Sports Team announce 'Boys These Days' & "Medium Machine" out today
SPORTS TEAM RETURN WITH NEW SINGLE + VIDEO
‘MEDIUM MACHINE’
LISTEN HERE
+ ANNOUNCE DELUXE EDITION OF ALBUM
BOYS THESE DAYS
OUT NOV 5 VIA DISTILLER RECORDS/BRIGHT ANTENNA FEATURING SEVEN BRAND NEW TRACKS
+ SIX-PIECE CURRENTLY ON MAJOR HEADLINE TOUR OF UK & EUROPE
Friday, October 24 - SPORTS TEAM today released their brand new single ‘Medium Machine’. In addition to the new track, the band has announced a deluxe edition of their acclaimed third studio album, Boys These Days, which will be released on November 5th via Distiller Records/Bright Antenna, coinciding with the first date of their UK tour.
The expanded edition will feature the album's original 10 tracks alongside seven new songs. These new additions include the current single ‘Medium Machine’ and the upcoming follow-up single, ‘Pet Sounds’, which is scheduled for release on the same day as the album, November 5th.
A swaying, wistful lament tinged with elements of country and 90’s slacker rock, ‘Medium Machine’ comes armed with a chorus that grows ever catchier with each listen. It is already proving a fan favourite on the band’s major headline tour of Europe which comes to the UK for a run of eight shows next month, finishing up at the Electric in Brixton on November 15th.
Lyricist Rob Knaggs says, “I read somewhere that Malkmus started Pavement trying to sound like The Fall. To me ‘Medium Machine’ is what it would have sounded like if he’d wanted to be Men At Work.”
The single is accompanied by a video, directed by Kris Rimmer, which features the band members performing as teenagers in their bedrooms before slipping into dreamlike, Lynchian-inspired visuals.
Talking about the seven new tracks on the deluxe album, Rob Knaggs says, “These songs written at the same time as the Boys These Days demos. But fell in between two piles. We had the electro-clash material, that was piling up in the “maybes” pile, and the Prefab Sprout influenced tracks. ‘Living In Skin’ and ‘In America’ were in the electro-clash heap. They were written in January 2023. I think I had probably heard The Dare’s Girls and was having flashbacks to Youth Speed Trouble Cigarettes era Kitsune compilations. I don’t think we really had it in us for a full album of electro-clash but this is the vestigial appendix of that. ‘Germany’ and ‘Dog Country’ we just ran out of time for. At some point the working title for the album was Dog Country. I thought it was a good stand-in for suburbia. When we got to Norway to record though it didn’t feel so urgent, and by the time we were finishing up the mixes it had been benched. ‘Shoegazr’ is sort of in between the two. I don’t think anyone ever thought it really fit into either potential album. Ben played guitar on it which is a one off. We were going for a Drop Nineteens thing, but I think listening now it maybe sounds more like Miike Snow.”
‘Medium Machine’ is the first new music to be unveiled by Sports Team since the release of their critically-acclaimed third studio album ‘Boys These Days’, which was hailed as a bold and brilliant left turn for the six-piece. Offering a witty and insightful look at modern life, it was recorded with producer Matias Tellez (Girl In Red, CMAT, and Gracie Abrams) at his studio in Bergen, Norway. Its unique blend of indie rock, Britpop, and sophisti-pop met with unanimous critical praise on release. The album charted at number 11 on the Official Albums Chart, number 1 on the Official Record Store Chart and was the most popular release in UK independent record shops in its first week.
Boys These Days (Deluxe) tracklisting:
1. I’m In Love (Subaru)
2. Boys These Days
3. Moving Together
4. Condensation
5. Sensible
6. Planned Obsolescence
7. Bang Bang Bang
8. Head To Space
9. Bonnie
10. Maybe When We’re 30
11. Medium Machine
12. Pet Sounds
13. Living In Skin (demo)
14. Shoegazr (demo)
15. In America (demo)
16. Dog Country (demo)
17. Germany (demo)
UK TOUR DATES - NOV
Wed 05 - Manchester - Manchester Academy
Thu 06 - Glasgow - The Art School
Fri 07 - Birmingham - O2 Institute
Sat 08 - Leeds - Leeds University Stylus
Wed 12 - Brighton - Patterns
Thu 13 - Norwich - The Waterfront
Fri 14 - Portsmouth - Wedgewood Rooms
Sat 15 - London - Electric Brixton
Sports Team are Alex Rice (vocals), Robert Knaggs (lyrics, backing vocals, rhythm guitar), Henry Young (lead guitar, lap steel), Oli Dewdney (bass), Al Greenwood (drums) and Ben Mack (synths, piano & percussion).
CONNECT WITH SPORTS TEAM
