{"id":221683,"date":"2025-10-24T02:39:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T02:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/221683\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T02:39:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T02:39:15","slug":"sports-team-share-wistful-single-medium-machine-and-announce-deluxe-edition-of-boys-these-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/221683\/","title":{"rendered":"Sports Team share wistful single ‘Medium Machine’ and announce deluxe edition of ‘Boys These Days’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sports Team<\/a> have shared new single \u2018Medium Machine\u2019 from a forthcoming deluxe edition of \u2018Boys These Days\u2019<\/a>. Listen below.<\/p>\n

The wistful, country-tinged track is one of seven new songs that will appear on the forthcoming expanded record, which is due for release on November 5 via Distiller\/Bright Antenna (pre-order\/pre-save here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\u201cI read somewhere that [Stephen] Malkmus<\/a> started Pavement<\/a> trying to sound like The Fall<\/a>. To me, \u2018Medium Machine\u2019 is what it would have sounded like if he\u2019d wanted to be Men At Work<\/a>,\u201d explained lyricist and guitarist Rob Knaggs.<\/p>\n

Also featuring elements of slacker rock from the \u201990s, \u2018Medium Machine\u2019 includes the lines: \u201cBut I don\u2019t care if you love me\/ I don\u2019t care if you tell me you love me\/ I don\u2019t care if you want me to love you.\u201d<\/p>\n

We then hear a distorted solo over a swirling instrumental that takes us to the single\u2019s outro. The song is accompanied by a Kris Rimmer-directed music video. It depicts the band members performing as teenagers in their bedrooms, while dipping into some dreamlike scenes. Watch here:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Speaking about the seven new tracks on the deluxe album, including upcoming single \u2018Pet Sounds\u2019, Knaggs continued: \u201cThese songs were written at the same time as the \u2018Boys These Days\u2019 demos, but fell in between two piles. We had the electro-clash material, that was piling up in the \u2018maybes\u2019 pile, and the Prefab Sprout-influenced tracks.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Living In Skin\u2019 and \u2018In America\u2019 were in the electro-clash heap. They were written in January 2023. I think I had probably heard The Dare<\/a>\u2019s \u2018Girls\u2019 and was having flashbacks to \u2018Youth Speed Trouble Cigarettes\u2019-era Kitsune compilations. I don\u2019t think we really had it in us for a full album of electroclash, but this is the vestigial appendix of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201c\u2018Germany\u2019 and \u2018Dog Country\u2019 we just ran out of time for. At some point the working title for the album was \u2018Dog Country\u2019. I thought it was a good stand-in for suburbia. When we got to Norway to record, though, it didn\u2019t feel so urgent, and by the time we were finishing up the mixes, it had been benched.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Shoegazr\u2019 is sort of in between the two. I don\u2019t think anyone ever thought it really fit into either potential album. Ben played guitar on it which is a one off. We were going for a Drop Nineteens thing, but I think listening now, it maybe sounds more like Miike Snow<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The tracklist for Sports Team\u2019s \u2018Boys These Days (Deluxe)\u2019 is:<\/p>\n

1. \u2018I\u2019m In Love (Subaru)\u2019
2. \u2018Boys These Days\u2019
3. \u2018Moving Together\u2019
4. \u2018Condensation\u2019
5. \u2018Sensible\u2019
6. \u2018Planned Obsolescence\u2019
7. \u2018Bang Bang Bang\u2019
8. \u2018Head To Space\u2019
9. \u2018Bonnie\u2019
10. \u2018Maybe When We\u2019re 30\u2019
11. \u2018Medium Machine\u2019
12. \u2018Pet Sounds\u2019
13. \u2018Living In Skin\u2019 (demo)
14. \u2018Shoegazr\u2019 (demo)
15. \u2018In America\u2019 (demo)
16. \u2018Dog Country\u2019 (demo)
17. \u2018Germany\u2019 (demo)<\/p>\n

Sports Team released the original edition of \u2018Boys These Days\u2019 \u2013 their third studio album \u2013 in May. NME gave the record a four-star review<\/a>, writing: \u201cSports Team flip the narrative of an increasingly stark, divided world to embrace the childlike side of human nature, staying true to that foundational principle of the band.<\/p>\n

\u201cSonically, it\u2019s a step up from the guitar-driven mayhem that characterised their roots, without just slapping some synths on top like many of their indie counterparts. In reality, they\u2019ve never sounded closer to that wacky, eccentric live band down your local on a Friday night \u2013 and maybe that\u2019s where their truest form lies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Sports Team are set to head out on a UK headline tour next month. Find any remaining tickets here<\/a>, and see the full schedule below.<\/p>\n

Sports Team\u2019s 2025 UK headline tour dates are:\u00a0<\/p>\n

NOVEMBER\u00a0
5 \u2013 Manchester Academy, Manchester
6 \u2013 The Art School, Glasgow
7 \u2013 O2 Institute, Birmingham
8 \u2013 Leeds University Stylus, Leeds
12 \u2013 Patterns, Brighton
13 \u2013 The Waterfront, Norwich
14 \u2013 Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth
15 \u2013 Electric Brixton, London<\/p>\n

Sports Team recently cancelled some of their European dates<\/a>, citing financial issues. \u201cTouring as a six-piece band is an extremely stupid business model,\u201d they explained. \u201cNormally we\u2019re able to make things work, this time we couldn\u2019t justify the financial risk.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sports Team have shared new single \u2018Medium Machine\u2019 from a forthcoming deluxe edition of \u2018Boys These Days\u2019. Listen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,3583,128,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-221683","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-indie","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}