When you walk into a room and see the humble two-piece set-up with the blonde in high, striped socks and the drummer with the Swans t-shirt and Animal-Muppet hair, you just don’t expect the rambunctious surge of noise that results—a “controlled chaos that seamlessly transitions from minimal to in-your-face.” (Phoenix New Times). The playful sonic outbursts of Dusty Rose’s guitar strums & the heavy hits of Ward Reeder’s drums compare to early 90s Sub Pop sounds and the “transgressive squall of late-’80s Touch-and-Go Records brigade” (Phoenix New Times).

The duo met in 2012 through mutual friends and found that they bonded over eclectic music and improvised jam sessions. Dusty jotted down nonsensical words that she thought were amusing and charming, handed them to Ward as a list of potential band names, and said: “here, pick.” And thus Shovel was born.

Their latest full-length album It’s Fun to Be A Nothing was released on 300 limited-run blue 12″ vinyls in May 2018, exclusively on Dirty Water Records USA. The record blasts melodically-grimy, wondrously-weird, primitively-wild original tracks.