Tag: Shame

Review: Shame – Food for Worms

One of the most interesting things about Shame is how they find new ways to re-examine themselves on each record. Drunk Tank Pink was about being forced into sometimes frightening introspection during the pandemic, and now Food for Worms has the band looking outward at the world and each other.

“You’re complaining a lot about the things that you got given,” sings frontman Charlie Steen on “Fingers of Steel” – a song about being straight-up with your friends, especially when they don’t want to hear it but need to hear it. You can’t control the results, of course, but at least you were honest. “Six Pack” is almost a story of madness brought on during pandemic lockdown. “You’re just a creature of bad habit. You got nothing and no one to live for,” Steen sings in the middle of the track, making you think he’s lost it, but then the whole band comes in with bonkers fury to bust him out of the (mental) room in which he’s trapped.

“Yankees” is one of the few (barely) subdued tracks on the album. The guitars drift in and out of the track like they’re walking back and forth through a bead curtain. It drifts nicely into “Alibis,” which sears across your speakers like a match thrown onto a trail of kerosene. “This time, I have no use for alibis,” Steen sings, letting us know that he has no intention of hiding his intentions.

“Adderall” is a tale from the perspective of someone dependent on medication just to manage everyday tasks (“It gets you through the day…”). Steen’s vocals take on a simple vulnerability and Sean Coyle-Smith‘s guitar floats back and forth from frantic to relaxed. The vocal vulnerability continues on “Orchid,” in which Steen takes on a bit of a crooner style, not unlike Protomartyr‘s Joe Casey singing sometimes heartbreaking lyrics like “We’re tourists in adolescence. We’re lovers in regression.”

Josh Finerty‘s bass on “The Fall of Paul” is vicious, almost like a growling bear staring at you from across a fire-lit campsite late one cold night. The drums on “Burning By Design” will instantly cause rampant dancing whenever it’s played live. They propel the song, and the whole band, like a foot stomped on an accelerator pedal, and yet Steen is already looking ahead to what new things the band can craft (“I don’t care about the songs that use these chords, I am sure there’s plenty more, but I know they’re not the same.”).

“Different Person” is about the ever-changing dynamics of friendships (a running theme through the album), and how some friendships you think will last forever don’t, and how others you never thought much about at first turn out to be the best ones in the end (“I guess you’re changing. It had to happen eventually.”). They remind us of this one last time on “All the People” with lyrics like “All the people that you’re gonna meet, don’t throw it all away, because you can’t love yourself.”

Hold onto your friends, and they’ll help you hold onto yourself before you, and they, become food for worms. Everything is impermanent, even friendships, but we can enjoy them while they last.

Keep your mind open.

[Use those fingers of steel to subscribe today!]

[Thanks to Jon-Carlo at Pitch Perfect PR.]

shame show off their “Six-Pack” with their new single.

Photo Credit: Pooneh Ghana

Today, shame — the UK-based quintet led by frontman Charlie Steen — unveil “Six-Pack,” the new single/video from Food for Worms, their new album out February 24th on Dead Oceans. Quickly becoming a fan favorite during the band’s recent live sets, “Six-Pack” is shame at their punchiest and most pulsating. Following lead single “Fingers Of Steel,” “Six-Pack” sees shame enter a new, surreal landscape, as reflected in Food for Worms’ cover artwork designed by acclaimed artist Marcel Dzama. It’s suggestive of what is left unsaid, what lies beneath the surface, the farcical and fantastical everyday that we are living in, a society where both everything and nothing is possible.

On “Six-Pack,” Steen adds: “‘Six-Pack’ is essentially the opposite of a Room 101; instead it’s a room where all your wildest desires can come true and will be showered upon you. Be it commodities, self-obsession, foods and B-lister celebrities, it’ll all be there if you want it to. You’ve done time behind bars and now you’re making time in-front of them. It’s time to make up for anything you’ve lost or wasted, it’s time to get it all.”

