Peg is the latest solo project of Seattle’s Sheridan Riley, best known as one of the Pacific Northwest’s finest drummers after collaborating with the likes of Alvvays, Hand Habits and Cassandra Jenkins. Last year, working under their own name, Sheridan shared the EP, Participant, an improvisation-driven collection of spoken word. If you enjoyed that record, well Peg is something else entirely, on the upcoming album, Sideshows, released later this month via Ruination Record Co. Sheridan explores more traditional structures, uptempo rock songs and, “a ’70s avant-pop flair”. Ahead of the release, today Sheridan is premiering the latest track from it, Bind Me With Believing

Although only seeing the light of day now, Sideshows was recorded between 2018 and 2020, and the tracks go back even further, some written a decade earlier. They represent something of a departure from the textural recordings of Sheridan’s solo material, here song structure is to the fore, every decision intricately made to bring the message in to view. Lyrically, the record introduces us to a series of shadowy characters, and then zooms out, asking us questions of the human condition that resonate far beyond the scene playing out in our ears.

The record’s opening track, Bind With Me Believing, is a scene-setter for the record to come, it bounds in on a typically brilliant drum rhythm, before wiry guitars and oddly weighty woodwind add to the feel of a strutting pop- song, nodding to the likes of Tennis or Rilo Kiley. There’s a fabulous breakdown where the guitars come rushing to the fore, and suddenly you’re transported to the West Coast of America in the 1970s, all warm sunshine and languid soloing in no rush to get anywhere in particular. So pull up a chair, with music this good, surely there’s really no need to be anywhere else?

Sideshows is out February 24th via Ruination Record Co. For more information on Peg visit https://pegtheband.bandcamp.com/.