Sports Team have announced details of a new B-sides and rarities vinyl being sold exclusively through independent retailers.
‘Plant Test’ features music from 2016 to 2021, including unmastered new material following on from the band’s 2020 debut album ‘Deep Down Happy’.
Announcing the new record, exclusive to vinyl, the band wrote on Instagram: “We are releasing a single-pressing 12” vinyl of rarities, b-sides and unmastered new material. Available exclusively from indie retailers. No restocks. No represses.”
Pre-order ‘Plant Test’ via a host of independent retailers here.
Sports Team are set to take their debut album out on a rescheduled UK tour later this year.
The band were initially set to head out on the road this April in support of ‘Deep Down Happy’ but continued coronavirus restrictions mean the dates have now been pushed back to October and November, concluding with a gig at London’s Brixton Academy.
See Sports Team’s upcoming UK tour dates for autumn 2021 below.
OCTOBER 2021
2 – Manchester, Academy
26 – Glasgow, SWG3
NOVEMBER 2021
17 – Nottingham, Rock City
18 – Leeds, University Stylus
21 – Dublin, Whelan’s
23 – Bristol, SWX
25 – London, Brixton Academy
In an interview with NME around their Mercury Prize nomination for ‘Deep Down Happy’ last year (watch in full above), Sports Team’s Alex Rice confirmed that the band planned to get a second album “out quick”.
“No one is going to wait for us, so we have to finish it,” he said of album two. “I’m upstairs and I can hear everyone rehearsing. That last song sounded quite Weezer-y.”
Reviewing the band’s debut LP, NME wrote: “You can find Rice and his sidekick Rob Knaggs either charmingly or irritatingly gobby, and the joy lies in the tribalism that’s inherent to Sports Team’s approach.
“After a listen of ‘Deep Down Happy’, you’re left in absolutely no doubt as to what the six-piece stand against and this unabashed straightforwardness and refusal to bend makes them a unique prospect.”