“Six-Pack” arrives alongside a video directed by Gilbert Bannerman and animated by Cyrus Hayley, featuring a warped reinvention of Napoleon befitting of New Year’s resolution season. Bannerman explains: “The idea was to make a parody of a middle aged bloke thinking he’s a king for going to the gym once. I read a lot about Napoleon and thought it would be a laugh to make it about him. The style comes from trying to make my youth spent playing PS1 not entirely wasted.”

 
WATCH SHAME’S “SIX-PACK” VIDEO
 

On one hand, shame’s new album Food for Worms calls to mind a certain morbidity, but on the other, it’s a celebration of life; the way that, in the end, we need each other. Food for Worms is an ode to friendship, and a documentation of the dynamic that only five people who have grown up together — and grown so close, against all odds — can share.

It’s through this, and defiance, that shame have continually moved forward together; finding light in uncomfortable contradictions and playing their vulnerabilities as strengths: the near breakdowns, identity crises, Steen routinely ripping his shirt off on-stage as a way of tackling his body weight insecurities. Everything is thrown into their live show, and the best shows of their lives are happening now.

Now they arrive, finally, at a place of hard-won maturity. Enter: Food for Worms, which Steen declares to be “the Lamborghini of shame records.”

 
WATCH SHAME’S “FINGERS OF STEEL” VIDEO
 
PRE-ORDER FOOD FOR WORMS
 
shame Tour Dates (New Dates in Bold)
Tue. Feb. 28 – Dublin, IE @ Button Factory
Wed. Mar. 1 – Dublin, IE @ Button Factory
Fri. Mar. 3 – Glasgow, UK @ SWG3
Sat. Mar. 4 – Newcastle, UK @ Boiler Shop
Sun. Mar. 5 – Leeds, UK @ Stylus
Tue. Mar. 7 – Sheffield, UK @ Leadmill
Wed. Mar. 8 – Liverpool, UK @ Invisible Wind Factory
Thu. Mar. 9 – Bristol, UK @ SWX
Sat. Mar. 11 – Manchester, UK @ New Century Hall
Sun. Mar. 12 – Cardiff, UK @ Tramshed
Tue. Mar. 14 – Nantes, FR @ Stereolux
Wed. Mar. 15 – Paris, FR @ Cabaret Sauvage
Thu. Mar. 16 – Bordeaux, FR @ Rock School Barbey
Sat. Mar. 18 – Lisbon, PT @ LAV
Sun. Mar. 19 – Madrid, ES @ Nazca
Mon. Mar. 20 – Barcelona, ES @ La 2 de Apolo
Wed. Mar. 22 – Nimes, FR @ Paloma
Thu. Mar. 23 – Milan, IT @ Magnolia
Fri. Mar. 24 – Zurich, CH @ Plaza
Sun. Mar. 26 – Munich, DE @ Technikum
Mon. Mar. 27 – Berlin, DE @ Astra
Tue. Mar. 28 – Hamburg, DE @ Markthalle
Thu. Mar. 30 – Oslo, NO @ Vulkan
Fri. Mar. 31 – Stockholm, SE @ Debaser
Sat. Apr. 1 – Copenhagen, DK @ VEGA
Tue. Apr. 4 – Cologne, DE @ Floria
Wed. Apr. 5 – Brussels, BE @ AB
Thu. Apr. 6 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg
Fri. Apr. 28 – London, UK @ Brixton Academy
Sat. May 6 – Atlanta, GA @ Shaky Knees Festival
Sun. May 7 – Nashville, TN @ Basement East *
Tue. May 9 – Asheville, NC @ The Grey Eagle *
Wed. May 10 – Durham, NC @ Motorco Music Hall *
Fri. May 12 – Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar *
Sat. May 13 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer *
Sun. May 14 – Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw *
Tue. May 16 – Boston, MA @ The Sinclair *
Thu. May 18 – Montréal, QC @ Foufounes Électriques
Fri. May 19 – Ottawa, ON @ Club SAW
Sat. May 20 – Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace
Mon. May 22 – Kalamazoo, MI @ Bell’s Eccentric Cafe *
Wed. May 24 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall *
Fri. May 26 – St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway *
Sat. May 27 – Lawrence, KS @ The Bottleneck *
Sun. May 28 – Fayetteville, AR @ George’s Majestic Lounge *
Tue. May 30 – Dallas,TX @ Granada Theater *
Fri. Jun. 2 – Austin, TX @ The Scoot Inn *
Sat. Jun. 3 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall *
Sun. Jun. 4 – New Orleans, LA @ Toulouse Theatre *
 
