK @ Buyers Club
Sat. Oct. 14 – Dublin, IE @ Workamn’s Club
Wed. Oct. 18 – London, UK @ Scala
Sat. Oct. 21 – Cardiff, UK @ Swn Festival
Tue. Oct. 24 – Copenhagen, DK @ Loppen
Wed. Oct. 25 – Groningen, NL @ Vera
Fri. Oct. 27 – Amsterdam, NL @ London Calling Festival
Thu. Nov. 2 – Reykjavik, IS @ Iceland Airwaves Festival
Fri. Nov. 10 – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right 
Sun. Nov. 12 – Philadelphia, PA @ PhilaMOCA 
Mon. Nov-13 – Washington, DC @ DC9
Wed. Nov. 15 – New York, NY  @ Home Sweet Home
Thu. Nov. 16 – Allston, MA  @ The Great Scott
Fri. Nov. 17 – Montreal, QC  @ M for Montreal 
Sat. Nov. 18 – Toronto, ON @ Hard Luck 
Sun. Nov. 19 – Buffalo, NY  @ Mohawk Place 
Mon. Nov. 20 – Arden, DE  @ Arden Gild Hall +
Fri. Dec. 1 – Paris, FR @ Point Ephemere
Sun. Dec. 3 – Frankfurt, DE @ Zoom *
Mon. Dec. 4 – Heidelburg, DE @ Halle O2 *
Wed. Dec. 6 – Köln, DE @ Gebäude 9 *
Thu. Dec. 7 – Munster, DE @ Gleis 22 *
Fri. Dec. 8 – Essen, DE @ Hotel Shanghai * 
Sat. Dec. 9 – Dresden, DE @ Groove Station *
Mon. Dec. 11 – Hannover, DE @ Bei Chez Heinz *
Tue. Dec. 12 – Bremen, DE @ Lagerhaus *
Wed. Dec. 13 – Hamburg, DE @ Knust *
Thu. Dec. 14 – Braunschweig, DE @ Eule *
Fri. Dec. 15 – Rostock, DE @ Helgas Stadtpalast *
Sat. Dec. 16 – Berlin @ Festaal Kreuzberg *
Fri. Feb. 2 – Adelaide, AU @ Laneway Festival
Sat. Feb. 3 – Melbourne, AU @ Laneway Festival
Sun. Feb. 4 – Sydney, AU @ Laneway Festival
Sat. Feb. 10 – Brisbane, AU @ Laneway Festival
Sun. Feb. 11 – Perth, AU @ Laneway Festival

+ with Ought
* with Gurr

Filed under: Concrete, Shame

Alex Lahey Shares “I Haven’t Been Taking Care of Myself”

Being honest, either with yourself or someone else, can be hard as hell. More often than not is easier to sweep your thoughts under a mental rug, rather than summon the courage to face the truth. Yet somehow, Alex Lahey makes it seem so damn easy. “I Haven’t Been Taking Care Of Myself” is an utterly confident profession of not being okay – the chorus a chaser of pure, blissful relief of laying it all out there.

Can you listen to this without feeling that? Can you listen without grabbing a hairbrush, broom, whatever’s closest and singing along? This song seeps into your pores like warm sunlight after a few cloudy days in a row. It just feels good. Lahey discusses the song, saying:

“A lot of the songs on the record are about the relationships that we engaging in with other people. ‘I Haven’t Been Taking Care Of Myself’ deviates from that in that it’s about the relationship that we have with ourselves and how that is reflected in the way we bring others into our lives. If you feel shit about yourself, you’re generally going to get off on the wrong foot with someone else.”

The video for the song, directed and illustrated by renowned Australian street artist Callum Preston, took over 14 hours and comprises 1,800 still photographers to assemble.

Lahey will bring her tour in support of I Love You Like A Brother stateside this November, kicking off in Boston on Wed., November 15th. A full list of tour dates are below.

Japanese Breakfast Releases Japanese Breakquest

Today, Japanese Breakfast‘s Michelle Zauner has released a RPG browser game titled Japanese Breakquest. The video game, which Zauner designed with Elaine Fath, features midi versions of all the songs from Japanese Breakfast’s critically acclaimed new album, Soft Sounds From Another Planet, out now. The songs play from room to room and are available in full for download if you beat the game.

Zauner detailed the video game in conversations with Billboard and Polygon.

Set in space, the goal of the game is to collect pieces of the Machinist robot to help you defeat aliens trying to take over your ship. You can equip band merchandise and instruments, like a (Sandy) Alex G T shirt, or Frankie Cosmos’ Dan Electro to raise your characters’ stats and learn abilities like “Philly Indie Cred” and “Rip a Solo” to conquer your enemies.

No need to concern yourself with work today. Dive head first into Japanese Breakquest, we told your boss – it’s cool.

Japanese Breakfast are currently on their first-ever headlining tour in North America. Be sure to catch ’em if they come to your city! All dates below.

Destroyer Shares “Tinseltown Swimming In Blood”

On this very day, we are pleased to share the video for Destroyer’s new single “Tinseltown Swimming In Blood.” The video was directed by KC (aka Karen Zolo) as an adaptation of the much-revered classic film La Jetée, which addresses contemporary issues of identity, borders, and race.

“I’d just had a conversation about artist Chris Marker with a friend when I was approached to make a music video for the upcoming Destroyer album,” said Zolo. “‘You have a month.’ Okay… I had no idea what the song even sounded like, but the only idea I had was to remake Chris Marker’s La Jetée as faithfully as possible. It’s not just an homage to the great cine-poet; it’s also about the medium of film, about still photography. It would have been a billion times easier and less stressful to shoot it digitally, but it was worth it.”

Phoebe Bridgers Premieres New Song “Funeral” Via Zane Lowe’s Beats1 Show

It starts with a jagged, reverberated guitar line. It sounds like being underwater, deep underwater where light can barely cut through. Or maybe it’s more like strong winds blowing through a row of creaking trees at night. Whatever it recalls for you, it’s a fitting introduction to Phoebe Bridgers’ new song, “Funeral.”

Blunt, direct, and true blue through and through “Funeral” pulls on details big and small. It’s an utterly stunning, poignant track about loneliness, loss, and living through it.

Premiering via Zane Lowe’s Beats1 show earlier today, this is the third preview song from Bridgers’ forthcoming debut Stranger In The Alps, which is due on September 22nd. It’s available for pre-order, with all three singles (“Smoke Signals” & “Motion Sickness” being the others) coming as instant grat downloads with purchase.

Bridgers, who is currently on the road with Conor Oberst, recently announced a handful of early October shows in support of War On Drugs along the west coast that will follow her October 4th headline show at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn, NY. She is also confirmed to support Noah Gundersen throughout the southwest and west coast in November. A current itinerary is below.