ON RADAR: King Shelter – “Pick Your Poison”

Southern California based band King Shelter release their latest single “Pick Your Poison” in anticipation of their upcoming full length debut ‘$hame’, soon to be released March 30th.

King Shelter’s regional influence is no secret.  Southern California culture infiltrates their first EP Failure with its surf rock influence and purely American blending of genres.  The tracks on Failure are catchy while balancing distorted and clean guitar tones with inventive riffs that play off each other in a manner that is not too polished, yet not too noisy to become indistinguishable from the rhythm section. 

“Pick Your Poison” strays little from this idea, just as the track seems like a basic verse/chorus/verse formula the band takes a turn to a fuzzy chug on the guitars and lets the song breathe.  As with many songs on ‘Failure’, “Pick Your Poison” confronts the listener as a run of the mill pop/rock track until a subtle note is bent adding dynamic and dissonance for a few fleeting moments.  King Shelter have a few West Coast dates planned leading up to their debut, but expect much more from the grungy surf rock outfit in 2018.