Sunflower Bean Return to Their DIY Roots on Heavy Metal ‘Shake’

Sunflower Bean are back with the riotous rocker “Shake,” the title track to their upcoming EP of the same name.

The track opens with a searing Master of Reality-style guitar riff, paired with a video of the New York trio caked in mud. Directed by Isaac Roberts, the clip is part of a 14-minute video the band made for Shake. It will feature each track and reflect the natural elements earth, wind, fire, and metal. The “Shake” video, seen below, represents earth.

Shake, their first EP since 2019’s King of the Dudes, arrives on Sept. 27 via Lucky Number. The band — vocalist and bassist Julia Cumming, guitarist and vocalist Nick Kivlen, and drummer Olive Faber — self-produced it.

“Shake was inspired by our first years as a DIY band, the spirit that birthed us and gave us the chance to have this enduring journey together,” the band said in a statement. “We wrote, recorded, engineered, and produced these songs so nothing was filtered through anyone else’s idea of us. We always felt like rock & roll was a feeling, not a sound. But sometimes, there is no subverting it or explaining it. We’re now offering it exactly as it occurred to us.”

The band will promote Shake on a brief tour this fall, kicking off at Brooklyn’s Baby’s All Right on Oct. 2 and wrapping at Empire Control Room in Austin, Texas on Nov. 16.

Sunflower Bean have previously discussed the short-lived metal phase that followed their formation about a decade ago. “Metal is still fun,” Cumming told RS around the band’s 2016 debut, which took them closer to dreamy psychedelic indie rock. “But we have our whole lives to be a doom-metal band.” Now that time has come. They previewed several of the songs on the new EP at their wild, furious SXSW 2023 performances.

Shake follows the band’s 2022 album Headful of Sugar, made during the pandemic. “The only thing that matters is: Are you happy with the people you’re around? Are you safe? Are you healthy? Do you have love?” Cumming told Rolling Stone. There’s been sacrifice, heartache, and pain. But making music is worth fighting for.”

Shake Track List
1. Shake
2. Lucky Number
3. Teach Me to Be Bad
4. Serial Killer
5. Angelica

Tour Dates
Oct. 2 – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right
Oct. 9 – Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon
Oct. 12 – Chicago, IL @ The Empty Bottle
Nov. 16 – Austin, TX @ Empire Control Room