* w/ Been Stellar

Keep your mind open.

[It’d be a shame if you didn’t subscribe while you’re here.]

[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Top 30 albums of 2021: #’s 5 – 1

We’ve reached the top of the chart. Who takes the prize? You’ll find out soon.

#5: Anika – Change

Good heavens…This album is so lush, haunting, and beautiful that it will sweep you away from whatever you’re doing when you play it. Anika’s voice immediately drapes over you like a luxurious robe with a knife hidden in a back pocket.

#4: Rochelle Jordan – Play with the Changes

Seriously, why aren’t more people going nuts over Rochelle Jordan? She mixes soul, house, disco, and trip hop better than most, and Play with the Changes is, if you ask me, the sexiest album of 2021.

#3: Brijean – Feelings

This lovely mix of trip hop, dream pop, bossa nova, and house music is a delight from start to finish. It was a much-needed tonic during the crappy 365 days of 2021. It’s a perfect spin for any time of year. Got the winter blues? Play this. Need a fun record for that summer beach trip? Play this. Need a boost to start your garden? Play this. Looking forward to sipping hot cider in the fall? Play this.

#2: Aaron Frazer – Introducing…

This solo record from one of the cats in Durand Jones and The Indications is one of the best soul and R&B records of 2021. Frazer puts down his trademark sharp beats and brings his other trademark, high-end vocals, with him to create a groovy, sexy blend that impressed Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys so much that he produced it.

#1: Shame – Drunk Tank Pink

This album got locked into my number one spot not long after it was released. It’s a sharp post-punk record, and I remember being more and more impressed with it after each listen. It covers everything from Brexit and the pandemic to boredom and hope for the future. It’s snarky, witty, and powerful.

There you have it. I hope 2022 is good to all of us.

Keep your mind open.

[Why not start off the new year right by subscribing?]

Review: Shame – Drunk Tank Pink

What do you do when you spend a good chunk of your young adult life as a touring rock band, build your identity around said band and said touring, and then have all of that yanked away from you by a pandemic?

If you’re British rockers Shame, you look inward, ask yourselves “What the hell were we thinking? We’re more than…whatever we were during nonstop tours and parties.”, and refocus on how they (and the rest of us) were going to deal with reality in 2020 and beyond. You also write and record an outstanding record like Drunk Tank Pink.

Named after a color used in jail cells to calm, you guessed it, drunks, Drunk Tank Pink has Shame taking their angry, bratty punk sounds down multiple avenues that include post-punk influences like Talking Heads and pop icons like Elton John.

“Alphabet” starts off with snappy drums and singer Charlie Steen telling us flat-out “What you see is what you get.” He and his mates are through with perceived notions and crafted images. They’re just as pissed and antsy as the rest of us, and Sean Coyle-Smith‘s guitar certainly amplifies that notion. “It just goes on,” Steen sings on “Nigel Hitter” – a song about repetition and how life can and will continue whether you want it to or not. “Born in Luton” has Steen raging about feeling trapped alone in his own home (“There’s never anyone in this house!”). The song dissolves into a slow burn of boiling anger at a world that botched its collective response to the pandemic and thus left millions feeling like him.

“I should just go back to sleep…In my room, in my womb, is the only place I find peace,” Steen sings on “March Day.” It’s a rather plucky song about depression, with Steen poking fun at himself and realizing that self-medicating his way through the pandemic wasn’t a good idea. “Water in the Well” has a deceptively wicked bass line from Josh Finerty and some fun horror movie imagery and great percussion from Charlie Forbes that runs around the room like a cackling gremlin.

