Shrag
{{Short description|British post-punk-influenced indiepop band}}{{EngvarB|date=September 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Shrag
| image = Shrag.jpg
| alt =
| caption = Shrag at the Shacklewell Arms in 2012.
| image_size = 250px
| genre = Indie pop, post-punk, riot grrl
| years_active = 2003–2013
| label = Where It's at Is Where You Are, Fortuna Pop!
| associated_acts = Comet Gain, The Cribs, Blue Minkies, Coin Op, Polak, Crest, Medicine & Duty, Puffinboy, Burning Idiot Noise, Passiondale, The Black Neck Band of the Common Loon, Summer Hunter, Sleeperbloke, Braer Rabbit, Union Wireless, Kellar, Crystal Stilts, Buffalo Pin
| current_members =
| past_members = Helen King
Bob Brown
Steph Goodman
Russell Warrior
Andy Pyne
Leigh Anne Walter
Nick Hills
}}
Shrag were a British post-punk-influenced indie pop band, based in London and Brighton. The band released three albums on the Where It's at Is Where You Are label,{{cite web|url=http://www.wiaiwya.com/releases.php|author=John Jervis|title=FPOP133 – Shrag – Canines|publisher=Where It's at Is Where You Are|accessdate=10 February 2011}} the last a joint release on Fortuna Pop!{{cite web|last=Sendra |first=Tim |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/canines-mw0002395325 |title=Canines – Shrag : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards |website=AllMusic |date=9 July 2012 |accessdate=17 September 2012}}
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 album and fanzine of Brighton bands, put together by local club night It Came From The Sea, and featuring a foreword by the 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 remaining five revellers – made up of local DJs, promoters, academics and musicians – decide to start a band, named Sussex Heights Roving Artists Group.{{cite web|url=http://www.acronymfinder.com/Sussex-Heights-Roving-Artists-Group-%28SHRAG%29.html|title=What does SHRAG stand for?|publisher=Acronym finder|accessdate=10 February 2011}}{{cite web|url=http://thequietus.com/articles/05330-shrag-interview-life-death-prizes|author=Stuart Huggett|title="There's Worse Names Than Ours": An Interview With Shrag|accessdate=10 February 2011}}{{cite web |url=http://www.buzzinmusicblog.co.uk/shrag-life-death-prizes-uk-tour-dates-album-review/3059 |title=Shrag – Life! Death! Prizes! – UK Tour Dates & Album Review | Buzzin Music |website=Buzzinmusicblog.co.uk |accessdate=17 September 2012 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120307001102/http://www.buzzinmusicblog.co.uk/shrag-life-death-prizes-uk-tour-dates-album-review/3059 |archivedate=7 March 2012 |df=dmy-all }}
Shrag continued to build a growing fanbase with steady touring, both supporting The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and headlining their own tours, but ongoing medical problems caused drummer Leigh Anne Walter to be replaced for many live performances by Medicine & Duty drummer Andy Pyne, who in 2009 became a permanent member of the band.{{cite web|author=Article written by Ged M – 11 February 2010 |url=http://soundsxp.com/artman2/publish/interviews/Shrag_interview.shtml |title=Shrag Interview |website=SoundsXP.com |date=11 February 2010 |accessdate=17 September 2012}}
Consequently, many of the tracks Shrag had originally intended to appear on their forthcoming album were either shelved or re-recorded 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.{{cite web|url=http://undercitylights.wordpress.com/2010/10/30/shrag-life-death-prizes-where-its-at-is-where-you-are-2010/ |title=Shrag – Life! Death! Prizes! (Where It's at Is Where You Are, 2010) | Under City Lights |website=Undercitylights.wordpress.com |date=30 October 2010 |accessdate=17 September 2012}}
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.{{cite web |last=Slater |first=Luke |url=http://drownedinsound.com/news/4141156-watch--shrag-rabbit-kids |title=Watch: Shrag – 'Rabbit Kids' / Music News // Drowned In Sound |website=Drownedinsound.com |date=27 September 2010 |accessdate=17 September 2012 |archive-date=11 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121011031527/http://drownedinsound.com/news/4141156-watch--shrag-rabbit-kids |url-status=dead }}[https://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/11585-rabbit-kids/1/ ]{{dead link|date=September 2012}}{{cite web|author=Tim Sendra |url=http://blog.allmusic.com/2010/09/21/video-of-the-day-shrag-rabbit-kids/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110222003345/http://blog.allmusic.com/2010/09/21/video-of-the-day-shrag-rabbit-kids/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=22 February 2011 |title=The Allmusic Blog " Video of the Day: Shrag, "Rabbit Kids" |website=Blog.allmusic.com |date=21 September 2010 |accessdate=17 September 2012}} 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" was 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2010/10/shrag-life-death-prizes/ |title=Shrag – Life! Death! Prizes! |publisher=Thelineofbestfit.com |accessdate=17 September 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120330054101/http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2010/10/shrag-life-death-prizes/ |archive-date=30 March 2012 |url-status=dead }}
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.{{cite web|url=http://www.musicsnobbery.com/2010/10/shrag-public-assembly-cmj-friday.html |title=Shrag @ Public Assembly: CMJ Friday |publisher=Music Snobbery |date=26 October 2010 |accessdate=17 September 2012}}{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wbvsm |title=Radio 1 Programmes – Huw Stephens, Shrag in Session and DIY Damaged Goods! |publisher=BBC |date= |accessdate=17 September 2012}}
''Canines''
Shrag's third album, Canines, was released in July 2012. Produced by Andy Miller, the album was released by WIAIWYA in conjunction with Fortuna Pop!.
