Sheeps Touring Debut Album 'Working The Machine' In May

We're famously outnumbered by them in Aotearoa and they'll soon be touring nationwide in May, aka New Zealand Music Month / Te Marama Puoro o Aotearoa. I'm talking of course about Sheeps, the playfully named Te Whanganui-a-Tara art rock ("for the end times") collective of Dean Blackwell, Simon Blackwell, Blain Fitzpatrick, Grace Baker and Thomas Friggens, who've just announced a launch tour for their debut album Working the Machine. Engineered by James Goldsmith (DARTZ, Beastwars), lead single 'Generation I' fuses cinematic post-rock instrumentation and Dean Blackwell's contemplative yet soaring vocals together into one majestic whole — articulating "concern for the young generation of guinea pigs in a technological new world order." Hit play on the striking visuals for 'Generation I', directed by Rich Turner of Black Lantern Film and VFX, look forward to next single 'Mirrors' out soon, and go catch Sheeps at the following dates...

Sheeps: Working the Machine Album Release Tour

Saturday 11th May - Space Academy, Christchurch
Friday 17th May - Paisley Stage, Napier
Saturday 18th May - Meow, Wellington*
Friday 24th May - Nivara Lounge, Hamilton
Saturday 25th May - The Wine Cellar, Auckland

Tickets available HERE via UTR
*Wellington tickets HERE

Press release:

NZ Art Rock band Sheeps makes a bold debut with their record ‘Working the Machine,’ out this April through AllGood Absolute Alternative Records. Exploring the pitfalls of capitalism, the ever-tightening global technological stranglehold, the electoral illusion of choice, and the prospect of failure after lifelong endeavour, the album is a statement on the modern struggles of the working class in a brave new, damaged era.

‘Working the Machine’ sees Sheeps as champions of the 99% – the down-trodden majority, who keep the world turning, poised moments from revolt – with the band’s sound on the album reflecting this overarching churning continuum on the verge of disintegration. The album draws heavily from late ‘90s Radiohead, early A Perfect Circle, and ‘70s era Pink Floyd, in a conglomeration that stands distinctive in its own right – punching up, with the ambition to transcend the class divide and assert Sheeps as contemporaries amongst these influences.