“I live deep in myself, just like everyone else!” Steen yells on the wild “Snow Day” – a barrage of punk and prog fury that has great, sly lyrics like, “I know what I need, I just haven’t got it yet.” Finerty’s bass is at the front of “Human for a Minute,” which would be a great name for a Gary Numan song but sounds more like a slightly heavy Edwyn Collins track with its groovy swagger and lyrics about finding a new identity with a new lover (“I never felt human before you arrived.”).

“Great Dog” builds and builds to wild, mosh pit-filling riffs and then plunges off a cliff at the end to leave you breathless. “6/1” has Steen proclaiming, “I pray to no God! I am God!” He’s determined to be in control of his own destiny / fate / life, even more so as he watches so much of the world tear itself apart over petty things while the rich get richer. Coyle-Smith and Eddie Green‘s guitars on “Harsh Degrees” come at you from so many different angles it’s like you’re being attacked by a a dozen Shaolin monks. “I need a solution, I need a new resolution and it’s not even the end of year,” Steen lazily sings on the closer, “Station Wagon.” He’s looking for something, anything, to turn a lame year into something worthwhile. We were all doing that in 2020 and still are not even a full month into 2021. “Look up there. There’s something in that cloud. We’ve seen it before,” Steen says. “Won’t someone please bring me that cloud?”

Drunk Tank Pink comes to us in 2021 to remind us that, yes, 2020 was one of the worst years ever (“No one said this was going to be easy,” Steen says on the final track.), but, you made it here if you were lucky. You survived. You have the moment, the moment all of us have had and ever will have, to move forward and emerge stronger.

You can come out of the drunk tank with a new perspective. It’s okay to acknowledge what you suffered. There’s no shame in that. This album reminds you to put that rage down after you’ve acknowledged it, to learn from it, and to keep moving ahead.

Keep your mind open.

[It would be a shame if you didn’t subscribe.]

[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

shame take a “Snow Day” on their new single.

Photo by Sam Gregg

Today, shame present a new single, “Snow Day,” off of their long-anticipated new album, Drunk Tank Pink, out January 15th on Dead Oceans. It follows previously released singles “Water in the Well” and “Alphabet.” Alongside, the band share a visualiser featuring drone footage shot in the Scottish Borders, where the band wrote Drunk Tank Pink. Additionally, shame announce a live broadcast from Rough Trade in London on January 14th.

The rolling, snow-covered hills make a befitting backdrop for the atmospheric build of “Snow Day,” with frontman Charlie Steen’s sombre and introspective opening words making way for the storming twists and turns that arrive throughout. The song is a standout on the record, carried by the rhythmic, unrelenting drumming from Charlie Forbes, with chiming guitars which dictate the mood changes and push and pull the song into different directions. Steen’s lyrics dovetail with the music all the while; from its reflective opening to the snarl of its highest points. Undoubtedly it’s the band’s most musically ambitious release to date; a symphony in a song. Charlie Steen explains: “A lot of this album focuses on the subconscious and dreams, this song being the pivotal moment of these themes. A song about love that is lost and the comfort and displeasure that comes after you close your eyes, fall into sleep, and are forced to confront yourself.” 
WATCH SHAME’S VISUALIZER FOR “SNOW DAY”
 “Snow Day,” like the rest of the tracks making up Drunk Tank Pink, marks a determined leap forward for shame. The tracks began life as the band readjusted to a new normal back home having spent much of their adult life on tour, with themes spanning disintegrating relationships, the loss of the sense of self and identity crises. The result is an enormous expansion of shame’s sonic arsenal. 
WATCH SHAME’S VIDEO FOR “WATER IN THE WELL”

WATCH VIDEO FOR “BiL”

WATCH VIDEO FOR “ALPHABET”

PRE-ORDER DRUNK PINK TANK

Keep your mind open.

