((Shrag)) Band Profile and Upcoming SXSW Concerts - Oh My Rockness

Pierre-Antoine Delpino
Shrag are from Brighton and London. Those two places are in a magical place called England. So here's the deal with Shrag: they use guitars, bass, drums and lots of nice keys to rock out in hook-heavy fashion.

Their songs manage to be both angular and charming. Each song seems to be an epic duel between hard-hitting guitars and sweet sounding keys. Who will reign victorious? Well, they both will I guess.

The three guys/two girls in this band love mixing things up. They'll blend a post-punk thing with a slight riot grrrl thing with a heavy dash (they say "dash" a lot in England, right?) of an indie pop thing. Rather than fighting with each other, those influences support each other to make melodies that are more interesting.

Any band can be sweet. Any band can be punk. But can you be sweet-punk? Even better, can you be punk-sweet? It's hard. But not for Shrag.

So don't think of this band as coming at you with a melting pot of sounds. Rather, think of Shrag as a grandly tossed salad. That's how I prefer to think of them, anyway. But I've always had a soft spot in my heart for croutons and bacon bits.

Oh yeah, you can also think of Shrag as perhaps Love Is All meets Sleater-Kinney meets The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. If they make bands like this, I've got to get me over to England. Too bad it only exists in dreams.
Published April 21, 2011
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