Royal Headache have announced the surprising release of a live album, entitled Live In America. It is the first new activity within the camp of the erstwhile Sydney garage-rock band since their 2017 dissolution, although a fully-fledged comeback from the band does not appear to be likely. The album, which is set for release on Friday June 21st via What’s Your Rupture, stems from two sets across two different tours of the continent.
The A-side of the album comes from a recording done for New Jersey community radio station WMFU, specifically its Cherry Blossom Clinic program, on the band’s first tour of the US in 2012. The B-side, meanwhile, was recorded during a show at Chicago venue The Empty Bottle in 2015, when the band was touring their second and final album High.
“They were on fire, [and] smoked the sold-out room sideways and back,” wrote What’s Your Rupture in a press statement. “This set grabs you by the collar, taking everything society had thrown at or accoladed them with and distilling it into piercingly melodic, throttling rock ‘n’ roll.”
Live in America features two previously-unreleased tracks from the Royal Headache archive. The first is ‘So Low’, a song that featured on neither of the band’s studio albums but was played frequently during the tours in support of High. The second is a cover of Womack & Womack’s 1988 hit ‘Teardrops’, which Royal Headache covered throughout their tenure but never officially recorded.
Royal Headache – ‘So Low’
Since the band’s split in 2017, lead vocalist Tim “Shogun” Wall has gone on to play in several different projects. First came soul-rock band Shogun & The Sheets, who released one 7-inch single in 2018. Following that project’s end in 2022, Wall moved onto two new bands: Finnoguns Wake and Antenna. The former released their debut EP Stay Young in January 2024, while the later shared a self-titled EP in March.
Pre-orders for Live in America can be accessed via Royal Headache’s Bandcamp page.
Further Reading
Royal Headache Frontman Says Police Are “Even Dumber” Than Drunk Rock Fans
The Flaming Lips + FM Belfast + Royal Headache + Hermigervill – The Domain, Sydney 09/01/16
Love Letter To A Record: West Thebarton’s Brian Bolado On ‘Royal Headache’