[You can spend plenty of snow days with me by subscribing.]

[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

shame tap “Water in the Well” for new single.

Photo by Sam Gregg

Today, shame announce their long-anticipated new album, Drunk Tank Pink, out January 15th on Dead Oceans. In conjunction, they present a new single, “Water in the Well,” with an accompanying video directed by Pedro Takahashi. There are moments on Drunk Tank Pink where you almost have to reach for the sleeve to check this is the same band who made 2018’s Songs Of Praise. Such is the jump shame have made from the riotous post-punk of their debut to the sprawling adventurism laid out in the bigger, bolder James Ford produced follow-up.

This creative leap, in part, was sparked by the band’s recent crash back down to earth, having spent their entire adult life on the road. It stems from their beginnings as wide-eyed teenagers, cutting their teeth in the pubs and small venues of South London, to becoming the most celebrated new band in Britain, catapulted by the success of their breakthrough debut album. Readjusting to a new normal back home with – for the first time since the band’s formation – no live shows on the horizon, frontman Charlie Steen attempted to party his way out of psychosis. An intense bout of waking fever-dreams convinced Steen that self medicating his demons wasn’t a very healthy plan of action and it was probably time to stop and take a look inward. “You become very aware of yourself and when all of the music stops, you’re left with the silence,” reflects Steen. “And that silence is a lot of what this record is about.”

In a small room painted in a shade of pink used to calm down drunk tank inmates, Steen cocooned himself away to reflect and write. In the room dubbed “the womb,” he addressed the psychological toll life in the band had taken on him. The disintegration of his relationship, the loss of a sense of self and the growing identity crisis both the band and an entire generation were feeling.“The common theme when I was catching up with my mates was this identity crisis everyone was having,” reflects Steen. “No one knows what the fuck is going on.” “It didn’t matter that we’d just come back off tour thinking, ‘How do we deal with reality!?’” agrees guitarist Sean Coyle-Smith. “I had mates that were working in a pub and they were also like, ‘How do I deal with reality!?’ Everyone was going through it.”

Coyle-Smith took a different tac to Steen and barricaded himself in his bedroom. Barely leaving the house and instead obsessively deconstructing his very approach to playing and making music, he picked apart the threads of the music he was devouring (Talking Heads, Nigerian High Life, the dry funk of ESG, Talk Talk…) and created work infused with panic and crackling intensity.  “For this album I was so bored of playing guitar,” he recalls, “the thought of even playing it was mind-numbing. So I started to write and experiment in all these alternative tunings and not write or play in a conventional ‘rock’ way.”

The genius of Drunk Tank Pink is how Steen’s lyrical themes dovetail with the music. Previously released opener “Alphabet” dissects the premise of performance over a siren call of nervous, jerking guitars, its chorus thrown out like a beer bottle across a mosh pit. Nigel Hitter, meanwhile, turns the mundanity of routine into something spectacular via a disjointed jigsaw of syncopated rhythms and broken wristed punk funk. The result is an enormous expansion of shame’s sonic arsenal. 
WATCH SHAME’S VIDEO FOR “WATER IN THE WELL”

WATCH VIDEO FOR “BiL”

WATCH VIDEO FOR “ALPHABET”

PRE-ORDER DRUNK PINK TANK

DRUNK PINK TANK TRACKLIST
1. Alphabet
2. Nigel Hitter
3. Born in Luton
4. March Day
5. Water in the Well
6. Snow Day
7. Human, for a Minute
8. Great Dog
9. 6/1
10. Harsh Degrees
11. Station Wagon

Keep your mind open.

[It’d be a shame if you didn’t subscribe.]

[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Shame release first new single in two years – “Alphabet.”

Photo by Sam Gregg

Shame have announced their much-anticipated return, via the frenetic, storming new single “Alphabet.” It marks their first new music since the release of their critically acclaimed debut album Songs of Praise in 2018 via Dead Oceans. 

