His forthcoming debut album drips with nuggets of sweet folkiness and crunchy pop tunes.’Evening Standard

Somewhere in a city far, far away, a new hope is born….

Ben Kweller’s new five-song EP released 24th June debuts three tracks from the upcoming album, the nonchalantly titled Sha Sha, and is 679 Recordings first release since the commercially and critically lauded Original Pirate Material by The Streets. An adopted New Yorker, Ben might sound a few thousand miles away from his cross Atlantic counterparts, but in spirit and lyrical tenacity he’s right there with them in urban Britannia.

When an artist manages to successfully blend so many aspects of those he admires it’s churlish to put them into a box labelled A or B. To give you an idea, Ben’s pop CV is bursting to the seams with quality support slots, all of whom branch from the same tree he aims to climb. Evan Dando, Pavement, the Eels, Dinosaur Jr , Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, the Moldy Peaches, and Mercury Rev; Ben’s brethren in so much more than just a shared stage.

Flitting from melody-rich piano melancholy to warm reams of poppy new-wave distortion, this EP reflects but a brief glimmer from his jewel of a forthcoming LP. How It Should Be (Sha Sha) could’ve been a collaboration between Stephen Malkmus and Tom Petty; spiralling wafts of psychedelia and keyboard. At the other end of the scale, Harriet’s Got A Song is the more handsome and intelligent elder brother of a US college rock and radio hit in the making.