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".{{Citation needed|date=September 2012}}
"Tendons in the Night" (a split with Tunabunny), "Show Us Your Canines", and "Devastating Bones" were released as singles. A non-album 7" single, "Unseasonal Thoughts", was also released as part of WIAIWYA's 7777777 record club series.
Reviews have been positive with BBC Music calling particular attention to Helen's "exuberant use of language... an enjoyment of, and gift for, words," NME praising the band's "palpable songwriting muscle", 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."{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/reviews/cpb6 |title=Music – Review of Shrag – Canines |publisher=BBC |date= |accessdate=17 September 2012}}{{cite web |last=Gourlay |first=Dom |url=http://drownedinsound.com/releases/17088/reviews/4145117 |title=Shrag – Canines / Releases / Releases // Drowned in Sound |website=Drownedinsound.com |date=27 June 2012 |accessdate=17 September 2012 |archive-date=5 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121105132222/http://drownedinsound.com/releases/17088/reviews/4145117 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web|url=https://www.nme.com/reviews/shrag/13358 |title=NME Album Reviews – Shrag – 'Canines' |website=Nme.com |date=29 June 2012 |accessdate=17 September 2012}}
Shrag played a radio session for Marc Riley on 6Music on 2 January 2013, during which they announced they were to split.{{Cite web|url=https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/news/latest-news/shrag-to-split-after-last-few-shows-115383|title=Shrag to split after last few shows|website=Thelineofbestfit.com|accessdate=23 February 2020}} Their final single was released on 11 February,{{cite web |url=https://wiaiwya.bandcamp.com/album/on-the-spines-of-old-cathedrals |title=On the Spines of Old Cathedrals | wiaiwya |accessdate=2014-02-25 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140302064450/https://wiaiwya.bandcamp.com/album/on-the-spines-of-old-cathedrals |archivedate=2 March 2014 |df=dmy-all }} and their last gig was at London's Lexington on 15 March.{{Cite web|url=http://www.thisisfakediy.co.uk/articles/news/shrag-call-it-a-day/|title=Shrag Call It A Day | News | DIY|date=11 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130511012601/http://www.thisisfakediy.co.uk/articles/news/shrag-call-it-a-day/|accessdate=20 October 2020|archive-date=11 May 2013}}
Discography
=Albums=
=Singles=
- "Pregnancy Scene/Mark E Smith" (2006)
- "Intelligent Theft/Cupboard Love" (2006)
- "Talk to the Left/Hopelessly Wasted" (2007)
- "Different Glue/Lost Dog" (2008)
- "Long Term Monster/Forty Five 45s" (2008)
- "Rabbit Kids/Erratic Fictions" (2009)
- "Tights in August" (2010 download single)
- "Ghosts Before Breakfast" (2011 download EP)
- "Tendons in the Night" (2012 split single with Tunabunny)
- "Show Us Your Canines" (2012)
- "Devastating Bones" (2012)
- "Unseasonal Thoughts" (2012)
- "On the Spines of Old Cathedrals" (2013)
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://shrag.co.uk/ Official website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131216201951/http://shrag.co.uk/ |date=16 December 2013 }}
- [http://www.myspace.com/shrag Shrag Myspace]
{{Authority control}}
Category:English indie pop groups
Category:Musical groups established in 2003