Search Results for:

THE BUG CLUB

The Bug Club

Rare Birds: Hour Of Song

    The Bug Club cap off 2023 with their second full-length album - an hour-and-a-bit long double LP called 'Rare Birds: Hour of Song'.

    Now then, what could you possibly have to say that takes two records to spit out? Pay attention to this and learn. It's The Bug Club's Hex Enduction Hour. South Wales' Double Nickels On The Dime. It's The Faust Cycle for people with shorter attention spans. Listen to me, why don't you. I'm from the label. I'm relevant. I have a huuuuge record collection, I love name-dropping, and I don't have many friends.

    Their eighth release since joining forces with Bingo Records in summer 2020, 'Rare Birds...' is a culmination of a year spent relentlessly touring. But it's not one of those hackneyed road records. It's about birds, to an extent. Well, it is, and it isn't.

    Spare us an hour and four minutes. That's what we're asking of you here. It's a big ask, these days.

    But if you do, you'll find yourself entrenched in an immersive world of The Bug Club. The other records - with the sardonic and surreal, the riffs and the obsession with outer space - were a run up. With 'Rare Birds...' Sam, Tilly and Dan have created an expansive environment in which we can all bask in a cocktail of garage rock, poetry, nonsense, wordplay, sentimentality and fuck-offs. Ivor Cutler's come round to play with Gordon Gano and Kimya Dawson in a semi-detached in Caldicot. They've made something you're going to really like.

    STAFF COMMENTS

    Barry says: Snapping percussion and raucous guitar lines, swimming in post-punk waters but with a wry and keen humour to go along with the impeccable jagged garage-rock instrumentation. Another killer outing from Bingo records.

    TRACK LISTING

    1. burds Wurds - My First Lie
    2. Samuel Was Beautiful Tonight
    3. burds Wurds - For Feeling
    4. I Will Feel The Same
    5. burds Wurds - Tomorrow's Triangle
    6. Undone
    7. burds Wurds - I Think We'll Go With This
    8. Fully Clothed
    9. burds Wurds - The Key
    10. Marriage 03:36
    11. burds Wurds - Shut My Beak
    12. Four Sisters
    13. burds Wurds - What's Your Sweet Cereal?
    14. Is This The Music You Like?
    15. Can Ya Change A Thing Like This?
    16. burds Wurds - Hot Emptiness
    17. We Can't All Play Saxophones
    18. burds Wurds - Big Gold Medallion
    19. Short And Round 02:40
    20. burds Wurds - Louder Than Normal Ha Ha Ha
    21. Passionflower, Paperbacks And Woodlice
    22. burds Wurds - The Pantry Flap
    23. Blues Magicians
    24. burds Wurds - The Big Frog
    25. Strawberry Season
    26. burds Wurds - It's Lovely
    27. Do It All Again
    28. burds Wurds - Really Nice
    29. Drown Me Out
    30. burds Wurds - Twelve Surnames
    31. One Big Heavy Person
    32. burds Wurds - More Of A Pretty Turkish Bookmark
    33. Mister Do You Have The Time For Sittin'?
    34. burds Wurds - Fish Tongue
    35. In My Hour Of Song
    36. The Loudest Violin
    37. burds Wurds - Now We Can Move On
    38. Antique Heirlooms
    39. burds Wurds - Cubed Up!
    40. Cheap Linen
    41. Burds Wurds - Something Small
    42. Rare Birds
    43. burds Wurds - Ready For Living
    44. Three Brians
    45. burds Wurds - From One Rare Bird
    46. Wide Awake Forever
    47. Burds Wurds - This Story's End

    The Bug Club

    Pure Particles

      'Pure Particles' follows the great sellout success of The Bug Club's debut EP 'Launching Moondream One'. Again released on Bingo Records, it sees the South Wales trio deliver a larger portion of raucous, riffing garage shot through with a sense of humour that reminds you that, while they may be excellent musicians, they're certainly not going to bore you about that.

      TRACK LISTING

      1. The Word Of God 00:35
      2. My Baby Loves Rock & Roll Music 02:37
      3. Vegetable Garden 02:56
      4. The Fixer 02:27
      5. Pure Particles 02:13
      6. Jonathan's Gone 02:07
      7. If My Mother Thinks I'm Happy 04:22
      8. A Love Song 01:14
      9. Pure Particles Theme 01:37

      The Bug Club

      Launching Pure Moondream Particles One

        The Bug Club’s name does a good job of introducing the band & their music: a tight-knit, collaborative effort focused on telling tales of the everyday that we often take for granted, shot through with humour & riffs-a-plenty.

