Considered one of the foundational bands of the indie-punk genre, Shinobu has been cited as an influence by both Joyce Manor and Touché Amoré. But back in 2002, when they began, they mostly seemed to confuse audiences. Back then, they used to describe their unique mixture of punk spirit, improvisational energy, and indie rock sensibility as “kind of loud and annoying,” in their self-written band bio. “Too underappreciated for too long,” is how Vice described them in 2015, when the band released their last album, the kaleidoscopic 10 Thermidor.
Now, ten years later, Shinobu is back with an anniversary reissue of 10 Thermidor on Lauren Records. Both their most respected and most conceptual album, 10 Thermidor is an indie rock fever dream of interrupted revolutions and traumatic echoes. Musically ambitious and dreamily detached, the album was described as “soft but intense” by Punknews, and “fun, catchy, strong,” by Dying Scene, upon initial release. Its re-release via Lauren Records follows a 15-year anniversary version of their previous album Strange Spring Air (2009) on animated zoetrope vinyl.
In their original run, Shinobu were at the front of a wave of millennial DIY indie-punk bands on Asian Man Records, who released the band’s second album, Worstward, Ho!, in 2005. After becoming friends with labelmates Bomb the Music Industry!, Shinobu released their next two records, Strange Spring Air and 10 Thermidor, on Jeff Rosenstock’s Quote Unquote Records (with vinyl co-released by Lauren Records and Really Records).
Originally released in a run of only 500, this new pressing of 10 Thermidor is the first time the album has been available since 2015. Printed on clear vinyl, like a ghostly apparition, it’s only appropriate that this album about echoes and reoccurrences be pressed again now, a decade later.
Let’s call it the same dream again.
Tracklist:
A1 Untitled Michael Haneke Project
A2 2Tone Tuesday
A3 The Void
A4 Culture, Inc
A5 Violence House
B1 Jokes
B2 Melbourne Cup
B3 9 Thermidor
B4 Back To The Void
B5 Hell Screens
B6 10 Thermidor
