Kansas City shoegaze/post-hardcore lifers Shiner are digging through the vaults, and what they’ve pulled out is a treasure chest. The band has shared Two Black Eyes, the newest cut from their upcoming rarities collection ‘The Y Section’, dropping Friday, October 9 via Spartan Records.
This one’s a time capsule — recorded back in 1998 during the early writing and demo sessions for ‘Starless’, Two Black Eyes was originally written as a trio by Allen Epley, Paul Malinowski and Tim Dow before eventually landing as an addendum to DeSoto’s re-press of ‘Lula Divinia’. It’s also, fittingly, the song that helped christen the whole project — a nod to the band’s habit of endlessly stacking sections onto songs until somebody finally asks, “why do we need this in here?”
Stream Two Black Eyes on YouTube below and everywhere else HERE.
What Exactly Is ‘The Y Section’?
Think of it less as a victory-lap greatest hits and more as a scrapbook of a band that’s never really sat still. Spanning 25-plus years, ‘The Y Section’ rounds up rarities, unreleased material and hard-to-find tracks that trace the winding, weird, and wonderful path from Shiner’s earliest days to the version of the band that made ‘BELIEVEYOUME’. For longtime heads, it’s the missing puzzle piece. For newer fans, it’s a way in. Either way — still heavy, still strange, still very much moving forward.
‘The Y Section’ track list
Crush
Cowboy
Floodwater
Half Empty
Sleep It Off
A Sailors Fate
Two Black Eyes
Dirty Jazz
I’ll Leave Without You
Only Shallow
Pre-order, pre-save and pre-add ‘The Y Section’ on all platforms HERE. Vinyl and bundles are available now via the Spartan Records store HERE.
That My Bloody Valentine Cover, Though
Shiner also just unveiled a heavy-lidded, reverent take on My Bloody Valentine’s untouchable Only Shallow, recorded and mixed back in 2003 at Westend Studios by Paul Malinowski and originally released via Grand Theft Autumn Records.
Frontman Allen Epley shared the backstory: “We had been playing ‘Only Shallow’ on tour as a closer — always at the end because who wants to put their stupid songs after this behemoth? — and we were getting it down pretty well. Not surprisingly, and thankfully, the original recording of this was not used. Instead we retreated to our home away from home, Westend Studios in Kansas City just over the state line in Kansas owned by our great friend Mike Miller, and banged it out one afternoon. We were prepared and Paul made a killer mix, and that’s what you hear today.”
Watch/stream the cover of Only Shallow on YouTube below.
Hitting the Road
Shiner heads out on a hefty North American run, joined by Bursting, Criteria and Fotocrime across different legs. It kicked off Friday, September 4 in Milwaukee and wraps October 16 at The Griffin in Las Vegas. Tickets are on sale now via shiner.net.
SEPTEMBER
04 — Milwaukee, WI — X-Ray Arcade *
05 — Chicago, IL — Fitzgerald’s *
07 — Youngstown, OH — West Side Bowl *
08 — Washington, DC — Pearl St. *
09 — Philadelphia, PA — Milkboy *
10 — Brooklyn, NY — TV Eye *
11 — Montreal, QC — Cabaret Fouf *
12 — Buffalo, NY — Mohawk Place *
13 — Toronto, ON — Baby G *
14 — Detroit, MI — Smalls Bar *
OCTOBER
04 — Lawrence, KS — Bottleneck ^
05 — Denver, CO — Hi Dive ^
06 — Salt Lake City, UT — Urban Lounge ^
08 — Vancouver, BC — Cobalt #
09 — Seattle, WA — Clock Out Lounge #
10 — Portland, OR — Bunk Bar #
12 — San Francisco, CA — Ivy Room #
13 — Los Angeles, CA — The Echoplex #
14 — Pioneertown, CA — Pappy and Harriet’s #
15 — San Diego, CA — Casbah #
16 — Las Vegas, NV — The Griffin #
* w/ Bursting ^ w/ Criteria # w/ Fotocrime
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