Portland ORE’s Sheenjek released their debut LP entitled “Unclever” on August 28th. You can hear a new single that was recently released.
Invisible Oranges says “The band’s full-length debut Unclever is a thick and viscous tide of sound: burly riffs entrenched by an uncompromising rhythm section and accentuated by all manners of scrapes, slides and feedback.”
The band Sheenjek started as a simple book club, with wine and cheese and light banter about families and good books. This quickly dissolved, during the first meeting, into a demonstration, or clinic, of self-defense knife handling skills and joint rolling technique. Booze, weed, books and punching each other, soon lead to a drum solo that lasted nine nights and became the first-ever live performance of the Sheenjek band.
The “unclever” path for the band took longer than expected as the band embarked on their venture of fitting in with other Portland bands with many left turns and constant room clearings. Not metal enough to play metal shows, not punk enough to play punk shows and not “post” enough to win over any of those shows. Yet, being the odd band out in any genre is never a bad thing and in the end the consciousness came. There was indeed no value in fitting in and the band turned up the volumes on their Hiwatts and Marshalls and started to write the songs they wanted to write. Borrowing from the decades of riffs that had influenced them, Hooks that were ingrained in their DNA, whether they had originated from 80’s TV theme songs, Iommi scriptures, or Post Punk anthems.
“Unclever” will be released Digitally and Limited Edition Vinyl via Seventh Rule Recordings. Being built on a reputation for intelligent, abrasive sounds and next-level artwork — “high quality, lovingly packaged and brutally punishing underground metal” in the words of The Chicago Reader and with releases by the likes of Akimbo, Indian, Author & Punisher and Wizard Rifle, Seventh Rule has helped define the left field of the metal scene since 2003.
