THE SHIZ is a concious, hippie, lesbeaux folk-rock and soul band from New Orleans with an ambitious new studio album, “Meet You in the Morning” now available for download on Bandcamp and iTunes.
Kurt Vonnegut described his 1981 miscellany collection Palm Sunday as a “blivit”, helpfully defined as “two pounds of s*** in a one-pound bag.” The new CD by The Shiz, Meet You In The Morning, is so densely packed with hooks, poetry and general musical badassery that I’m tempted to borrow that Kurtism for this review. Two pounds of Shiz … well, you get the idea. – Soundacious, amazon.com (March 06, 2013)
There are some bands that make you want to put your hands in the air, shout hallelujah and shake your booty for the rest of the night. With a swampy groove straight out of New Orleans, The Shiz does just that…With an Alabama Shakes intensity, they deliver a solid collection of music that wails with guitar, come-to-Jesus organ, bass, drums and more. The harmonies are so rich you could eat them with a spoon. They’ve got a great vibe and the lead singer has enough energy to power a large city. – Jamie Anderson, indie-music.com (Jun 03, 2013)
“Meet You in the Morning” co-produced by The Shiz and TJ Barends (Bare Sounds Productions at Sir-Reel Studios, Hammond, LA) is an ambitious 70 minute 14 song opus with a wide ebb and flow reminiscent of Tom Petty (one of the band’s most obvious heroes) from his “Wildflower” days. Singles include “Juggernaut,” “Driftin’, ” and “For the People” from Hogan, and “New Jim Crow” and “Sleep Baby, Slumber” from Lewis. But as with any album conceived project, the songs, diverse as they are, belong to each other, and are held together by the quartet’s “electric chamber music” approach and Barends’ roots based sensibilities, yielding a youthful, transparent authenticity to the relatively mature and nuanced collection.
The Bandcamp download includes a special bonus track and is available for on $8.
Deluxe Physical CDs and keychains w/ flash drives are available at shows or by special order only. The Deluxe Physical Edition is hand assembled by the band using recycled materials and comes with lyrics, poster art, and 3D paper dude cut-outs.