Alongside, the band have shared a Tegen Williams-directed video for the single, capturing the unnerving nature of hypnagogic hallucinations and the distressing way the mind can play tricks on us while dreaming.

On the track, produced by James Ford, frontman Charlie Steen explains:

“Alphabet is a direct question, to the audience and the performer, on whether any of this will ever be enough to reach satisfaction. At the time of writing it, I was experiencing a series of surreal dreams where a manic subconscious was bleeding out of me and seeping into the lyrics. All the unsettling and distressing imagery I faced in my sleep have taken on their own form in the video.”

Shame’s return, at under three minutes long, is a burst of energy that blazes bright and fast. It’s a restless and relentless track that feels familiar yet bigger and bolder than anything the band have done before, signalling the arrival of a new era of Shame.
WATCH “ALPHABET” VIDEO

Keep your mind open.

[Why not subscribe? It’s as easy as A-B-C.]

[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Shame releases new single, “Lampoon,” during spring tour.

SHAME SHARE VIDEO FOR “LAMPOON“; CATCH THEM ON TOUR NOW

SONGS OF PRAISE OUT NOW ON DEAD OCEANS
Today, youthful British misanthropes Shame share the video for their song “Lampoon,” one of the many highlights off their freshly released debut, Songs of Praise (Dead Oceans). The footage from the video comes from the band’s first North American tour back in November of 2017, surely a moment that remains burned into the memories of anyone lucky enough to have caught them perform.
WATCH “LAMPOON” VIDEO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYKMLbMfD_M

EMBED CODE
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LISTEN TO SONGS OF PRAISE
https://shame.lnk.to/songsofpraise

The US is still playing catch up to the UK in terms of understanding the true electricity contained within these five young London lads. We’re talking massive features in The Guardian, Q, NME, DIY, and Clash, with glowing reviews from MOJO, UNCUT, and The Times, just to name a few. That said, people are catching on, and there’s truly no better way to understand the band’s allure than to see them live. Luckily, their current North American tour has just begun.
SHAME TOUR DATES (new US dates in bold):

Sat. Mar. 3 – Fayetteville, AR @ Smoke and Barrel w/ Protomartyr
Sun. Mar. 4 – Norman, OK @ Opolis w/ Protomartyr
Mon. Mar. 5 – Santa Fe, NM @ Meow Wolf w/ Protomartyr
Tue. Mar. 6 – Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress w/ Protomartyr
Thu. Mar. 8 – San Diego, CA @ Space Bar w/ Protomartyr
Fri. Mar. 9 – Visalia, CA @ The Cellar Door w/ Protomartyr
Sat. Mar. 10 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Teragram Ballroom w/ Protomartyr
Sun. Mar. 11 – Mesa, AZ @ Underground
Mon. Mar. 12 – Fri. Mar. 15 – Austin, TX @ SXSW
Sat. Mar. 16 – Houston, TX @ The Satellite w/ Snail Mail
Sun. Mar. 17 – New Orleans, LA @ Hi-Lo Lounge w/ Snail Mail
Mon. Mar. 18 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade w/ Snail Mail
Tue. Mar. 19 – Asheville, NC @ The Mothlight w/ Snail Mail
Wed. Mar. 20 – Carrboro, NC @ Cat’s Cradle w/ Snail Mail
Thu. Mar. 21 – Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar w/ Snail Mail
Thu. Mar. 22 – Philadelphia PA @ First Unitarian Church
Fri. Mar. 23 – Brooklyn, NY @ Market Hotel
Wed. Apr. 4 – Cardiff, UK @ Club Ifor Bach
Thu. Apr. 5 – Bristol, UK @ Thekla
Fri. Apr. 6 – Liverpool, UK @ Magnet
Sat. Apr. 7 – Dublin, IE @ Whelans
Mon. Apr. 9 – Sheffield, UK @ The Leadmill
Tue. Apr. 10 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
Wed. Apr. 11 – Newcastle, UK @ Cluny
Thu. Apr. 12 – Glasgow, UK @ Stereo
Fri. Apr. 13 – Manchester, UK @ Gorilla
Sat. Apr. 14 – Nottingham, UK @ Rescue Rooms
Mon. Apr. 16 – Leicester, UK @ The Cookie
Tue. Apr. 17 – Birmingham, UK @ Hare & Hounds
Wed. Apr. 18 – London, UK @ Electric Ballroom
Thu. Apr. 19 – Oxford, UK @ The Bullingdon
Fri. Apr. 20 – Brighton, UK @ The Haunt
Sat. Apr. 21 – Tunbridge Wells, UK @ The Forum
Wed. Apr. 25 – Nijmegan, NL @ Doornroosje
Thu. Apr. 26 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg
Fri. Apr. 27 – Rotterdam, NL @ Rotown
Mon. Apr. 30 – Oslo, NO @ John Dee
Wed. May 2 – Stockholm, SE @ Bar Brooklyn
Thu. May 3 – Copenhagen, DK @ Pumpehuset
Sun. May 6 – Warsaw, PL @ Bardzo Bardzo
Mon. May 7 – Prague, CZ @ Futurum
Tue. May 8 – Vienna, AT @ Chelsea
Fri. May 11 – Zurich, CH @ Dynamo Werk
Sat. May 12 – Bologna, IT @ Covo Club
Mon. May 14 – Barcelona, ES @ Side Car
Tue. May 15 – Madrid, ES @ La Boite
Thu. May 17 – Bordeaux, FR @ Rock School Barbery
Sun. May 20 – Lille, FR @ Aeronef
Tue. May 22 – Brussels, BE @ Rotonde
Sat. July 7 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
Sun. July 8 – Detroit, MI @ Marble Bar
Mon. July 9 – Toronto, ON @ Smiling Buddha
Tue. July 10 – Montreal, QC @ Bar Le “Ritz” PBD

