Shrug Life – The Grand Stretch

·22nd July 2015·1 min read

Shrug Life release their debut EP The Grand Stretch on Popical Island this week

The EP is available to preorder now from https://shruglifemusic.bandcamp.com on magic download or cassette. Shrug Life will play a launch gig in Bello Bar on Saturday Night, with Switzerland and Jonny Fun.

Shrug Life
Danny Carroll (vocals/guitar) and Keith Broni (bass), first met in secondary school aged 15. Bonding over the melodrama of The Smiths and the bombast of Queen they set about making overly earnest rock throughout their formative years. With Josh Donnelly joining on drums, the trio started jamming their first self-penned songs in the summer of 2014. They set about enlisting veteran wildcard producer Fiachra McCarthy (Dott, Squarehead, So Cow, The Run Ons, Lie Ins) to record their early songs. The fruits of this labour is a four song EP, “The Grand Stretch”.

Featuring wit-adorned lyrics, complex musical turnarounds and atomic bursts of electric guitar and drums, The Grand Stretch is a perfect introduction to the brain-rock of Shrug Life. With comparisons to early Weezer and the Buzzcocks, the band features Danny Carroll (whom you might recognise as the presenter of such indie TV shows as Parlour TV) on Pavement-esque guitar and vocals. The Grand Stretch is truly Irish, engaging with such spritely topics as football, Funderland, millennial unease, Supermacs and the murky world of telesales. And in the very best tradition of indie pop, the kitchen-sink nature of the subject matter contrasts with the colourful optimism of the music, which stampedes out of your speakers at a frantic pace. This is fist-raising Irish indie of the very best kind, harking as much back to the directness of Cathal Coughlan’s Fatima Mansions as it does to contemporaries such as So Cow.

With a single, Chewing Gum Breakfast, already released as a download, the EP will be available as a download from https://shruglifemusic.bandcamp.com, from which you can also pre-order the cassette. The cassette comes in a handmade package and will be launched at the Bello Bar on Saturday, 25th of July. It will be available for purchase on the night as well as in the usual outlets.

<a href=https://thumped.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/the-grand-stretch-ep>The Grand Stretch EP by Shrug Life</a>

Shrug Life
Switzerland
Jonny Fun
The Bello Bar, Portobello
8pm, Saturday July 25th
Admission is €5, or €8 if you fancy getting your paws on one of 50 of a limited edition cassette of the EP.

https://www.facebook.com/ShrugLifeMusic