Shrag
Shrag | |
|---|---|
| Genres | Indiepop, post-punk, riot grrl |
| Years active | 2003-present |
| Labels | Where It's At Is Where You Are |
| Members | Helen King Bob Brown Steph Goodman Russell Warrior Andy Pyne |
| Past members | Leigh Anne Walter Nick Hills |
Shrag are a post-punk-influenced indiepop band based in London and Brighton. To date the band have released two albums and nine singles on the Where It's At Is Where You Are label.[1] A third album is due out in June on Fortuna Pop!
Formation and early years
Shrag's first release was the home-recorded song Punk Grammar, which debuted on Under The Beach, A Heart Attack - a 2003 compilation CD and fanzine of Brighton bands put together by local club night It Came From The Sea and featuring a foreword by then-Brighton-based music critic Everett True. The fanzine tells the story of Shrag's formation in a comic book format. At the tail-end of a party in Brighton's Sussex Heights residential tower block, the reminaing five revellers - made up of local DJs, promoters, academics and musicians - decide to start a band, named Sussex Heights Roving Artists Group.[2][3]
Contracting the band name to Shrag, the five members, Helen King (vocals), Bob Brown (guitar and vocals), Nick Hills (keyboards and vocals), Russell Warrior (bass guitar) and Leigh Anne Clarke née Walter (drums and vocals), played their first concert on 21 July 2003 at Brighton's Hanbury Ballroom. Early performances of the group were characterised by onstage gimmicks such as fancy dress (wearing wedding dresses or dressing as librarians) or creating art as the band played, and a generally lighthearted spirit. Early songs were often humorous in tone and content, sometimes describing imaginary scenarios involving the band and their friends, or playing heavily on puns. The songs often included spoken word segments, and on Punk Grammar even a comic rap.
Following the departure of Nick Hills to concentrate on his band Coin-Op, and the temporary relocation of drummer Leigh Anne to her native Canada, the band went on hiatus in early 2004.[4] When they regrouped in 2005 with Blue Minkies guitarist and vocalist Steph Goodman on keyboards and vocals the band began working on the harder, punkier songs which would eventually comprise their debut album.[5]
Where It's At Is Where You Are and debut album
Where It's At Is Where You Are label boss John Jervis was impressed with the revitalised Shrag's live performances and offered them a unique deal - the opportunity to release a series of double a-side 7" singles which would then be collated into a CD album, mixed by former Morrissey drummer and Love Is All producer Woodie Taylor.[6]
The first in this series was Pregnancy Scene/Mark E Smith in June 2006, which won the band the favour of indie-focused magazines like Artrocker. Other singles from this series such as Hopelessly Wasted and Different Glue/Lost Dog would be reviewed positively by more mainstream outlets such as The Guardian Guide, and Shrag would go on to complete national tours with The Cribs and The Thermals, among others, and record several BBC radio sessions.[7][8][9][10]
The compiled debut album itself would not arrive until early 2009, by which point the band had already begun recording tracks for its intended follow-up. Titled simply 'Shrag', some tracks on the album retained the humour of the group's early days - Talk To The Left was a put-down to a verbose lovemaker, and Intelligent Theft was a fun story about shoplifting teenagers - but newer songs showed a more vitriolic side to the band, Helen's lyrics dealing angrily with break-ups, abusive friendships, and even bereavement.[11][12] Musically, Shrag's sound at this point was dominated by buzzing, distorted guitar lines, and the combined shouted or yelped vocals of the three female members - with occasional diversions into lo-fi electropop or instrumental post-rock.
The Shrag album proved a hit with critics from Uncut magazine to The Sunday Times, and a 'proper' follow-up album was scheduled for release later in 2009.[13][14] Stand-out track Hopelessly Wasted was also included in the Rough Trade Indiepop 09 compilation.[15]
Life! Death! Prizes!
Although Shrag had always claimed to be influenced more by post-punk and riot grrl than the indiepop with which they were rapidly becoming associated, performances at the Indietracks festival and regular live appearances at London-based indiepop club nights such as Twee As Fuck showed that Shrag had been embraced wholly by the indiepop scene. The new songs that the band were showcasing in their live sets around this time featured a much more melodic, less aggressive sound that some commentators found reminiscent of legendary indiepop bands like Comet Gain or Talulah Gosh.[16][17]
Shrag continued to build a growing fanbase with steady touring, both supporting the likes of The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart and headlining their own tours, but ongoing medical problems caused drummer Leigh Anne to be replaced for many live performances by Medicine & Duty drummer Andy Pyne, who in 2009 became a permanent member of the band.[18]
Consequently, many of the tracks Shrag had originally intended to appear on their forthcoming album were either shelved or rerecorded by the new line-up, while new songs that the band began working on saw them turning away from the lighter, more poppy original template for the album into much darker and more introspective territory.[19]
The first single from Life! Death! Prizes!, Shrag's second album, was Rabbit Kids, an anthemic love song which won the band significant mainstream radio play and plaudits in Pitchfork, All Music Guide and Drowned In Sound.[20][21][22] Musically the band had concentrated their musical range (which had previously drifted from B-52s-esque guitar pop to synth-led ballads) into more concise, driving rock songs, although a string section on the epic album closer Coda and the waltzy Furnishings showed a softer, more vulnerable side to the band. The album's centrepiece, The Habit Creep, meanwhile, is a harrowing spoken word piece depicting an individual unravelling psychologically, and the download single Ghosts Before Breakfast represented the noisier, artier influences of bands like Prolapse and Life Without Buildings.[23]
Released in October 2010, Life! Death! Prizes! was equally as acclaimed as its predecessor and provided a platform for the band to perform in New York at the CMJ Music Marathon, and to record a BBC Radio 1 session at Maida Vale studios.[24][25]
Canines
Shrag's third album, Canines, is currently scheduled for a July 2012 release. Produced by Andy Miller (Life Without Buildings, Mogwai, Songs : Ohia, Scout Niblett, etc.), the album will be released by WIAIWYA in conjunction with Fortuna Pop!, home to indiepop royalty such as The Primitives, Allo Darlin', Bearsuit, The Pipettes, and more.
