Playing Cards - 

• Casino grade, linen finish poker deck
• Customized tuck box and card backs to match album cover
• Face cards feature band members

"The Shadow is an album of growth. In the years since our previous album SLUFF was recorded, we have toured around the world, honed our musical skills and found our own little place in the music industry - but we have also seen our share of shadows, and it is through acknowledging these shadows that we grow the most. Each song on The Shadow examines an aspect of this growth through a different musical lens, adding up to a series of rock-and-roll vignettes of light, shadow, anxiety and responsibility. Frantic punk-scenes of information overload are contrasted by patient drones of introspection; fun, ear-worm musings of life as a young rock band are juxtaposed with the heavier responsibility of having a voice and not quite knowing what to say. The amalgam of information in the songs is complemented with a blend of sonic perspectives - we threw in all our influences, from the usual suspects of punk rock and new wave to spaced-out 80’s balladry, fuzzy garage-metal and psychedelic desert folk (with synths and tape loops added to taste). And with producer Chris Funk leading the way, our somewhat scatterbrained sprawl of musical and conceptual ideas are tied together in an artful way. Chris’ quiet but steady direction pushed us to serve the songs, reigning in the guitar pedal breaks and drum solo freakouts from our live set while leaving just enough unpredictability and experimentation to give the album a liveliness of its own.

All of this adds up to a swirling, dynamic, at times disorienting but ultimately honest image of modern life as young, able, and anxious people. In order to grow and create positive change in this world, we have to situate ourselves amidst all this chaos - for us this means providing the catchy choruses and stomping riffs with an edge of self-awareness and confrontation, just as the world can’t become more connected without acknowledging its deep divides. With The Shadow, we draw inspiration from the chaos and contrast, we admit that we only exist as a balance of shadow and light, and we commit to the responsibility of reflection and growth."

- Naked Giants