Michael Beach is a Melbourne-based musician who writes, records, and performs under his own name, and as a member of Melbourne trio Shovels. He is a recent transplant from Oakland, CA, having spent the previous 5 years recording two solo albums (2013’s Golden Theft and 2017’s Gravity/Repulsion) and playing as a member of Oakland’s Colossal Yes and Meercaz. Since 2008, he has put out records on Twin Lakes Records, Homeless Records, Ecstatic Yod, and Spectacular Commodity.
After a two years of touring Golden Theft (Twin Lakes), Michael Beach returned to the studio to record Gravity/Repulsion — the culmination of two years playing as full band with drummer Utrillo Kushner (Colossal Yes, Comets On Fire) and bass player Muslim Delgado (Meercaz) in Oakland. Gravity/Repulsion was recorded with engineer Phil Manley (Moon Duo, Carlton Melton) at Manley’s El Studio in San Francisco. Now out via Spectacular Commodity, lead single “I Never Had Enough Time With You” was celebrated by Noisey/Vice as, “one of the best songs of 2017 that not nearly enough people have heard.” Gravity/Repulsion was featured in several best of 2017 lists including Vice, Vinyl District, and Still Single. The Melbourne live band features members of Baby Blue and Shovels. A new 7″ will be announced in early 2018.
A new Shovels record, tracked in Portland with Justin Higgins (The Hunches, Lavender Flu), captures the sound of the band as they are live — ‘absolutely professional demolition’ (Doug Mosurock). Look for it in early 2018.