This Is a Test... Is a Stand-Off Against the Scroll

There's a certain kind of tension baked into the phrase "this is a test." It's a warning. A calibration. A deep breath before impact.

For Orlando's soul-rocking nonet The Sh-Booms, it's also a mission statement.

Out now, This Is a Test... is the band's first new recorded release since 2019 - four tracks that keep the groove front and center, but refuse to shrink themselves into algorithm-sized portions. The EP stretches and mutates across soul, funk, New Wave, post-punk, and psychedelia without losing the thing that's always powered The Sh-Booms: music that's meant to be felt in your body, not watched through a screen.

Patience isn't a drawback - it's the point

On paper, the title This Is a Test... might read like a concept record cue. In practice, it hits harder than that. It's a challenge to the listener - and, honestly, a challenge to the band themselves.

When Music Coast asked bandleader/bassist Alfred "Al" Ruiz what the EP is "testing," he didn't pick just one answer.

Alfred Ruiz: "it's a bit of all of that. life is a test of patience, a testament of the will to exist how you wanna exist. we were guinea pigs in a new studio. and ya, will the audience hate this?"

That "test of patience" isn't abstract - it's built into the music. Two of the EP's songs run well past the streaming-era comfort zone, but they don't feel indulgent. They feel intentional. Like the band is choosing to stay in the moment long enough for the moment to actually mean something.

Alfred Ruiz: "we live in this moment in time where no one has patience. this shit algorithm of quick fix, no brain matter involved content is what this is a stand off is against. human hands and hearts, minds exploring a space. soul & rhythm first off, and maybe the story lines to decipher what keeps the arrangements moving."

That's the heartbeat of This Is a Test...: not nostalgia, not "retro," not cosplay - just a band insisting that art can still be long-form, physical, and alive.

A nonet that moves like one organism

With nine members, The Sh-Booms can hit with the force of a big band, then pivot into something tighter, stranger, or sharper without warning. What makes the EP work is how clearly the band understands their internal architecture - who holds the spine of the groove, and who gets to haunt the edges of it.

Ruiz says these particular songs started in a stripped-down place - then grew outward like a story being scored in real time.

Alfred Ruiz: "it's different with every track. these tracks in particular started as a skeleton with simple guitar chords/vocals. the rhythm section built the bones and horns played counter to the songs story line and vocal melodies."

That approach keeps the EP from turning into a collage of genres. Even when it swerves, it's still one narrative voice - told through rhythm, tension, and release.

The parentheticals aren't decoration - they're ghosts and weather

Two track titles on the EP include parentheticals: "Love of a Ghost (Shivvvers)" and "Sin & the City (Heavy Weather)." It's the kind of detail most releases would treat as a quirky flourish. Here, it reads like a clue.

According to Ruiz, those tags aren't random - they're functional.

Alfred Ruiz: "shivvvers on love of a ghost is an internal tag to a past life. heavy weather on sin & the city plays to the ambient, and haunting sounds built to help tell the story. hardships of city life."

In other words: the parentheses are part of the storytelling. A way of naming the emotional temperature of a song without over-explaining it.

Snake Arcade sessions: long friendships, harder pushes

This Is a Test... was produced at The Snake Arcade in Orlando by engineer/producer Alan Armitage, then mastered by Emily Lazar at The Lodge Mastering in New York. The credits matter - but what matters more is the relationship behind them.

Ruiz and Armitage go back decades, and that history created the kind of studio environment where nobody had to play it safe.

Alfred Ruiz: "alan is an excellent producer/engineer. we've been friends for over 20 years, we played in a band called vox palma in our youth. he knows like half the band just as long - he pushed us all to our creative limits (hence, this is a test)."

The "happy accident" that made it onto the record

Some of the most unforgettable sounds aren't planned - they're discovered. Ruiz points to one moment in particular that reshaped the feel of the EP right at the top of it.

Alfred Ruiz: "the one happy accident that sticks out to me on the record is in the intro to love of a ghost. the blown out drums came from an error - we ended up really digging the extended a feel of this goth/industrial rumble. feelings of your innards exploding into chaos when your world is spinning out of control."

That's the kind of detail that tells you exactly what you're hearing: not a band chasing perfection, but a band chasing the truth of a feeling - even if it arrives through a mistake.

Tracklist: This Is a Test...

  • Love of a Ghost (Shivvvers)
  • This Is a Test...
  • Broken Open
  • Sin & the City (Heavy Weather)

Where to listen (and how to grab the vinyl)

The EP is streaming now, and there's a limited-run 12-inch vinyl pressing available through the band (and at select shows).

Music Coast takeaway: This Is a Test... doesn't just announce The Sh-Booms are back. It proves they're willing to get weirder, longer, and more fearless - while still keeping the dancefloor as the final destination.