The Bug Club - Very Human Features - Purple - VINYL LP

The Bug Club are back with a new album. It's been a whole seven months since their last. Where have they been?Every Single Muscle, the band's fifth LP overall, is the third to be released by the Welsh duo's esteemed Seattle-based patrons Sub Pop. Since Very Human Features, which emerged in June of 2025, the non-stop tour has seen the BBC 6 Music and KEXP favourites ping-pong across the Atlantic like they used to the Severn Bridge. Various festival slots in the summer kept them from having any sort of holiday - who needs one when you live in Wales anyway? - until it was time to head back to the writing room. Which is most likely still a bedroom in Caldicott frequented by a greyhound called Ted (listen out - he shows up in one of the songs). Ever self-effacing, songwriters Sam (guitar, vocals) and Tilly (bass, vocals) go as far as to claim that they've been sitting around Inchdoing nothing at allInch during the song InchIt's Our Manager David.Inch That's clearly a lie. Every Single Muscle gets off to a full-throttle, chugging start with InchMiss Wales 2012,Inch referencing a competition both Tilly and Sam have actually won. It's the first of many sub-two-minute tracks on the album, setting the tone for The Bug Club's punkiest offering yet and recalling both the short, sharp snaps of their very first singles and the grunt of recent releases. So packed is the album with wall-to-wall riffs and lyrical hooks rammed into tight confines that Sam actually asks permission to squeeze in a solo during second track InchA Good Day For Dying.Inch He's given two seconds. Happily, Sam asks again later on and is granted more. Across eighteen tunes there's enough classic Sam/Tilly guitar interplay to satisfy even the most vociferous Bug Club club member and firmly refute the band's own claim that they are only Inchjust about technically proficient on our instruments.Inch This record's a

The way you're saying it, InchprolificInch isn't the right word for The Bug Club. You've got to say it with the trademark Welsh lilt and pay due homage to this inimitable band's origins in the renowned hit factory of Caldicot, South Wales. Do that, and you're about right with how to summarize a group who've released ten singles, two albums, two EPs, three things nobody knew how to describe, and an album under a different band's name, all since 2021, and while playing 200+ gigs a year.Initially comprising the songwriting core of Sam Willmett (vocals/guitar) and Tilly Harris (vocals/bass) with Dan Matthew (drums), The Bug Club started plying their trade in 2016. They were signed by UK tag Bingo Records in Autumn of 2020. BBC 6 Music's Marc Riley was an early champion, hammering the single, booking the band in for a session as soon as it was allowed, and rightfully praising songwriters capable of singing the whole alphabet in a two-minute song and making it work. Third LP On The Intricate Inner Workings Of The System - their first for Sub Pop - sees the band serve up a beefy slab of their speciality Modern-Lovers-meets-Nuggets garage rock. There's B-52's call-and-response fun mixed with AC/DC power chord grunt. Leaning towards fast-paced punk, opening double salvo InchWar MoviesInch and InchQuality PintsInch sets out the stall duel vocal piss-taking, surreal takes on everyday topics that go full circle and become profound, riffs all day long and then all the next day too. InchQuality PintsInch deals with the pressing concerns of any conscientious touring outfit, taking to heart the rule of the three R's as penned by renowned fellow pints fan Mark E. Smith of The Fall. Repetition, repetition, repetition. If it's that important, which it is, it's worth saying again. InchWar MoviesInch dresses distorted chugging with a comprehensive 'best of' list for the genre, with Sam W

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 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. Watch out for them at a gig near you soon, as bookings are coming thick and fast.RIYL The Modern Lovers, The Wave Pictures, The Vaselines, The Velvet Underground, The Kinks.1. The Word of God2. My Baby Loves Rock & Roll Music3. Vegetable Garden4. The Fixer5. Pure Particles 6. Jonathan's Gone7. If My Mother Thinks I'm Happy8. A Love Song9. Pure Particles Theme