Royal Headache, Sheer Mag

Sydney's Royal Headache burst into view back in 2011 upon the release of their self-titled album, an adrenaline shot of melodic energy and heart-on-sleeve romanticism that immediately lit up listeners home and away. They dug deep, and took their blinding live show on the road throughout North America and Australia, culminating in a series of opening dates for the Black Keys on their home continent.

Following a period of rest and reflection, and a recent performance at Sydney's Opera House, Royal Headache is ready to ride once more. Their new album is called High and injects even more soul and passion into the breakneck formula that became synonymous with Royal Headache. If their first album was akin to a courtship, think of High as the romance. Not just on the level of two people falling in love, but a romance with the qualities of pop music that make Royal Headache who they are and inform what they do: eternal optimism, wistful beauty and interlocking presentation that evolves from four guys singing on a street corner to speed-addled rock, and all the brightness and darkness in between, teetering between stability and chaos and well-aware of how unsteady their footing might be. The amount of emotion and range of Shogun's vocals and the whip-smart counterpoint provided by the band — drummer Shortty, guitarist Law, and bassist Joe — present a dash through decades of pop history, recombining not just the music but all of the feelings of pain and joy elicited from audiences, supercharged and ready to explode once more. Shogun's voice and lyrics aren't so much a secret weapon in Royal Headache's arsenal as they are the front line, happiness and hurt soaring above the songs, driving home all the feelings within.

Royal Headache's High is out August 21st on What's Your Rupture? and on the band's Distant and Vague label in Australia. The album is available for pre-order now. All digital pre-orders come with an instant free download of the album's first single and title track, "High." The band will tour the U.S. this summer with Sheer Mag, including appearances at Los Angeles' Berserktown II fest, and an open horizon thereafter.


Sheer Mag's logo looks like the cover of an early hard rock record—all-caps font, jagged lettering. It seems appropriate, then, that at the outset of their 7" opener "What You Want", there's a guitar line with the same approximate structure as the central portion of Kiss' "Strutter". It's a fleeting-but-important moment—within the first few seconds of impact, they emphasize the "power" half of power pop. They bust out guitar solos that fly high. Their singer spits out words like, "What you want? What do you want me to do?," seemingly delivered more out of frustration than desperation. That tinge of anger—heard both in their vocals and their scuzzy junkyard guitar sound—is the perfect complement to "What You Want"'s swooning, power chord-driven melody. It's that ideal balance between sweet and sour. The track, one of four very good ones on their new 7", is an exciting introduction to this Philadelphia band.