There are few things finer than discovering a new band who play music just as you like it. When it happens you want to share with the world, and that’s why we at Scots Whay Hae! are delighted and honoured to be premiering ‘Shoulder Biting Joe’, the latest single from Glasgow-based Awkward Family Portraits, released on the always reliable Holy Smokes Records – (home to SWH! favourites The Strange Blue Dreams and Harry and the Hendersons).
Following on from the promise of their previous single ‘Do Yourself A Favour‘, Awkward Family Portraits take their music to shadowy and more intriguing places. If you like a bit of dark cabaret, soundtracked by the likes of Kurt Weill, The Real Tuesday Weld, the much missed Vagabond Opera, and Frank’s Wild Years Tom Waits, then this is the band for you. Perhaps more than anyone, though, they put me in mind of the legendary The Tiger Lillies, a comparison I don’t hand out lightly. Indeed, ‘Shoulder Biting Joe’ could be a contemporary of ‘Flying Robert’ & ‘Fidgety Phil‘, characters from the Lillies’ Junk Opera Shockheaded Peter. Intrigued? You should be. Do believe the hype and take a listen for yourself:
In a year which has produced some of the finest music of recent times, it’s good to know that 2017 is going to keep on keeping on till the very end, and, with the promise of further new music from Awkward Family Portraits, 2018 is shaping up pretty nicely as well.
If you want to catch up with Awkward Family Portraits live, they’re at King Tut’s on January 4th.