        Imagine Jonathan Richman bought a really big amp & a time machine & found himself somewhere on the Nuggets compilation. Or perhaps Ray Davis palled up with Sterling Morrison, got really into The Minutemen & agreed that songs need not be longer than two minutes. Then, maybe, you’re almost where the Welsh three-piece are coming from.

        The creative trio of Sam Willmett (guitar/vocals), Tilly Harris (bass/vocals) and Dan Matthew (drums) formed The Bug Club in 2016 in the little-known rock n' roll hotbed that is Caldicot, Monmouthshire. Following relentless gigging in their local area, The Bug Club were picked up by Bingo Records & released their first proper single - ‘We Don’t Need Room For Lovin’ - in February 2021. It garnered immediate acclaim, with BBC 6 Music’s resident tastemaker Marc Riley playing it a few times a week ever since & booking them in for a post-lockdown live session right off the bat. The announcement of the EP ‘Launching Moondream One’ followed - as did the release of second single ‘Checkmate’, with which came a similar level of radio airplay. And then the same again for the EP's title track.

        First and foremost a live band, the band record as a group quickly, capturing the energy & sound of the gigs that make them such a popular fixture on the live circuit. 

        RIYL: The Modern Lovers, The Wave Pictures, The Vaselines, The Velvet Underground, The Kinks.

        TRACK LISTING

        1. Checkmate 02:13
        2. All Of The Scariest Monsters Live In London 02:04
        3. We Don't Need Room For Lovin' 02:00
        4. Launching Moondream One 01:33
        5. The Word Of God 00:35
        6. My Baby Loves Rock & Roll Music 02:37
        7. Vegetable Garden 02:56
        8. The Fixer 02:27
        9. Pure Particles 02:13
        10. Jonathan's Gone 02:07
        11. If My Mother Thinks I'm Happy 04:22
        12. A Love Song 01:14
        13. Pure Particles Theme 01:37

        The Bug Club

        Green Dream In F#

          Green Dream in F# is a culmination of The Bug Club universe that has been constructed over the course of two sold out EPs, a couple of standalone singles, and the kind of relentless touring the band has quickly become known for. ‘It’s Art’ is a typically short piece of garage pop perfection, beginning quietly and with singer and guitarist Sam Willmett listing the band’s musical heroes in the manner similar to one of those he namechecks: Jonathan Richman. The band’s ever-present sardonic wit is at the forefront, as they question the meaning and purpose of art - and in turn themselves - before throwing in a blistering guitar riff and the trademark duel-vocals between Sam and Tilly Harris (bass, vocals) before things get too serious.

          The band say this first single sets the tone for the album, and musically it presents us with a refined version of what we have come to expect on the basis of previous releases: whip-smart pop songs performed flawlessly and with humour by one of the tightest musical units going. As indicated by the names of both first single and album, The Bug Club’s debut LP shows the band taking a long, hard look at the way the music industry - and by extension the art world - takes itself so seriously, and deciding to ignore that and carry on doing things on their own terms.

          Riding atop drummer Dan Matthew’s relentlessly solid foundation, Green Dream in F# packs in 14 tracks covering favourite The Bug Club topics including space, small town life, love and swearing. Sam and Tilly’s playing could be virtuosic if they were in any way arrogant, but they’re not, and so well-crafted and at times complex guitar work sits neatly within the sharp song structures that never stick around too long, and backs engaging and, at times, laugh-out-loud funny lyrical storytelling.

          Following the remarkable DIY success of early EPs Launching Moondream One and Pure Particles (also available via Bingo Records), Green Dream in F# shows a band not at all phased by the prospect of putting out their debut full length. Instead, they use the space to stretch their abilities and create something as cohesive, involved and engrossing as you’d expect the imaginary, dog-directed symphony their LP’s name pokes fun at to be.

          TRACK LISTING

          1. Only In Love
          2. Six O’Clock News
          3. Little Coy Space Boy
          4. Love Is A Painting
          5. It’s Art
          6. Love For Two
          7. My Guy
          8. Going Down
          9. Yesterday’s Paper
          10. Sitting On The Rings Of Saturn
          11. Christmas Lullaby
          12. Love Letters From Jupiter
          13. Some Things Sound Better In Space
          14. Green Dream In F#


          Latest Pre-Sales

          154 NEW ITEMS

          E-newsletter —
          Sign up
          Back to top