Saskatoon band’s self-titled album streaming for free online

The Sheepdogs officially release their fourth full-length album today. The album has already been streaming in full on ESPN.com.

The self-titled album follows a video for the single “The Way It Is”, which features the four-piece mauling a group of little leaguers in a game of baseball.

For the release the band worked with the Black Keys’ Patrick Carney and Austin Scaggs, who penned the infamous Rolling Stone magazine article that simultaneously shot the group into super stardom and irked some local loudmouths.

The album is part of the major label deal the band scored as part of winning the Rolling Stone magazine cover contest in 2011, and is a key component in the ‘Dogs plan to take over the world, says front man Ewan Currie.

“Some of these songs have been around for longer – a lot of the material has been kicking around for over a year,” says Currie. “Our lives have just been a lot of crazy traveling and I didn’t really just want to write an album about life on the road or anything cheesy like that. But the life we were leading did manage to creep into a lot of the music.

“I think of this album as an extension to what we are already doing,” he continues. “After our first wide exposure last year and we needed to make that momentum continue. I think there is a lot of room for us to grow our audience particularly outside of Canada – a lot of people have no idea have no idea who we are. So with this album there is definitely a push to get more people to listen to the music.

The Sheepdogs have yet to officially announce their Canadian tour dates, but Currie says fans across the country can expect to see the band before the end of the year.

“In September we are starting our US tour, which will be about six weeks long, and then tour Canada until Christmas,” says Currie. “And in the new year we are heading to Australia and the UK. And it just keeps going.”