Philadelphia’s Sheer Mag recently announced the release of their third album, Playing Favourites, due out March 01st via Third Man Records. They also unleashed a video for the title track, along with the news of a Spring 2024 North American tour. Check out the video and more information below.
Pre-order/pre-save Playing Favourites here.
The title track and album opener announces itself with a sense of self-assured swagger, spinning a jubilant tale of life on the road: the band is back together, and they know they’ve never sounded quite this good before. “After nearly ten years of touring together, we felt qualified to write a song about doing it. It’s a good introduction to the next era of Sheer Mag,” the band tell.
On Playing Favorites the band capitalize on a decade’s worth of devotion to their own collective spirit. A spirit refined in both the sweaty trenches of punk warehouses and the larger-than-life glamour of concert halls.
Playing Favorites expands with a sense of undeniable vitality, buoyed by rock and roll’s singular capacity to channel a relentless compassion for human life. While at times marked by an intensified sense of melancholy, this newest offering takes stock of the confusing flow of daily life without moralizing, refusing to fall into antagonistic cynicism. Sheer Mag leans into the chaotic thrall of city living, of a life subdivided by the jagged highs and lows of bars, parties, and nightlife culture, with sweetly empathetic remove.
Sheer Mag began to work in earnest on their follow up to 2019’s A Distant Call in the summer of 2021, which they originally imagined would take the shape of a tautly constructed 4-song disco EP. As Matt Palmer, the band’s rhythm guitarist and primary lyricist, recollects: “those first four songs came out of a hard moment in life for all of us collectively—they kind of felt like an attempt to figure out how to have fun when you actually feel miserable.” Before long, the band realized this new material would perhaps be better served within the context of a fully fleshed out rock LP.
Reflecting upon the shift between this newest LP and the band’s previous material, vocalist Tina Halladay notes: “Those first few records felt like a personal coming out party; they felt like they were an introduction to me and my life story. With these new songs, I feel like I’m finally able to move past that—there are parts on this record that I couldn’t imagine being able to sing ten, five, or even three years ago.”
Playing Favorites tracklisting:
01 – Playing Favorites (Official Music Video)
02 – Eat It and Beat It
03 – All Lined Up (Official Music Video)
04 – Don’t Come Lookin’
05 – I Gotta Go
06 – Moonstruck
07 – Mechanical Garden
08 – Golden Hour
09 – Tea On The Kettle
10 – Paper Time
11 – When You Get Back
Sheer Mag Live Dates:
Nov 28, 2023: Boston, MA – Royale ~
Nov 29, 2023: New York, NY – Webster Hall ~
Dec 01, 2023: Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer ~
Mar 29, 2024: Washington, DC – Songbyrd
Mar 30, 2024: Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle – Back Room
Mar 31, 2024: Asheville, NC – Eulogy
Apr 01, 2024: Nashville, TN – The Blue Room at Third Man Records
Apr 02, 2024: Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade, Purgatory
Apr 04, 2024: New Orleans, LA – Gasa Gasa
Apr 05, 2024: Houston, TX – The End
Apr 06, 2024: Austin, TX – Far Out Lounge
Apr 07, 2024: Dallas, TX – Double Wide
Apr 09, 2024: Mesa, AZ – The Underground
Apr 10, 2024: Tucson, AZ – Club Congress
Apr 11, 2024: San Diego, CA – The Casbah
Apr 12, 2024: Santa Ana, CA – Constellation Room
Apr 13, 2024: Los Angeles, CA – Lodge Room
Apr 15, 2024: San Francisco, CA – Rickshaw Stop
Apr 17, 2024: Portland, OR – Star Theater
Apr 18, 2024: Seattle, WA – The Vera Project
Apr 19, 2024: Boise, ID – The Shredder
Apr 20, 2024: Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court
Apr 22, 2024: Denver, CO – Hi Dive
Apr 24, 2024: Omaha, NE – Reverb Lounge
Apr 25, 2024: Minneapolis, MN – 7th St. Entry
Apr 26, 2024: Madison, WI – High Noon Saloon
Apr 27, 2024: Chicago, IL – Sleeping Village
Apr 29, 2024: Kalamazoo, MI – Bell’s Eccentric Cafe
May 01, 2024: Toronto, ON – Velvet Underground
May 03, 2024: Buffalo, NY – Mohawk Place
May 04, 2024: Troy, NY – No Fun
~ w/ Baroness
Get tickets here: https://linktr.ee/sheermag
Follow Sheer Mag:
https://www.instagram.com/sheermagofficial/