This is how Helen described the new album: "We wrote 'Canines' between January and August last 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."
The first release from Canines was the limited edition 7" Tendons In The Night, a split-single with tourmates Tunabunny. The second single from the album is Show Us Your Canines, accompanied by a video directed by Darren Hayman.
Reviews have been positive with BBC Music calling particular attention to Helen's "exuberant use of language... an enjoyment of, and gift for, words," and Drowned In Sound interpreting the album as a sign of big things to come: "With a bit more TLC and fine tuning around the edges, their piece de resistance may well be just around the corner."[26][27]
Side projects and related bands
Bob previously played guitar in Polak, the band formed by frontman Pete Fijalowski from the ashes of Creation act Adorable. Steph was co-frontwoman and guitarist of cult indiepunk group The Blue Minkies, and now plays bass in Summer Hunter with former Shrag drummer Leigh Anne (also a member of Brighton-based alt-country outfit Buffalo Pin) and Neil Palmer from Fire Dept. Steph also toured with American noise-pop band Crystal Stilts as a temporary keyboardist. Andy Pyne has released an enormous quantity of experimental music on his own Foolproof Projects label, both under a range of solo guises and as a member of improvisational groups Medicine & Duty, Passiondale, The Black Neck Band Of The Common Loon, and Kellar. Helen and Steph also formed a short-lived group with Kathy Foster of The Thermals and the All Girl Summer Fun Band, a debut single of which was recorded but never released.
In 2008, when all Comet Gain members with the exception of guitarist Jon Slade failed to turn up for their much-anticipated Indietracks slot, Slade recruited Helen, Steph, and Leigh Anne to form a one-off Comet Gain line-up, performing a semi-improvised selection of the band's back catalogue. In 2011, Helen and Bob also provided backing vocals to Comet Gain's Howl of the Lonely Crowd album.
References
- ^ John Jervis, "Where It's At Is Where You Are", "[1]", 10 February 2011
- ^ "Acronym finder", "[2]", 10 February 2011
- ^ Stuart Huggett, "The Quietus", 23 November 2010, "[3]", 10 February 2011
- ^ "Drowned In Sound", "[4]", 10 February 2011
- ^ Blue Minkies, "MySpace", "[5]", 10 February 2011
- ^ "Club Fandango", "[6]", 10 February 2011
- ^ "The Cribs forum", "[7]", 10 February 2011
- ^ "BBC 6 Music", "[8]", 10 February 2011
- ^ David McNamee, "The Guardian", 24 May 2008, "[9]", 10 February 2011
- ^ David McNamee, "The Guardian", 16 June 2007, "[10]", 10 February 2011
- ^ Rupert Noble, "YouTube", "[11]", 10 February 2011
- ^ Ged M, "SoundsXP", 21 January 2007, "[12]", 10 February 2011
- ^ Marc Hogan, "Pitchfork", 3 March 2009, "[13]", 10 February 2011
- ^ Ged M, "SoundsXP", 21 December 2008, "[14]", 10 February 2011
- ^ "Rough Trade", "[15]", 10 February 2011
- ^ Ben Graham, "The Quietus", 15 November 2011, "[16]", 10 February 2011
- ^ Terry Lane, "Buzzin Music", 17 September 2009, "[17]", 10 February 2011
- ^ Ged M, "SoundsXP", 11 February 2010, "[18]", 10 February 2011
- ^ Edwin Shaw, "Under City Lights", "[19]", 10 February 2011
- ^ Luke Slater, "Drowned In Sound", 27 September 2010, "[20]", 10 February 2011
- ^ Marc Hogan, "Pitchfork", 28 October 2009, "[21]", 10 February 2011
- ^ Tim Sendra, "All Music Guide", 21 September 2010, "[22]", 10 February 2011
- ^ Simon Tyers, "The Line Of Best Fit", 14 October 2010, "[23]", 10 February 2011
- ^ "Music Snobbery", 26 October 2010, "[24]", 10 February 2011
- ^ "BBC Radio 1", 13 December 2010, "[25]", 10 February 2011
- ^ Jude Clarke, "BBC Music", 25 June 2012, "[26]", 25 June 2012
- ^ Dom Gourlay, "Drowned In Sound", 27 June 2012, "[27]", 27 June 2012