NEW SHELLSHAG VIDEO: "RESILIENT BASTARD"!

I have just watched this five times in a row. Directed by Don Giovanni label head Joe Steinhardt! "Resilient Bastard" is off the upcoming RUMORS IN DISGUISE LP, which is out in two weeks (2/9). EMAIL US (joan at riotactmedia dot com or nathan at riotactmedia dot com) for yr review copy if you don't already have it.


SHELLSHAG PLAYING MUSICS SHOWS (including the massive Don Giovanni label showcase on 2/6 at Bowery in NYC, the crazy Harvest of Hope fest in Florida and SXSW):
02.06.10 - NYC @ Bowery Ballroom (Don Giovanni label showcase & record release!)
03.05.10 - Brooklyn NY@ Cedar Mansion Brooklyn
03.08.10 - Columbus, OH @ Carabar
03.09.10 - Athens OH @ Smiling Skull Saloon
03.10.10 - Asheville NC @ Static Age Records
03.11.10 - Athens GA @ Caledonia
03.12.10 - St. Augustine FL@ Harvest of Hope Festival
03.13.10 - Pensacola FL @ Sluggos
03.14.10 - New Orleans, LA @ Dragons Den
03.15.10 - Houston, TX @ Super Happy Funland
03.18.10 - Austin, TX @ Ben Snakepit's party (SXSW)
03.19.10 - Austin, TX @ Lew from Wild America's party (SXSW)
03.21.10 - Austin, TX @ Beerland (Panache party) (SXSW)
03.27.10 - Chattanooga, TN @ Sluggos

ABOUT SHELLSHAG:
In attempts to dance about Shellshag's architecture, they've been explained as an amalgam of The Breeders, Sonic Youth, The Ramones, DFA, David Byrne, Guided By Voices, Moldy Peaches and early Superchunk—and, because they're a male guitarist/female drummer duo, those touch points (Jack and Meg, Matt and Kim, Juicifer) get tossed around like so much confetti, too. They've played with everyone from Iggy Pop, The Slits, The Cramps, Lightning Bolt and J. Mascis to Evan Dando, Les Savy Fav, Shonen Knife and their label mates Screaming Females, and their first (and now out of print) Gary Young EP was recorded by Pavement's Gary Young in 2004. Together, Johnny "Shell" and Jen "Shag", have forged a legacy on both coasts over the course of this crazy thing we call life: as seminal members of the '90s DIY scene in San Francisco, they ran the now-legendary public arts space Starcleaners, the former home of the Dandy Warhols, Brian Jonestown Massacre, The Residents and others, they launched their own label of the same name, releasing Destroy Me, I'm Yours in 2007, and they moved to Brooklyn, forming Shellshag and becoming integral members of the Jersey-based Don Giovanni family of artists and musicians.

The thing to get, though, is that, aside from the universal truth that all roads point to now, it's not their back story, tour history or the fishing lure mentions of the scads of played-withs and sounds-likes that is of import. What is of import is that, with Rumors In Disguise, Shellshag has not only made their most incredible, inspired, hooky, crunchy, distilled and concentrated record yet—they've made the record that will define what making music in the new decade should be like. Joyous, raw, engaging, innovative, personal, weird, loud, fucking communicative, inclusive, pure. You know, the kind of qualities that made the experience of digesting and living music magnetic to begin with. That's this record.

The record's heart-theme is made up of the stuff we all, as evolving humans, struggle with, as the band explains: "Most of the songs on the record are about hope and despair, love and survival, death and fear." From the grin-laced stubborn pride in Shell's vocals on "Resillient Bastard" to Jen Shag's tom-heavy heartbeat rhythms on crunchy duet "Means That Much", every inch put to tape is as real as it gets. Finding honesty and purity of creative expression in the vastness of what our musical landscape has evolved into is a more difficult task than ever before, and it takes a band like Shellshag and a record like Rumors in Disguise to answer that search. Now, listen.