CUDDLY Shark are preparing to surface in their home waters to celebrate the release of their new album.
Following on from October's Body Mass Index EP, the band's second LP The Road To Ugly brims with punk attitude and melodic brilliance.
Tomorrow (Saturday, February 16), they will appear alongside local bands The Disclaimers and His Name is Codeine to showcase their latest offering.
Released on January 28 through Armellodie Records, the album has been described as: "Effortlessly cool, chock-full of deadpan lyrical quips, manic shrieking, offbeat chug-a-lug riffing, melodic oomph and much more. The Road To Ugly is a stupendous journey and definitely worth the trip, time and time again."
Headlong thrashy guitars, low slung bass and shouty vocals underpin the opening tracks of SPMG and Overpriced, followed by the swaggeringly cool Broken Arm.
Body Mass Index is followed by the hillbilly punk of Doodlebug, before listeners are given the Pixies-like donkey kick of My iPod Made Me Do It, and the feverish Pull The Finger Out.
In the The Road To Ugly, the band also serenade with string-laden Celtic clatter (Fiddley Dee), European-folky flair (The Devil In You), falsetto-pop (Trigger Happy), and country-tinged stompin' (Out of Sight, Out Of Mind).
Born and bred in Moray, the Shark consists of Colin Reid on guitar and vocals, Jason Sinclair on drums and Ruth Forsyth on bass guitar and vocals.
In 2007, the band moved to Glasgow to hone their sound and two years later their eponymous debut album was met with a host of acclaim from the likes of Artrocker, BBC Radio 1 (Vic Galloway's Album of the Month), and even celebrity endorsement from Kevin McKidd (Trainspotting, Grey's Anatomy).
Cuddly Shark support Naked Strangers at the Ceilidh Place in Ullapool tonight (Friday) and on Saturday at The Thunderton, on Elgin's Thunderton Place, from 8pm.
