I’ve been looking forward to the Sham Family record for a while — I heard “Modern Myth” in March (via Exclaim, I imagine), and was instantly hooked:

It’s a beast of a song, and a strong followup to their self-titled debut EP from 2022. In April they released the second single from the record, “Community Service”:

The themes, lyrics, and sound are punk as hell. Inequality, the cult of celebrity, misinformation, politics — the topics are evergreen, but the sound of this band is extremely of-the-moment. The songs even manage catchy melodies.

The record starts with a thesis statement, delivered over droning guitar feedback: “Your world is changing around you/and I’m getting scared/that you’re getting used to it”. It’s a mood that pervades the record — cynicism, nihilism, and anger, delivered in a modern post-punk wall of sound.

The production is bass-heavy, maybe a little deliberately loose or untidy, which by all accounts reflects the live show (confession: I have not seen them live – hopefully I’ll correct that before the summer is out). Here is a great recording of a show from a year and a half ago that includes several of the songs from the album:

It’s a killer set. Their intensity is infectious. They weren’t even headlining! They were opening for the much more chill Born Ruffians at this show (founders of Wavy Haze Records, who made Sham Family their first signing, followed by blog fave Mother Tongues).

I hope there’s a recording of the album release show – the clips that I saw the morning after the show looked like an absolute barnburner.

Here’s the video for “Dynasty” that accompanied the album release:

They’ll no doubt be playing a ton in the coming months — the’ve got a few upcoming shows on their Instagram – including this Saturday in St. Catharines, August 17 in Hamilton (with blog faves Roach) and Oct 3 in Hamilton again.

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