What We've Been Listening to this Week...SHEAFS, Viagra Boys, Sorry, Do Nothing, Holy F and Laundromat

Links to YouTube in blue. 

There may be panic on the streets of London, Birmingham and the rest of the UK over Coronavirus, but that’s not stopped the flow of good tunes from flooding through.

Pick of the week for us is the debut vinyl EP by Sheafs ‘Vox Pop’ which came out on Friday. Two of the tracks Care Less and Total Vanity have been out for a while, and have rightfully been drawing attention to themselves, such is their quality. The full EP has another three tracks Thinking Out Loud WIFA and Shopping, with the former another belting indie rock tune. WIFA and Shopping are more of the pace of last year’s snarling ‘Popular Music’ – WIFA having an almost Loop like riff and Shopping more in the vein of Black Rebel Motorcycle club.
​
Lyrically the EP lambasts rampant consumerism and self-obsession, highlighting the growing concerns of a generation dominated by having to fit in under the glare of social media. Musically its powerful stuff, fiery vocals over muscular tunes, more than adequately reflecting their excellent live performances. 

Also released on Friday was the new EP by the Viagra Boys. Lead track Common Sense is reminiscent of ‘Just Like You’, all introspective and wistful, Lick the Bag the sort of deranged rock that makes the band so special, with Sentinel Island and Blue completing the EP. All good stuff, and the band have just announced more UK tour dates for November so presumably there will be more music out later this year.
​
The new album by Sorry drops on the 28th March and they released another single Snakes as a teaser to it. Snakes feels like of Massive Attack doing slacker rock, ambling along with an icy cool stare, and a further indicator that the album is going to be very good, and with broad appeal.

Another band with undoubtedly broad appeal who should really be making an album are Do Nothing. Instead we’ll have to settle for an EP ‘Zero Dollar Bill’ which is out in April. Fits and presumably LeBron James are two tracks available to listen to now from the EP, with the former just released. Both are excellent, and I’d urge you to listen to their earlier singles too, Gangs, Handshakes and Waitress. Their quality of song-writing is so mature and impressive, long may they make music like this.

Elsewhere, Deleter the new album by Holy F has been getting extensive plays. The band describe themselves as ‘seamlessly fusing the gauzy drive of krautrock and deep house’s dreamy ineffability, and expertly blending purring motorik percussion with the sort of fuggy synthetic fizz that often sends clubbers into states of unconsciousness rapture’ which is hard to argue against. I really like this album – its like the best noises of the house era cleverly packaged to form a set of great tunes that all come together as a whole.
​
Another new single that deserves mentioning is Humans by Brighton based Laundromat. Human’s originally came out last year, and then disappeared from streaming platforms only to reappear again on Friday. There had been talk of an album, but an EP looks more likely now by all accounts. Anyway, Human’s is quite sublime, blending krautrock and psychedelia effortlessly. A band to watch out for, no doubt.