Following the recent announcement of their much anticipated debut album Try Not To Freak Out, Norway's Sløtface are sharing new track ‘Nancy Drew’ one of the band's most hard-hitting releases to date. The new single continues in Sløtface’s fiery feminist footsteps, with vocalist Haley Shea reimagining the track’s teen detective namesake as the noble vanquisher of indie rock’s boys’ club. “My girl is wiping slates clear / And I long for the look / And a soundtrack of women who all know what’s up / I keep hearing their cherry bombs through the walls,” she seethes amid sneaky, plundering guitars.

Led by vocalist Haley Shea with guitarist Tor-Arne Vikingstad, bassist Lasse Lokøy and Halvard Skeie Wiencke on drums, with every move they make, Sløtface look to spin conventions on their head. Haley’s forceful, firework-spitting punk slices through you with an immediacy and confidence of someone several records in. Whether it’s a love song from an unexpected perspective or a critique on power and ego, the foursome’s message and undeniably catchy riffs have inspired critics and fans across the globe.

Speaking on how 'Nancy Drew' originally came about, the band said: "We wrote the big rock chords and electronica inspired bass hook first. Then for the lyrics - Haley wanted to take some of that power and make it about something really cool and slick. Nancy Drew in the song is basically a super hero version of the original teenage sleuth, who fights the patriarchy and indie music's boys' club."

"The song is about this super hero I tried to create that's based on Nancy Drew", Haley muses. “The album is full of things we're worrying about, so I wanted to put some positivity and strength in as well. For this song I wanted to create a kind of super hero saviour, so I drew inspiration from Nancy Drew and tried to imagine a bad-ass super hero who crushes the music industry's boys' club and the patriarchy with one punch."

"Ida came up with the idea to make the lyric video for Nancy Drew about all of the tinder cliches you come across online" the band explain, -- "guys petting an exotic animal, guys mountain climbing, and illustrating them all in cool clever ways. We loved the idea and just let her run with it, and are super pleased with the final product."

UPCOMING TOUR DATES

July

08 Cheltenham, 2000 Trees Festival

13-16 Suffolk, Latitude Festival

23 Oxfordshire, Truck Festival

August

25 Leeds Festival

27 Reading Festival

September

28 Bournemouth, 60 Million Postcards (Headline tour)

29 Birmingham, Actress & Bishop (Headline tour)

30 Leeds, Brudenell Social Club (Games Room) (Headline tour)

October

01 Manchester, Soup Kitchen (Headline tour)

03 York, The Basement (Headline tour)

04 Hull, The New Adelphi (Headline tour)

05 Derby, The Venue (Headline tour)

06 Sheffield, The Picture House Social (Headline tour)

07 Newcastle, Think Tank? (Headline tour)

09 Edinburgh, Sneaky Pete’s (Headline tour)

10 Glasgow, The Broadcast (Headline tour)

12 Liverpool, The Magnet (Headline tour)

13 Stockton, KU (Headline tour)

16 Nottingham, The Bodega Social Club (Headline tour)

17 Leicester, The Cookie (Headline tour)

18 Southampton, The Joiners (Headline tour)

19 Plymouth, The Underground (Headline tour)

20 Bristol, The Louisiana (Headline tour)

21 Reading, The Purple Turtle (Headline tour)

24 Brighton, The Hope& Ruin (Headline tour)

25 London, Camden Assembly (Headline tour)

 26 Oxford, The Cellar (Headline tour)

It is testament to a great album that almost 2000 people can gather in a city long untouched by its writers to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of its release. The room feels filled with sentimental sensations of nostalgia, as the three Jarman brothers and an unnoticed extra guitarist take to the stage prepared to break the walls down in memory of Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, Whatever.

God Damn and Sløtface warm up the mixed age crowd, the former an angry three-piece happy to rip off your face in the name of thick riffs and socialist politics, while the latter calm the waves before an inevitable storm, the Norwegian punk-pop quartet curating an early-noughties escape to enjoy. The wait is almost over.

Faithful to the album, the room erupts as The Cribs kick into the ever-explosive, ‘Our Bovine Public’, leading a rollercoasting handful of openers, and exploring side A with verve and vigour. The track is a slap round the face and a kick up the backside to initiate any encounter, the perfect broken handshake, and an introduction like no other, as a string of pop-rock hits cast the old and young in sing-along to Ryan Jarman’s (guitar and vocals) punked up spits.  

The trio are a unit of bundled aggression, operating as one, with the alternative and unpredictable charisma of Ryan rendering unmissable moments infinite, held down by the shots and strikes of brother Ross (drums), and storytelling shouts of Gary (bass and vocals).

A brief look around tells 2000 stories, every silent watchman, crowd-surfer, pint-thrower, and lyric-knower sharing their connection with the band, as the pretty tale of ‘I’ve Tried Everything’ is told, and ‘Be Safe’ opens all the boxes to the crowd’s chorus cries of “I know a place we can go where you’ll fall in/Love so hard that you wish you were 10.”

As the band squeeze all they have left of the album through a refreshing ‘Ancient History’, ‘Shoot The Poets’ summons a necessary break of acoustic artistry from Ryan, exposing more deeply the perhaps under-appreciated musicality at the band’s core.

Cutting off their track-listed chains, The Cribs then tear through a secondary set of smash-hits and rarities, occasionally challenging the encyclopaedic memories of hardcores I tip my non-existent hat to.

Pounding grunge number, ‘Come On, Be A No-One’, resets the clock for a drag back to the present, via the unchartered b-sided worlds of ‘Kind Words For The Broken Hearted’ and more, as the brothers time travel through their discography, still with as much energy as the sound they shape.

The band hereby exhibit the quintessential pop sensibility under their punk rock playing with recent single (in the context of the album commemorated), ‘Different Angle’ the stand-out track of the night, portraying the same twee simplicity as debut single, ‘Another Number’, the performance of which provided a late insight into the band’s incredible rise to becoming “Britain’s biggest cult band”, all the while keeping true to their DIY principles and pop eloquence.

An anthemic closing rout of ‘Pink Snow’ releases all that remains, unleashing furies and celebrating successes, before the loyal Midlands fanbase leave with a smile on every face.