Big Stir Records is proud to announce a new double-sided digital single from veteran LA psych-pop combo SHPLANG, coinciding with the long overdue debut of the band's entire back catalog on all digital streaming services worldwide. “Let's Get High (And I Could Be Your Man)”, a long-standing fan favorite, gets its first standalone release to celebrate the occasion, and it's paired here with the all-new B-side “Frankie's Back”, a teaser for BSR's forthcoming Halloween collection featuring Shplang among many other indie pop stars. Both tracks premiere September 5, along with the catalog rollout, and can be pre-ordered or presaved now:

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SHPLANG, the LA-based brainchild of PETER MARSTON (vocals, guitars and more) and JOHN KRAUSE (bass, visuals) has been a mainstay of the city's guitar pop scene for over three decades, but much of their early work has been relegated to physical CD releases – until now. “Let's Get High (And I Could Be Your Man)” has long been a fan favorite at live shows and in its original appearance on the band's 2009 album MY BIG THREE WHEELER. That record now joins the band's full catalog of albums – the never-before-streaming JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF MIRTH (1995), SELF MADE MONK (1997) and AMERICAN CREAM (2000), plus the band's Big Stir Records output of the career-summarizing LOS GRANDES EXCRITOS 1994-2019 and the subsequent career-rebooting THANK YOU, VALUED CUSTOMER (2023) – marking the first time the entire SHPLANG oeuvre has been available to stream. And the tune that heralds the digital rollout is as emblematic of the ever-eclectic band's style as anything could be: SHPLANG is never predictable, but always effortlessly tuneful and lyrically sly. The A-side is no exception.

“'Let’s Get High (and I Could Be Your Man)' has a title that often raises both eyebrows and presumed comparisons to Jimmy Buffett’s 'Why Don’t We Get Drunk (and Screw),' but even a single listen will reveal that this comparison is well off-target,” says MARSTON. “It's actually deeply romantic—indeed, one of the most romantic songs Shplang has recorded. The singer, feeling stuck and without hope of reversing the course of his life, seeks not gratification or distraction, but connection and solace. He wants to belong to someone.” The songwriter adds, “In terms of production, the highlights are John Krause’s sliding bass, the melancholic baritone guitar riffs, and the Brian Wilson pastiche in the instrumental bridge. In earlier versions, the bridge had lyrics, but the piano arrangement seemed too good and the tribute to Wilson too lovely to not feature it in an instrumental section. Listen to Stack-o-Tracks and you’ll see why.”

The B-side is a different beast – or monster! – altogether. Freshly recorded and never-before-heard, the irresistibly rocking “Frankie's Back” is the public's first taste of the tricks and treats to come this October when Big Stir Records presents their first ever Halloween collection, CHILLING, THRILLING HOOKS AND HAUNTED HARMONIES, on which SHPLANG is one of twenty leading lights of the indie pop scene to craft new songs for the scary season. Marston tells the terrifying tale: “This song provides a twist on a well-trod theme in early rock 'n' roll: the girl I like's ex-boyfriend is back in town. Only this time, he's Frankenstein's monster, providing new avenues for the usual cocktail of jealousy and contempt. Think it's hard to compete with the high school football star or a trendy beatnik? Try the reanimated undead!” Between the catalog relaunch and this standout track from the upcoming collection, signs abound that SHPLANG – like that famous monster – is back, and we can't wait to hear what they do next.

Big Stir Records is delighted to announce an all-new album from some true hometown heroes: celebrated LA guitar pop scene stalwarts SHPLANG. THANK YOU, VALUED CUSTOMER, the new full-length collection from the acclaimed keepers of the flame of literate psych-pop, sees worldwide release December 1 on CD and all streaming services. It features the new single “Understood” – already being heard across the global pop rock airwaves – along with “Little Mushroom Men From Mars” (the breakout hit from this year's BSR Halloween collection Stir The Cauldron) and future single “Look Me Over.”

SHPLANG may have first come to the attention of many in the worldwide pop-rock community fairly recently with the release of LOS GRANDES EXCRITOS 1994 to 2019, an essential collection which The Big Takeover Magazine called “a tour-de-force that sizzles as if the sunshine oozes from the disc when the laser engages.” But as that anthology's title makes abundantly clear, they've been around honing their singular psych-pop-rock sensibilities for much longer. Longtime observers of the LA indie and power pop scene will be eager to tell you just what's fueled Shplang's longevity: the core duo of Peter Marston and John Krause are able to blend rock-solid pop instincts with humor, intelligence and imaginative quirk in a way that sets them apart. It's an invigorating organic balance that rarely occurs, and only genuine alchemists like XTC, They Might Be Giants, Sparks and Robyn Hitchcock have been able to build artistic identities on such foundations. Shplang has most certainly earned their place on that short but venerable list, and the new record is perhaps the best distillation of their ethos yet.

