Sheer Mag has labored to carve out a discernibly singular position within the canon of contemporary rock – their sound is unmistakably and immediately recognizable as theirs alone. On Playing Favorites (Third Man Records), Sheer Mag’s third full-length, the band capitalizes on a decade’s worth of devotion to their own collective spirit—a spirit refined in both the sweaty trenches of punk warehouses and the glamour of concert halls—emerging with a dense work of gripping emotions, massive hooks and masterfully constructed power-pop anthems all lead by frontwoman Tina Halladay’s earth-shaking vocals. This is the record the Philadelphian rock and roll four-piece has always been destined to make.

Today they give us the final glimpse into Playing Favorites with their larger-than-life single, “Eat It and Beat It.” The band tells, “‘Eat It and Beat It’ is a call to arms. Hard rock is overdue for a new vanguard to redefine the genre and ‘Eat and Beat It’ is an anthem for the next generation. The legacy acts that we grew up admiring and styling ourselves after aren’t going to be around forever, and nor should they be. It’s high time for a new cohort to take over and carry the torch for rock and roll in the 21st century.”

Sheer Mag break significant musical ground on their forthcoming album Playing Favorites, elevating their signature approach to rock and roll to lushly cinematic new heights. While at times marked by an intensified sense of melancholy, this newest offering takes stock of the confusing flow of daily life without moralizing, refusing to fall into antagonistic cynicism. Sheer Mag leans into the chaotic thrall of city living, of a life subdivided by the jagged highs and lows of bars, parties, and nightlife culture, with sweetly empathetic remove. 

The album burns with a sweetened gratitude for the lot one has been given in life: the luck of coming up punk; the luck of living an unalienated life; the luck of feeling love, and losing love. Sheer Mag began to work in earnest on their follow-up to 2019’s A Distant Call in the summer of 2021, which they originally imagined would take the shape of a tautly constructed 4-song disco EP. Before long, the band realized this new material would perhaps be better served within the context of a fully fleshed-out rock LP, bracketed by the support of a wider array of juxtaposing psychic moods and sonic textures. 

Over a six-month stretch spanning the fall of 2022 to the winter of 2023, guitarist Kyle Seely and his brother Hart Seely (bass) set about tracking the instrumentals for the record, resetting their studio configuration each week in order to impose a more tailored, multi-session atmosphere upon the record’s acoustic landscape. Lyricist and guitarist Matt Palmer rejoined Halladay in Philadelphia the following spring to write and record the vocals for Playing Favorites, which depart rather markedly from the band’s prior material, placing an added emphasis on pronouncedly existential, interpersonal storytelling and ornate background harmonies. 

Playing Favorites is undoubtedly a record by the same Sheer Mag that audiences of all stripes have spent the last decade falling in love with. In fact, for all of its sonic departures and evolutions, this record is perhaps the most “Sheer Mag” release yet. Not so much a return to form, but rather a realization of those greatest promises that the band has up until now only hinted at. With Playing Favorites, Sheer Mag cater to their tastes and their tastes alone: so long as they continue to do so, the future of rock and roll, that great human tradition, is in the best of hands.

Sheer Mag kicks off their extensive headlining North American tour in D.C. on March 29. The run routes them coast to coast through early May. Today they’ve also announced an August UK / EU tour – see below for a full list of dates.

Sheer Mag Live Dates:

Mar 29: Washington, DC – Songbyrd
Mar 30: Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle – Back Room
Mar 31: Asheville, NC – Eulogy
Apr 01: Nashville, TN – The Blue Room at Third Man Records
Apr 02: Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade – Altar
Apr 04: New Orleans, LA – Siberia
Apr 05: Houston, TX – The End
Apr 06: Austin, TX – Far Out Lounge
Apr 07: Dallas, TX – Double Wide
Apr 09: Mesa, AZ – The Nile
Apr 10: Tucson, AZ – Club Congress
Apr 11: San Diego, CA – The Casbah
Apr 12: Santa Ana, CA – Constellation Room
Apr 13: Los Angeles, CA – Lodge Room
Apr 15: San Francisco, CA – Rickshaw Stop
Apr 17: Portland, OR – Star Theater
Apr 18: Seattle, WA – The Vera Project
Apr 19: Boise, ID – The Shredder
Apr 20: Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court
Apr 22: Denver, CO – Hi Dive
Apr 24: Omaha, NE – Reverb Lounge
Apr 25: Minneapolis, MN – 7th St. Entry
Apr 26: Madison, WI – High Noon Saloon
Apr 27: Chicago, IL – Sleeping Village
Apr 29: Kalamazoo, MI – Bell’s Eccentric Cafe
Apr 30: Windsor, ON – Craft Heads Brewing Company 
May 01: Toronto, ON – Velvet Underground
May 03: Buffalo, NY – Mohawk Place
May 04: Troy, NY – No Fun
May 05: Somerville, MA – Crystal Ballroom
May 06: East Haven, CT – Beeracks
May 08: New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
May 10: Philadelphia, PA – First Unitarian Church
May 31 – Jun 02: Northampton, MA – Field Day Music Festival 

Aug 03: BE Genk – Absolutely Free Festival
Aug 04: NL Amsterdam – Paradiso
Aug 05: DE Hamburg – Hafenklang
Aug 06: DK Copenhagen – Stengade
Aug 07: DE Berlin – Cassiopeia 
Aug 08: DE Leipzig – Institut für Zukunft
Aug 09: NL Eindhoven – Stroomhuis
Aug 11: UK London – Lafayette
Aug 12: UK Birmingham – Hare & Hounds
Aug 13: UK Glasgow – Room 2
Aug 14: UK Leeds – Belgrave Music Hall
Aug 15: UK Brecon Beacons – Green Man Fest
Aug 17: CH Geneva – Piz Palu Festival
Aug 18: CH Düdingen – Bad Bonn
Aug 20: ES San Sebastian – Dabadaba
Aug 21: ES Madrid – El Sol
Aug 22: ES Barcelona – Upload
Aug 23: ES Valencia – 16 Toneladas
Aug 24: ES Torremolinos – Canela Party
Aug 26: PT Lisbon – ZDB