New music to listen to this week: Shakes

Now Hear This

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There may be two columns for Now Hear This this week, who knows, there's a lot of that new music about.

Shakes are a four-piece garage band who are fast-becoming blog favourites - their track 'Strange Tides' made it to no. 8 on the Global Top 50 Viral Hits chart (whatever that means), and they put out their new EP in July.

It's hazy, summery rock with a splash of California sunshine; think Black Keys if they were sat on a beach in lurid beach shorts with a pina colada. Now try and get that image out of your head.

Check out the premiere for their 'Strange Tides' video and let me know what you think:

Q&A with Shakes

What are you listening to at the moment?

We're always spinning the old favourites like The Beatles, Beach Boys, & Bowie. The three “b”s. You can't go wrong spinning between them. Apart from that, El Michels Affair, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Kasabian. Missy Elliots album 'Supa Dupa Fly' has been getting a lot of love this year. Something about it sonically is really hypnotic. J Cole is has also been on & off repeat this year. Unknown Mortal Orchestra.

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What are your plans for the rest of 2016?

Touring, writing & releasing our music video for 'Strange Tides'. We've got another set of about 8-10 songs I'd like to try finish writing before the end of the year and drop another offering early next year. We're hoping to tour and play as many shows as we can as well. It's been so amazing seeing peoples reactions to the music live after you've spent so long in houses, studios etc with these songs. It's a real buzz & we love that connection.

What was the first gig you played, and what’s been the best so far?

The first gig we ever played was in a real dive bar. It's was the kinda place where it was hard to walk because your shoes would stick to the floor from years of built up spilled beer. It smelt like something between a public urinal and cheap beer. Really, it's the perfect place to play your first show. Best so far would be playing at a bar called Whammy a few months back. It was a great night. The crowd were really awesome and the room was like a sauna by the end. A real sweaty mess.

Strange Tides, the new Shakes EP, is out now