Full disclosure: I’d listened to bits and pieces of songs from The Bug Club over the past year and a bit, but I was quick to dismiss them as something that was just not for me. But when new blog fave The Boojums were announced as an opener for their Toronto show, I figured I’d give them a more serious listen. I’m happy to report that I was way wrong: The Bug Club is now a band I can’t wait to see live.
It was “Have U Ever Been 2 Wales” (above) that got me – there’s something earnest and charming about that song that convinced me to give their latest album On the Intricate Inner Workings of the System from last August a closer listen. Am I ever glad I did. I spent the whole weekend listening to it.
“Quality Pints” is a classic in my house already, and in my 20s it would have been my personal anthem. It’s great on the record, but it’s even better in this KEXP session:
The Bug Club just oozes lo-fi DIY charm. They’re jangly and scrappy, with songs that aren’t concerned with being deep or cutting. The Bug Club wants to have a laugh and take the piss, and this record does it in spades. In the KEXP interview, and in this piece in NME, Sam Willmett talks about his songwriting process:
“I always feel like a dickhead when I say this, but I usually make a nice hot cup of tea and then try to smash [a song] in one go,” Willmett continues, before his co-writer, bassist and vocalist Tilly Harris, cuts in witheringly: “The arrogance, the arrogance.” They collapse into laughter before Willmett recovers to say: “It’s not even really on purpose.”
The songs do have a dashed-off quality to them, but that’s part of the charm. Album fave “A Bit Like James Bond” is another fuzzy, cheeky earworm that could have been released by any number of Sub Pop bands over the years. It’s perfect:
This is Bug Club: fun ideas, catchy melodies, lyrics that bring you back for seconds, and they’re over before they have a chance to wear thin.
Then this morning as I’m preparing to hit ‘publish’ on this, Bug Club announced their upcoming album Very Human Features, and released the first single “Jealous Boy”, with soft/loud/soft energy featuring a gentle, almost tender melody and some fun theatrics and some artwork that looks like Al Runt at his most unhinged:
There’s a whole bizarre story about releasing two full-length records under different band names, which underlines the misfit-ness of their approach: they’re not unserious musicians, they’re just eccentric weirdos with little restraint. We’ll see how having a record deal affects it.
At any rate, since late last week I’ve gone from a Bug Club skeptic to a card-carrying member. Can’t wait to see them do it live. Looks like tickets are still available.
