=?Windows-1252?Q?Spirit_Animal_Announce_=91This_Is_a_Test=92_EP, _LA_+_NYC?= Shows

[Kara Oliver]

SPIRIT ANIMAL TO RELEASE ‘THIS IS A TEST’ EP NOVEMBER 14, 2012
Announce Live Shows in Los Angeles and New York City

[This Is a Test EP - Album Cover (lo-res).png]New York, NY – August 28, 2012 – NYC-based Spirit Animal is pleased to announce the release of This Is a Test, the psych rock and pop band’s brand new EP, on November 14, 2012. The four-piece will be playing shows in Los Angeles and New York this fall. Full list of performances below.

Stream “Love Crime” from ‘This Is a Test’ here<http://soundcloud.com/spiritanimal-us/02-love-crime/s-4nCW1>!

It might sound strange, but it takes some serious soul to discover rock music's spirit and an absolute animal to find its superhuman funk.  Luckily, the modern listener has Spirit Animal to turn to for all of the above. This Is a Test, masterfully melds decades of disparate elements in search of music at its most carnal, anthemic and party-ready. Their heavy riffs and pounding rhythms create a sound seemingly from the ether, but grounded in the diversity of four gents who are gifted at the dying art of leaving it all on the stage.

Spirit Animal frontman Steve Cooper is a D.C. area-born talent, uncoiling a multitude of skills that go beyond the realm of melodies, production and body sweat into the worlds of cheffing and web content craftsmanship. KCRW calls him "unbelievable" and Last.fm compares his stage presence to that of "mid-'70s era The Who."  Cooper met Spirit Animal bassist Paul Michel in the nation's Capitol in 2002, where the Libyan-born Army brat spent much of his youth.  Michel has toured with a half dozen bands including Georgie James (Saddle Creek Records) and it's his bottom -- he's the best dancer in the band-- that propel This Is a Test into otherworldly realms of low end theory. Upon that astral plane, guitarist Cal Stamp -- aka The Reverend Cal Sharpton -- provides sterling pop sensibility and face-melting solos that recall an era when Guitar Gods were the real Pop Stars.  Battening down the hatches is drummer Ronen Evron, an Israeli transplant by way of the technically unrivaled Berklee College of Music in Boston. The fearsome foursome adds up to an organism with one mission, and one mission only.

"Rock n' roll embodies the entirety of modern music's spirit, but you can't have one without the other," Cooper says. "The roll's the part people sometimes forget, and that's sad since that's the party part."

The list of influences that Spirit Animal rolls with is expansive, as pieces of familiarity peak out behind a smorgasbord of original ideas.  Their new school nonchalance is balanced by a fervent bombasticism reminiscent of early 90s era Red Hot Chili Peppers. On the new EP, "Love Crime" blends Cooper's soulful expressions with a bar brawl hook that reflects the most universal of relationships gone bad.  Elsewhere, there's David Byrne-cum-Mike Patton soapboxing over the art throb of "Lead!" and the only thing more trippy than The Reverend's guitar solo on first single "Crocodile Skins" is the forest Shaman enlightenment of the track's music video (shot shirtless in 22 degree weather, mind you). By the time This Is a Test delves into a tried and true na-na-na-na-na sing-a-long (on "WTF"), it's obvious that this band can and does do everything music fans could ask for.

Live, the band is at once manic and precise with a non-stop show full of careening solos, call-and-response choruses, and lots (and lots) of the aforementioned body sweat. Spirit Animal have been called an "unmissable live act," and it’s been said their "furious energy and fierce musicianship" are poised to not only stand the test of time, but help the masses re-live it. Catch them live when they play next month in Los Angeles and New York City.

TRACK LISTING
1. Crocodile Skins
2. Love Crime
3. Lead!
4. Age of Advice
5. WTF
6. Crocodile Skins [Big Black Delta REMIX]
7. Lead! [Future People REMIX]
8. Age of Advice [k0BAayASHi REMIX]

SPIRIT ANIMAL LIVE
September 21 – New York, NY @ Santos Party House
September 25 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Satellite
October 3 – Brooklyn, NY @ Glasslands

http://www.spiritanimal.us/

For more information:
Kara Oliver / Carleen Donovan
Press Here Publicity
212 246 2640
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