Electronic Press Kit

About

Upon hearing The Sh-Booms, it should come as no surprise that the origins of Orlando's premier soul rocking nonet can be traced to memories of a time when performances centered more on dancing, connection, and immediacy rather than the drab modern realities of stand-and-stare phone-centric audiences, on-stage banter centered on social media promotion, and that old chestnut, "We got two more for ya."

"Unbeknownst to my grandparents," says band leader and bassist Al Ruiz, "my Mom used to sneak off to record hops in downtown New Haven in the late 1950's and early 1960's. They saw bands too. She got to be a regular on Connecticut Bandstand, where she got to dance with Bobby Darin." For Ruiz, coming up in the garage-punk shows of the 2000's, this contrast of youthful experiences pointed to a liberating new direction.

Where so many neo-soul bands are content to stay put in this allegedly more innocent time, this initial spark of inspiration for Ruiz crashed head-on into the inherent existential crises of 21st Century living. With The Sh-Booms,  there's no sugarcoating broken homes, failed relationships, scrounging for rent between hangovers, and this tension between sounds often associated with nostalgia and lyrical expressions of lost innocence (if it was ever there in the first place) has gone far to make them stand out in the eccentric diversity of Orlando's ever-growing music scene.

And yet, in the midst of mid-2020's despair, the faintest glimmer of hope emerges. Whereas The Sh-Booms last release, 2019's The Blurred Odyssey was, in the band's words, "our story formed through the chaos of life onto the impending doom of finite existence," their latest album's title track "This Is a Test" explores the euphoric start of a new relationship through the metaphor of space travel, and the eternal battle between optimism and apprehension in the launch of the cosmic journey. 

While The Sh-Booms own journey started in 2011, it really began in earnest in 2015, when Ruiz met vocalist Brenda Radney while they were working separately in the same studio. Radney, who was signed to Justin Timberlake's label before joining The Sh-Booms, brought an undeniably powerful stage presence to the fledgling band and vocal talents borne out of pure talent and lived experience.

Into the late 2010's, the band quickly emerged as a hometown favorite while also scoring coveted gigs with bands as wide-ranging as Of Montreal, KRS-One, Jacuzzi Boys,The Roots, and a mini-tour with B-52's. New albums, larger audiences, hard-earned accolades--all signs pointed to possibilities as infinite as outer space.  

Then, there was 2020, and well...you know. As the world came to a screeching halt and our lives were filled with precarious isolation and admonitions to inject bleach, The Sh-Booms were forced to reckon with the what-now of playing in a band, to say nothing of basic survival in the so-called "Freedom State" of Florida.  

While band members sorted out the "new normal," with some having to take time away from the band in order to eke out a living, Ruiz and Radney began working with producer-engineer friend Alan Armitage, whose new studio, The Snake Arcade, gave them all the time they needed to experiment with sounds and general direction to head into the writing sessions. With the studio space being new, the band were essentially “guinea pigs” while Armitage learned to navigate the new space. Armitage is a grammy-nominated producer and engineer (Boys II Men) based in Orlando, FL.

The result was a Basement Tapes atmosphere, as old and new members brought a wide array of influences to layer on top of the soul-rock & roll foundation -- everything from psychedelia, no and new wave, punk and post-punk, synth and art pop. With all the time to try anything, the band tried everything, giving the new EPs title, This Is a Test, a dimension that extends beyond the lyrical subject matter

The final result of This is a Test, The Sh-Booms first recorded music since 2019, stakes out bold new musical territory not typically mined by bands rooted in soul music tradition. Clocking in at over six-and-a-half minutes, the title track seamlessly blends quirky New Wave sounds with post-punk lock-grooves, epic space-rock build-ups and funkadelic vocoder action, resulting in an eclectic expression of the exciting if treacherous beginnings of a new relationship that positively demands joyful-sweaty dancing, heightened by Armitage's production skills and mastered by Grammy-winning legend Emily Lazar. Lazar is a Grammy-award winning mastering engineer ( Beck, Vampire Weekend, and Minus the Bear ) based in Manhattan, NY and works out of her facility, The Lodge Mastering.

This is a Test reveals that more sonic adventure and exploration is within The Sh-Booms capabilities, despite past situations and circumstances way beyond their control. That the mission of exploring the ups and downs of life through their music remains as potent a force as ever.

WithThis is a Test, The Sh-Booms prove that perseverance is as vital to accomplishing the mission as talent.