Brighton/London 5-piece Shrag return with their first offering since their 2010 album ‘Life! Death! Prizes’ (one of my personal albums of that year) with a taster from their forthcoming album Canines, due out in May on WIAIWYA/Fortuna POP! The new track “Chasing Consummations” shows off a more textured instrumental, wistful double barrel girl group harmony replete with their trademark knack for literate heart on it’s sleeve pop melody: underpinned by sweeping strings and lolloping drums it’s subtle yet brilliant listen below:
Shrag – Chasing Consummations by Shrag
Helen King from the band describes it like this:
“’Chasing Consummations’ is a defiant song about allying yourself with your own ridiculousness, refusing to pathologise an outlook and approach to life which enables as much as it debilitates. Colour isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”
Recorded at Gargleblast Studios with producer Andy Miller (Life Without Buildings, Mogwai, Sons and Daughters), “Chasing
Consummations” is the first taste of Canines, Shrag’s third album. More ambitious and mature than their previous work, Canines is a pop record that bristles with urgency, melody and danger.
As Helen says:
“We wrote Canines between January and August this year in a long series of slightly fevered evenings ensconced in the shed at the bottom of Bob’s garden. It’s a pop record about bones and skin and cities and compulsions and love and confusion. It’s a bit strange, but you can dance to some of it, and it makes a particular kind of sense to us, which feels very exciting.”
Canines follows 2009’s self-titled debut album, and 2010’s Life! Death! Prizes!, which met critical acclaim from Uncut, Pitchfork, The Sunday Times and The Quietus. The band have performed in New York at the CMJ Music Marathon, played a scene stealing performance at Indietracks Festival, and have recorded three sessions for BBC6’s Marc Riley, including one at London’s prestigious Maida Vale Studios for Radio One.
Renowned for the energy and vitality of their live shows, Shrag set out on a joint-headline UK tour in February with Tunabunny from Athens, GA, who share their reputation for compelling live performances. To commemorate this union, the bands will be releasing a limited edition split 7” on February 20th featuring another track from Canines, “Tendons In The Night”.
TOUR DATES
Thurs 23rd Feb –Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar, Brighton
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/145530
Fri 24th Feb – London Popfest
http://www.wegottickets.com/f/3090
Sat 25th Feb – Undertone, Cardiff
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/147743
Sun 26th Feb – The Continental, Preston
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/147105
Mon 27th Feb – The Riverside, Sheffield
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/148178
Tues 28th Feb – Stereo, York
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/146303
Weds 29th Feb – Captain’s Rest, Glasgow
http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/user/?region=gb_scotland&query=detail&event=484710
Thurs 1st March – Mello Mello, Liverpool
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/148540
Fri 2nd March – The Chameleon, Nottingham
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/148179
Sat 3rd March – The Victoria (Dalston), London
http://www.wegottickets.com/event/147362
Video for “Rabbit Kids” from the album Life! Death! Prizes!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rXs9O2Tq90
