Nashville rock duo The Criticals (Parker Forbes and Cole Shugart), have signed to Fantasy Records and announced their debut EP for the label titled Front Door Confrontations out 21st July, 2023. To mark the occasion, they’ve shared the first single, “Clever Girl,” and it;s companion music video directed by Hannah Hall. The video has the band musing on 9-5 office life of a bygone era. Watch HERE. or by clicking the image below. 
The Criticals on “Clever Girl” “We really wanted an upbeat, straight forward song to finish out this EP- one to tie all the others together. “Clever Girl” started after having a dance party of all the new tunes we were really digging. Lyrically I felt like I had been writing the same stuff over and over again recently, so I just decided to go off of a personal encounter I had eves-dropping on a couple at a bar a few nights before we started writing the song. We started “Clever Girl” with a desire for a robotic dance song, after a lull of only writing ballads and mid-tempo grooves. We were listening to The Bravery a lot at that time, so the repetitive downstroke nature of the guitars happened organically. Some songs just arrive and it’s difficult to remember which path you took to get there, and that’s what “Clever Girl” was. It more or less fell out of us one afternoon. Friends for more than a decade, having first met as children at music camp – Forbes and Shugart logged time together in Nashville’s wild DIY rock scene. The two musicians quite simply feed off one another’s energy and not only has it made for a close friendship, but an incomparable musical partnership that blends tuneful classicism and indie-rock thrash into a seductive, unforgettable mix. Now, following a pair of highly-regarded EPs—2019’s Mimosa Hygiene and the following year’s Sour Grapes—not to mention a steady diet of raucous live shows, the band is set to release their most accomplished work yet with Front Door Confrontations.” Since officially forming in 2018, The Criticals have proven themselves a powerful duo — one with both a diverse musical appetite in their songwriting and a whiplash live show that’s drawn sellout crowds in major US markets including New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The band will be on tour throughout the summer and fall. Highlights include a hometown show at The Basement East in Nashville on August 2nd, Barboza in Seattle on September 12th, Brick & Mortar in San Francisco on September 15th, and The Echo in Los Angeles on September 18th. Full tour dates are listed below. The Criticals – ON TOUR: July 8 – Pleasantville Music Festival – Pleasantville, NY July 9 – Mr. Smalls Theatre – Millvale, PA July 11 – Open Chord Music – Knoxville, TN July 14 – A&R Music Bar – Columbus, OH Aug 2 – The Basement East – Nashville, TN Sept 5 – Uptown Theatre Encore Room – Kansas City, MO Sept 7 – Vultures – Colorado Springs, CO Sept 8 – Lost Lake – Denver, CO Sept 10 – Kilby Court – Salt Lake City, UT Sept 12 – Barboza – Seattle, WA Sept 13 – Polaris Hall – Portland, OR Sept 15 – Brick & Mortar – San Francisco, CA Sept 17 – Goldfield Trading Post – Sacramento, CA Sept 18 – The Echo – Los Angeles, CA Sept 20 – House of Blues Voodoo Room – San Diego, CA Sept 21 – Valley Bar – Phoenix, AZ The Criticals debut EP Front Door Confrontations out 21st July, 2023 via Fantasy Records. | 
