{"title":"Bingo Records","description":"\u003cp\u003eIndependent record label now based in Sheffield, UK. Founded 2017 in Lancaster by Lloyd Bent, Ben Hall and Zac Barfoot.\r\n\r\n*any CAT numbers missing from the sequence were allocated to books or are for planned releases to come.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"rare-birds-2","title":"Rare Birds","description":"\u003cp\u003eAfter a live album (of new, one-off tracks) and an EP to get the year started at a leisurely pace, 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. Their eighth release since joining forces with Bingo Records in 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. And it is 47-songs long, featuring 23 Cutler-esque spoken-word tracks that weave through the music telling a surreal story to accompany the band’s usual witty, taut garage rock. Oh, and it comes with a fully illustrated, 32-page book. Vocalist and guitarist Sam Willmett attempts to explain: “All the songs were written in our summer holiday lull before we went away to tour (debut album) Green Dream in F♯ last year. Then we picked the lucky winners to go on the album when we got home around Christmas. “We just wrote every day we were home, mostly in the garden. That’s probably why it's vaguely about birds. All the songs are in the order they were written apart from the last two which we swapped around. I only actually remember writing one 11 song, ‘Passionflower, Paperbacks and Woodlice’, which came about as I was sat by a passionflower when a woodlouse crawled over my paperback. I thought it looked and sounded nice. We wrote the wordy bits in one hit around the songs once the record was nearly done. One big story. We think the record is like a fall asleep relaxation tape with the cartoon ‘burd’ narrating and guiding you.” Need to know more? 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\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bingo Records","offers":[{"title":"Black LPx2","offer_id":50434937094475,"sku":"2055865","price":29.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/The_Bug_Club__Rare_Birds_BINGO044_4196a70c_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1726896986"},{"product_id":"letting-out-the-slack","title":"Letting Out The Slack","description":"\u003cp\u003e London band Career are set to release their new EP \u003ci\u003eLetting Out The Slack\u003c\/i\u003e, having signed to Sheffield-based independent label Bingo Records (Mr Ben and the Bens, Potpourri, John Myrtle).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA triumphant follow-up to 2019’s self-titled debut EP,\u003ci\u003e Letting Out The Slack \u003c\/i\u003esees the band on form with more of their trademark tricky guitar interplay and groove-based rhythms with a frantic vocal delivery. On the back of (pre-lockdown) gigs with Omni, Flat Worms and Corridor, Career set about writing their latest collection - produced by drummer Jonny Coddington at Bottle Rocket Recordings - early this year. Calling to mind aspects of Gang of Four, Scars and other Fast Product groups, career’s music is smart, angular, doesn’t stay around too long and makes its point with precision. Guitarist Jack Sutherland elaborated: “The title of the EP comes from my love of misheard or made up phrases - it sounds vaguely nautical or could be a proverb, but also implies that there's a lack of slack in the record. “Hopefully people will realise we don't take our music too seriously; we play because we enjoy playing that way. Humour is important to us, but we don't want to become too sardonic or self-righteous. We like playing fast, so that's why the EP is fast. We had a lot of fun writing and recording it so we're hoping everyone finds it fun to listen to.\"\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bingo Records","offers":[{"title":"Black | 12\"","offer_id":50465294516555,"sku":"1132000","price":13.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/5b79de82-b102-4d50-8cac-64dd7d8172fd_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727285308"},{"product_id":"green-dream-in-f-xsn77r","title":"Green Dream in F#","description":"\u003cp\u003eIs art still there, when the gallery’s closed? Can you do outsider art when you’re in your house? Is insider art what people do down in London? How come I’m literally not an artist because my art is perceived as shit, and that woman I met once in Leeds is perceived as an artist when her art is literally shit? What the fuck IS art? Can dogs do it?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThus went my anguished cries, as I projected across the undulating Peak District vistas, from within Bingo towers at the highest point in Sheffield. I had, once again, been given a mere D+ in my art GCSE, at the fifth attempt.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDown in South East Wales, my cries fell not on deaf ears.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eYou see those that can’t, run record labels. But those who can, form groups called things like The Bug Club. Unsurprisingly it was they who, interrupted by my cries as they were being regaled with the tale of Tilly’s dog Ted’s latest dream, immediately conceived an entire musical sequence that may or may not be in the key of F# (who gives a shit about that?).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe thing is, hailing from the provinces as we all do, we’d never encountered the kind of culture those of you in the capital are lucky enough to enjoy. Thus, not one of The Bug Club nor the Bingo Records politburo knew what to do with this piece of musical art.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFortunately the vinyl revival - a term completely unknown to us and therefore something we buy into completely free of any cynical baggage - reared its grey, whiskery head and, between telling us how much it liked Sarah Records and comparing Tilly to Angus Young, informed us of a thing called a debut album.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is one of those.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bingo Records","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":50469201346891,"sku":"2007822","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/product_id._71d30655_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727358109"},{"product_id":"who-knows-jenny-jones","title":"Who Knows Jenny Jones","description":"\u003cp\u003eMr Ben and The Bens is the brainchild of polymath musician Ben Hall. The record is an experimental pop exploration of a kitchen sink narrative with a celestial twist. Originating from Lancaster’s thriving co-operative DIY scene, Ben is now based in Sheffield and his adopted city has had a profound influence on the concept of the new album. With \u003ci\u003eWho Knows Jenny Jones,\u003c\/i\u003e he tells the tale of a shrinking violet called Jenny from Sheffield who gets abducted by aliens and becomes the best disco dancer in town. For the new album, Ben played all the instruments himself in his tiny room in Sheffield. He branches away from his lo-fi acoustic folk roots to embrace more electronic territory, exploring a new sonic palette whilst still occupying the signature world of MBatB. Ben has a canny knack of writing songs that reflect his ability to see the noteworthy in the everyday. His ear for melody shines through the songwriting, blending lo-fi experimental folk-pop with an emphasis on melody and lyricism, inspired artists including The Velvet Underground, Jeff Tweedy, Of Montreal and Cate le Bon. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Bingo Records","offers":[{"title":"White | LP","offer_id":50516304822603,"sku":"1077861","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/efb2eb7c-4da5-4ad1-a110-db5dd51a8df4_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727941390"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/collections\/test_31b78cc6_thumbnail_4096_1d1b13b9-25d9-4f7f-bbb9-e7f067acbc54.jpg?v=1726119514","url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/collections\/bingo-records.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}