Shady Nasty return with new single ‘CHEST HEIGHT’ + debut UK/EU tour kicks off this month

Photo by Luca Watson
May 9 2022

PRAISE FOR Shady Nasty

“The trio’s sound is as inscrutable as ever: lyrics are written like text exchanges between gym junkies while the instrumentals are jenga towers of hip-hop beats, slowcore guitars and punk vocals”

NME

“Jittery and tense blasts of sketchy rock that sounds like kids born in the late 90s have discovered some early Helmet or Mark of Cain records. This is good rowdy stuff”

VICE

“The Australian trio's sound can turn on a dime between ethereally pretty and menacingly dark”

Kerrang!

“The atmosphere is unsettling in a similar way to Show Me The Body’s songs”

Stereogum

“Rare units and they're not afraid to mess with your ears”

Dave Ruby Howe (triple j)

“When people say there's no band quite like Shady Nasty in Australia, it's not some hyperbole or over-exaggeration”

Pilerats

‘CHEST HEIGHT’ is out now, buy/stream it here.

Eora / Sydney based alt-punk trio, Shady Nasty, today unleash their latest release, ‘CHEST HEIGHT‘, ahead of their debut international tour in the UK and Europe this month. LISTEN HERE.

Produced by The Presets’ Kim Moyes, ‘CHEST HEIGHT’ sees Shady Nasty flirt with augmented vocals to share their experience of a digitally enhanced dating scene in their harbour city home. One in which the abrupt metrics of looks, ‘chat game’ and vibe run algorithmically rampant. 

Much like the compressed nature of this data, the song’s protagonist too avoids meaningful reflection in the wake of an unsuccessful score. Heavy with defeat, the single ruminates on an inability to “do anything right”, offering an equally self-critical and self-pitying resolution of “if you were two inches taller maybe you’d do better at the club.”

‘CHEST HEIGHT’, helmed by downtrodden vocals in the vein of Nilüfer Yanya and King Krule, is another example of Shady Nasty’s abilities to refract growing pains into social commentary in which the trio continue to look beneath the surface of their subjects alongside an enduring motif – a serious, long-term relationship with cars.

In their words, Shady Nasty share “CHEST HEIGHT is about our collective experiences of dating app logic. It explores the temptation to see dating as a game with fixed rules, one which can ultimately lock you and your perception of others into cheap and isolating yet extremely powerful categories.”

Shady Nasty is a band that operates on an oxymoron – a post-punk outfit whose most popular songs (‘Get Buff‘, ‘R0LL1N’ H1LLZ‘, ‘PRETTYB0YZ‘) circulate on calm, sombre melodies that straddle both electronic and hip hop driven impulses. Anthropologists of their own world, their music is rife with intelligent observations about the burgeoning algorithm of life.

With their recent EP CLUBSMOKE, a blurry-eyed meditation on vlogging, gymming, clubbing and clout, the group saw international acclaim from NME, Stereogum, Kerrang, DIY, New Noise, BPM, and locally from triple j’s Home and Hosed, Something More and Unearthed, FBi Radio, 2SER, RAGE, Pilerats and Purple Sneakers. Its success recently took Shady Nasty to the coveted Oxford Art Factory stage where devout adherents propelled a heaving mosh.

Now the group stand ready for the globe, on the heels of their debut UK and European tour across May.

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