Just like the game, Them Dirty Shrikes has taken a gamble with their debut EP Heads or Tails… and it’s paid off.
The Pretoria-based four-piece alternative rock band formed in 2016 and has opened for some of SA’s finest: Arno Carstens, Jonathan Peyper Trio, Cutting Jade, The Black Cat Bones and many more… They have mostly been performing in and around Johannesburg and Pretoria, and will be playing their very first festival, Misty Waters Music Festival in Secunda the end of April alongside acts like Koos Kombuis, Albert Frost and The Dandies to name a few.
Soné Briel’s vocals on the EP Heads or Tails are astounding. It is like she has drenched my soul with all types of different colours. And then we have SL LeRoux Minnaar with his bluesy basslines… This all with Stiaan Du Preez rebellious riffs and Adriaan Cruywagen’s detonating drumming. The band’s idiosyncratic sound consist of these four elements and that is what makes this album a shimmering, reverb-heavy soundscape, turning it into a perfect cooperation of sound.
The EP has 5 songs, titled 411, Animals, Biting My Tongue, High Tide and Tough Luck. These songs will kickstart that slow-burning supportive feeling that makes you shimmy on down to one of their shows…
To quote lyrics from their song High Tide “Swim with your demons or you will drown”
Them Dirty Shrikes recently played a couple of shows to launch Heads or Tails, and an upcoming highlight is Misty Waters festival, taking place at Lake Umuzi on 27-29 April.
Heads or Tails, Them Dirty Shrikes‘ debut EP, is available on iTunes, Google Play. Bandcamp, Deezer, and Spotify.
