WHAT IT IS: South London school friends Charlie Steen (vocals), Sean Coyle-Smith (guitar), Eddie Green (guitar), Charlie Forbes (drums) and Josh Finerty (bass) formed the punk band in a practice space at the infamous Queen’s Head Pub in Brixton. After extensive U.K. touring and a pivotal show at The Great Escape in 2016, Shame signed with Dead Oceans in early 2017. Soon after, they recorded debut album Songs of Praise—10 tracks with a run time of 39 minutes—which serves as a compression of everything they’re about. “We wanted our first album to be concise and to the point,” says Steen. “No bullshit.”
ALBUM: Songs of Praise
RELEASE DATE: 1/12
SINGLE: “One Rizla”
TV: Le Live Du, Canal+ (France)
LIVE: SXSW, U.S. headline tour (March), U.K. headline tour (April), Euro tour (May)
INTERNET: 270k+ official video views for single; 1m+ single streams on Spotify
RADIO: iHeart NYC, KCRW (+ multiple MBE plays), KEXP, The Current, KUTX, X-Ray FM, NPR, BBC Radio 1 Specialist Playlist, BBC 6 A-List
PRESS: N.Y. Times (“SXSW: 17 Acts That Stood Out”), Fader, NPR, Pitchfork, NME (cover)
BOOKING: Timmy Hefner/Ground Control
PUBLISHING: UMPG
MANAGEMENT: Gross Mgmt.