THANK YOU, VALUED CUSTOMER, the band's sixth full-length release, represents SHPLANG at both the height of their considerable melodic and instrumental powers and at their most playful. There are hooks aplenty to be heard on the horn-propelled Cheap Trick-like shuffle of “Understood,” the loping “Look Me Over” with its mutual shades of The Plimsouls and Teenage Fanclub, and the disarmingly tender psychedelia-tinged ballad “Everyone Can Change.” And lead singer Marston can pen and deliver classic surreal couplets for the ages: “If you’d like, I’ll be your wig-a-wam, underneath calico skies,” he intones at the start of “Lay A Little Love On Me,” setting the stage for a killer chorus and some strikingly swirling instrumental passages. Elsewhere, “Little Mushroom Men From Mars” is just a delight, as slashing guitars frame B-movie sci-fi imagery on the way to yet another irresistible chorus. For all the pitch-perfect popcraft on display, some of CUSTOMER's most endearing moments come from its playfulness in pushing the boundaries of Shplang's chosen form. That cheeky experimentalism has always been part of the band's DNA, and here they not only stretch it further but integrate it into the pop idiom more fully than ever before. “One of the reviewers of our last record characterized it as 'Beatles meet Zappa in Sumo love-fest,'” notes Marston. “This time around, perhaps Zappa is winning the match.” Maybe, but there's a light touch and effortless tunefulness to those detours, which include songs sung entirely in German (“Das Diddley”) and French (“À Son Son”), a pair of of partly-spoken-word dream narratives (“Baby Hobo” and the as-sweetly-touching-as-it-is-funny closing track “She, The Fair Bag Girl”) and “Buddha (What Was That?)” which the band call “an irreverent study in comparative religion, but mostly Shplang’s interpretation of slow-burn funk.” Testing the limits of the pop-rock form is admirable in itself on a scene that's too often mired in formally conservative nostalgia, and as Shplang deliver it on TYVC it's the farthest thing thing from esoteric. The band's just too melodically adroit, and they're having too much fun, for the songs to be anything other than inviting and instantly memorable.

And THANK YOU, VALUED CUSTOMER simply sounds great. Produced and recorded by the band and mixed by Marc Greene, it possesses a profound sense of time and place. Marston's voice is remarkably flexible and able to communicate warmth and empathy regardless of what accent, idiom or even language he's employing. Swirling around it is a compelling stew of sound that evokes psychedelia without sounding dated: burbling synths, classic horn lines, and outer-space sound effects complement genuinely striking lead guitar work from Marston and guests like Scott Goldbaum (whose over-the-top leads kick “Mushroom Men” into hyperdrive) and Paul Lewolt, the band's live guitarist whose psych-blues lines shine on the opener “Keep It Hot.” The band's tight and funky when the songs call for it, loosely lumbering when it's time to stretch out, and always utterly committed whether the tune calls for heartbreak, absurdity, or (as is often the case) both in equal measures.

There's a sense in which THANK YOU, VALUED CUSTOMER sounds like a fresh start for SHPLANG after the career summary of the anthology. But it's also the sound of a truly original guitar pop band leaning into and delivering exactly what they've always done best. The cover image (a grocery bag bearing the band's logo) and title may be an arch dig at consumerism, but like everything the band does, there's an underlying sincerity to them, too. Here, all the ingredients – sharp melodies, indelible hooks, slyly literate wit, instrumental firepower and a dash of psychedelic surrealism – are ready for home delivery in the form of eleven fresh tracks, each displaying exactly what makes the band so valuable today. And their gratitude for nearly 30 years of support is genuine. The time has come for valued customers new and old to offer their thanks in turn to SHPLANG.

Big Stir Records would like to be perfectly clear: SHPLANG will be “Understood.” The veteran LA psych-pop-rock band returns with a brand new single by that title, out Friday, November 3 and serving notice of a forthcoming album – their first since the 2019 career-summarizing anthology LOS GRANDES EXCRITOS – due before the year's end.

There have been rumblings in recent weeks of SHPLANG's return with new material, particularly with the appearance of an all-new track on BSR's Halloween collection STIR THE CAULDRON, but “Understood” represents the first standalone preview of the forthcoming album. It's a good sign indeed, an instant toe-tapper with one of main man Peter Marston's characteristically appealing melodies and the surprise inclusion of a full horn section pushing the beat along. It's also a rare positive message for today's world, as Marston explains, quoting British novelist Winifred Holtby: “The crown of life is not happiness; it is understanding.” Marston continues: “When I came across this quote, I thought it really captured the triumphal nature of the song. I don’t know if there is any higher currency in a relationship than to be understood!” The listener can sense the sheer joy in that simple feeling on the track: it's both positively invigorating and invigoratingly positive.

The wonderful horn arrangement that puts the song over the top occurred almost by accident, according to Marston. “This song features Lee Thornburg on trumpet, flugelhorn, and trombone. Lee is an alumnus of the Tonight Show Band and has toured with Supertramp and Tower of Power. I had written a simple trombone theme for the instrumental turnaround and connected with Lee through a mutual friend. I sent Lee a rough mix of the track in progress and the trombone part (which I had written out), but Lee came in with the complete horn arrangement you hear on the track and played all the parts.” The result is unlike anything else on guitar-pop radio today, but calls back to the days of the British Invasion and the swinging '60s while still sounding completely fresh and bearing all the earmarks of Shplang's playful, experiment ethos.

News on the full album is soon to follow single's release, and fans can expect the kinds of surprises that are, paradoxically, unsurprising on a SHPLANG record: memorable melodies, psychedelic touches and the rare humor and warmth that's underpinned nearly thirty years of work from the band. It starts here, and the reasons for our anticipation can be easily “Understood.”