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 focus track “Look Me Over.” THANK YOU, VALUED CUSTOMER is up for pre-order and pre-save now:

orcd.co/shplang-tyvc

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.