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IVH: The Bug Club / Rare Birds: Hour of Song [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-01-16
Tonight’s selections from Wales’ The Bug Club’s fourth album, 2023’s Rare Birds: Hour of Song.
I thought, from the cover at least, that it would be another cutesy 10-track indie rock record that pleasantly surprises me but doesn’t wow me in any way — a true 6/10. I was wrong. This is a hidden gem of 2023 and an album I am mad that I didn’t put on my best of 2023 list. This release is a behemoth 47 track, hour and five minute long record about birds, how they are similar to humans and the idiosyncrasies of the human condition we find ourselves in. The record operates with half of the tracklist being short but sweet power pop BANGERS and the other being incredibly short spoken word sketches — usually of the realm of saying a word or two about the next song. This could get old fast, however, with the ludicrously fast pace of the album, it doesn't. [...] This record shook up my whole holiday weekend, to the point where I could not stop humming the melodies off this record, both vocal and instrumental. The lo-fi worship on this album might come off as annoying to some, but to those who pay attention, you’ll find a mesmerizing experience worth the listen. — WXOU
Samuel Was Beautiful Tonight
There’s an old soul to their sound, harking back to the likes of Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers and The Kinks. But is this a conscious effort? Sam says they don’t like to overthink it, "I suppose we do rocky, catchy songs, you know, the bare minimum…with just three of us it can get boring quite quickly if you hang onto stuff for too long so we keep them as short, simple sounding songs which end up being quite stripped back. People might say we’re lo-fi, garage and all that but it’s not a conscious thing, it’s just what we like the sound of and there’s no real effort to sound a certain way.” [...] There’s something truly refreshing about their laid-back attitude and far from being the stereo-typical rock band fighting through the crowd to become stadium superstars, they’d rather enjoy the moment than worry about how many records they’ve sold. Their music’s a sweet but never sickly tonic, their light-hearted performances punctuated by fuzzy hooks and Tilly’s deadpan banter. But is this ‘fun band’ image a misconception, masking a depth and at times darkness which can be found some of their lyrics? Nope, it doesn’t appear so, Sam quick to say that it’s essential to keep things “fun and fresh for the gigs…you can have your lyrics meaning something with a bit of depth but still keep things fun. That’s the mood, really.” Tilly agrees, "we’re not really interested in that whole serious thing – why are you doing it if you’re not having fun? I don’t think there’s any seriousness in it, but if there’s any at all, it ends at the song-writing door.” — Re-Sound
Marriage
I will warn you that at first, the spoken “Burds Wurds” might be jarring to your ears, but they quickly blend into the music and act as the perfect setup for their following track. Oddly enough, Rare Birds also works well if you create a digital playlist with just the actual songs, because the strength of The Bug Club lies in their songwriting. Every genre is represented here, with plenty of indie gold reminiscent of The Clean, a standout being “We All Can’t Play Saxophones.” “Mister, Do You Have The Time For Sittin’?” has a perfect Beatlesque harmony to it, while “The Loudest Violin” rocks with its full blown guitar. “Can Ya Change A Thing Like This?” has an X-style punk rock vibe, where Sam Willmett and Tilly Harris engage in dueling lyrics, which is a standard formula that The Bug Club deploys as their musical chemistry shines. The Bug Club presents intelligent lyrics akin to Pavement, humorous attitudes reminiscent of The Moldy Peaches, and a psychedelic/folk-rock vibe reminiscent of the classic English band, The Soft Boys. This blend of styles and their effortless delivery, along with memorable choruses, provide Rare Birds with significant replay value. The Bug Club demonstrates that the frontiers of music are limitless, and artists can consistently transcend genre conventions. While not every track may appeal to all listeners, those who appreciate the experimental aspects of indie music will discover this album to be a truly unique and rewarding experience. — The Fire Note
Four Sisters
An innate and seemingly-effortless ability to pull random ideas together defines The Bug Club. Their oeuvre is delightfully absurdist, packed with surreal imagery, strange humour and gentle chaos. Do the band see themselves as absurdists? “I just think we’re weird,” answers Tilly. “We’re weird people.” Sam adds: “Whatever comes naturally and feels fun goes in. There’s not a lot of thinking that goes along with it.” Despite their modesty, their artistic antennas are finely-tuned. This has imbued The Bug Club with a unique and unpredictable personality that's often missing in today’s music culture. Be it their eccentric music, extensive touring and DIY quirks, they feel like an indie band from another time. “The label [Bingo] have been super supportive with all that stuff,” Sam elaborates. “On ‘Pure Particles’ we made a board game, and on the first one we included little packets of ‘moon dust’. There’s little download codes in them and we can see that only four people have opened them!” The Bug Club’s adventures have taken them a long way in a brief period of time. However, there are plenty more lands yet to be swept up in their oddball wake. They’ve recently begun making steps towards building a profile in North America. “We went out to New York in June and played a show,” explains Tilly. “It was great and it sold out. We also recorded a radio session there.” Sam then interjects: “The radio people were great, they gave us nice T-shirts.” — Stereoboard
We Can't All Play Saxophones
You’ve released a lot of music in a short amount of time. How do you keep that consistent writing streak going? Sam Willmett: We try to do everything quite quickly, recording everything and the writing especially. It comes in phases. We’ve been really busy gigging and then we write as much as we can when we’re home. We’re doing it right now before we go away on tour towards the end of the year. We’re writing every day. It’s just fun to do really, we write in albums as well. Even if they don’t get used in those albums, it’s a bit of a stream for writing stuff. We do as many as we can in a day and it seems to work out quite naturally. You release a lot on vinyl – why is it an important format for your music? Tilly Harris: It makes you listen to the whole thing in one: you can’t just pick out the good ones. You have to sit there for the awkward album tracks that are a little bit clunky. But it’s what makes the whole album the album. We write in albums, which means we mean it for people to listen to it as a whole, rather than just as singles. Sam: I think all formats have their own thing. The order of the song seems different [on a CD] because you can fit a bit more on it, and it’s one big chunk. It’s a different result, it’s like it has a mixtape mood to it. On vinyl, it definitely seems like there’s a halfway point. Tilly: It’s cool to be able to do different formats and try different song orders to implement the format it’s on. We’ve been thinking about changing the song orders. Sam: Live, as well, you’re playing with a similar sort of thing. The arc of songs ends up being different than what you put on a record. Tilly: We think of it in terms of sides when we record, because we’re primarily thinking about vinyl, but we were thinking about the idea of changing [the sequence]. - Buzz
Fully Clothed
WHO’S TALKING TO WHO?
Jimmy Kimmel: Fernanda Torres, flipturn
Jimmy Fallon: Kenny Chesney, Brooke Shields, Mekki Leeper, Dusty Slay
Stephen Colbert: Kate Winslet, Jharrel Jerome
Seth Meyers: Keke Palmer, Sarah Sherman
After Midnight: Kurt Braunohler, Opey Olagbaju, Mamrie Hart (R 12/2/24)
Watch What Happens Live: Patricia Arquette, Gwendoline Christie
The Daily Show: Rep. Tom Suozzi, host Jordan Klepper
[END]
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