After announcing their signing to Rough Trade Records in May with their first-ever song ‘SWEAT’, Los Angeles six-piece The Sophs have returned with a brand new single and video, ‘DEATH IN THE FAMILY’.

A bold admission of vulnerability and moral failure, delivered over an undeniably head-noddable, fuzzed-out beat, every instrument and lyric on ‘DEATH IN THE FAMILY’ lands like a gut punch. Frontman Ethan Ramon says it’s “one of the most personal songs I’ve ever written. It confronts my complicated relationship with shame, and how, at a certain point, I had convinced myself I’d rather grieve a loved one than take any kind of accountability. Releasing it almost feels like purging those thoughts. Maybe it’s because I finally feel like I’m explaining myself clearly. Maybe I feel protected by my vulnerability. All I know is it means something to me.”

The Sophs’ brutal honesty, flamingly intrusive thoughts, and broad genre-spreading caught the attention of Rough Trade label heads Geoff Travis and Jeannette Lee immediately when they received a demo from Ramon. In the band’s demos they heard the sort of creativity and variety — and “don’t expect me to act pretty” sentiment — that could get The Sophs — including frontman Ethan Ramon, Sam Yuh (keyboards), Austin Parker Jones (electric guitar), Seth Smades (acoustic guitar), Devin Russ (drums), and Cole Bobbitt (bass) — a slot on nearly any stage. “It’s rare that a demo that arrives in the post sets your heart racing and sends you off on a quest to track down its sender. But that’s what happened when we listened to the music sent to us by Ethan Ramon,” Travis and Lee explain.

The Sophs will play a donation/pay-what-you-can hometown show in Los Angeles at the non-profit venue Scribble on Friday, July 25 before heading to NYC for two free shows in August and then onto the UK and EU, including a spot at the UK’s End of the Road Festival in August. All tour dates are below and tickets for all dates are on-sale now.

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