PRAISE FOR SHAME

“On their debut album, the UK rock group separates themselves from their peers, imbuing their post-adolescent rage with wit and, crucially, a self-effacing awareness that they may never succeed.” – Pitchfork

“Punk may be for the kids, but Shame is for everyone.” – Bandcamp

“The UK’s most exhilarating new band” – Billboard

“Beneath the sneering vocals and warring guitars, there’s a finely attuned sense of songcraft to the post-punk of south London band Shame.” – The FADER

“Punk synthesis at its prettiest and its ugliest; bowing to forebears with gobs of spit, but confident enough to expose a nerve with certain grace and wide-eyed wonder.”
– NPR Music

“The five-piece post-punk crew from South London are turning heads with their youthful anger and explosive energy mixed with charming, self-deprecating humor, orchestrated by charismatic frontman Charlie Steen.” – Paste Magazine

Keep your mind open.
[Shame on you if you don’t subscribe.  You’re missing out.]

Shame release a sharp new post-punk single – “Concrete.”

UK’S SHAME RELEASE NEW SINGLE & VIDEO, “CONCRETE“, TOUR NORTH AMERICAN IN NOVEMBER

DEBUT ALBUM COMING IN EARLY 2018

WATCH THE VIDEO FOR “CONCRETE”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MVLqZpnwow

Today, one of the UK’s most talked about young bands (and new Dead Oceans signing) Shame shares their new single and video, “Concrete.” A bracing jolt of a song, “Concrete” races forward on a tightly wound post-punk riff, its call-and-response vocals capturing the turmoil and 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.”

Shame are: Charlie Steen (vocals); Sean Coyle-Smith (guitar); Eddie Green (guitar); Charlie Forbes (drums); and Josh Finerty (bass).

PRAISE FOR SHAME“This U.K. band marries performance, poetry and punk in a way I won’t soon forget.” – Bob Boilen, NPR Music

“Grimy post-punk with a whiff of menace” – Q

“Expect them to turn up the heat even more as they progress” – Time Out 

“The forefront of a compelling new scene in the capital” – NME 

SHAME TOUR DATES (North American dates in bold)
Sat. 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