{"title":"The Bug Club","description":null,"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":"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":"angels-and-devils","title":"Angels and Devils","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Bug returns with a new album, 'Angels and Devils' - The long-awaited follow-up to 2008′s 'London Zoo'. 'Angels and Devils' continues where the Acid Ragga label 7\"s left off. Split into two distinct themes, exploring lightness and darkness (think David Bowie's 'Low' and Can's 'Tago Mago'), the album boasts a huge list of collaborators - some new, some familiar - including Liz Harris of Grouper, ex-Hype Williams artist Inga Copeland, Death Grips, Flowdan, Gonjasufi, Warrior Queen, Miss Red, and Manga.CD in a gatefold remus spine sleeve printed both inside and out. LP - 180 gram double vinyl in a gatefold sleeve printed inside and out. Vinyl includes download code.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ninja Tune","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50492816523595,"sku":"377943","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/6151fdb4-ebb4-415c-ae23-65edb02e814e_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1727693523"},{"product_id":"machines-i-v","title":"Machines I-V","description":"\u003cp\u003eMaverick UK producer Kevin Richard Martin (Zonal \/ Techno Animal \/ King Midas Sound) joins Relapse for the release of his devastating new double album Machine, his first solo instrumental record as THE BUG. Machine started life as a series of self-released \"floor weapons\" (to use Martin’s description), landing in installments between 2023 and 2024 on the Bandcamp page of Martin’s own PRESSURE label. And now - always his intention - Martin has collated a single, powerful, unified statement from those EPs. The album detonates apocalyptic dread-tech mutations of crushing intensity, fusing a unique new strain of futuristic dub with deadly deep electronics and killer bass riffs worthy of the heaviest metal. It is, writes Martin, “ice cold and dystopian.” It celebrates “atmospheric pressure, and the joy of full body assaults, via oversized sound systems in undersized club rooms.” Machine also represents the latest metamorphosis of the \"Macro Dub Infection\" philosophy Martin germinated with the groundbreaking series of compilations he began curating for Virgin Records as early as the mid 90’s. As THE BUG, Martin’s music is formed from an overwhelmingly explosive sub- bass pressure, as relentlessly in-the-red beat production amplifies mutant industrial sound design, fuzzed, expectant crackle, and bleak greyscale harmonics.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Relapse","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":50525597696331,"sku":"2221595","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/470148_cd822b02_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1728035109"},{"product_id":"machine-quad-edition-vinyl","title":"Machine","description":"\u003cp\u003eMaverick UK producer Kevin Richard Martin (Zonal \/ Techno Animal \/ King Midas Sound) joins Relapse for the release of his devastating new double album Machine, his first solo instrumental record as THE BUG. Machine started life as a series of self-released \"floor weapons\" (to use Martin’s description), landing in installments between 2023 and 2024 on the Bandcamp page of Martin’s own PRESSURE label. And now - always his intention - Martin has collated a single, powerful, unified statement from those EPs. The album detonates apocalyptic dread-tech mutations of crushing intensity, fusing a unique new strain of futuristic dub with deadly deep electronics and killer bass riffs worthy of the heaviest metal. It is, writes Martin, “ice cold and dystopian.” It celebrates “atmospheric pressure, and the joy of full body assaults, via oversized sound systems in undersized club rooms.” Machine also represents the latest metamorphosis of the \"Macro Dub Infection\" philosophy Martin germinated with the groundbreaking series of compilations he began curating for Virgin Records as early as the mid 90’s. As THE BUG, Martin’s music is formed from an overwhelmingly explosive sub- bass pressure, as relentlessly in-the-red beat production amplifies mutant industrial sound design, fuzzed, expectant crackle, and bleak greyscale harmonics.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Relapse","offers":[{"title":"Black LP","offer_id":50527577145675,"sku":"2221594","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/a0288052087_10_11a910ef_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1728055295"},{"product_id":"on-the-intricate-inner-workings-of-the-system","title":"On The Intricate Inner Workings Of The System","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe first Sub Pop album by the wonderful Welsh trio The Bug Club is filled with thrillingly witty and energetic catchy punk. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe way you’re saying it, “prolific” 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 label 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.  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThird LP \u003ci\u003eOn The Intricate Inner Workings Of The System\u003c\/i\u003e - 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 “War Movies” and “Quality Pints” 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. “Quality Pints” 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. “War Movies” dresses distorted chugging with a comprehensive ‘best of’ list for the genre, with Sam Willmett offering a solo casually chucked out in a way that will make your dad promptly give up any resurgent guitar playing ambitions. And “A Bit Like James Bond” tackles the UK’s sleaziest undercover export at the same time as the embarrassing ego problem that besets much of its population - but it’s only heavy(ish) in the fun, loads-of-riffs sense. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sub Pop","offers":[{"title":"Clear LP | Rough Trade Exclusive","offer_id":50531023618379,"sku":"2208079","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Orange LP","offer_id":50531023389003,"sku":"2208078","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":50531023192395,"sku":"2208077","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/TheBugClub_OTIIWOTS_1500px_369edbe9_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1728090348"},{"product_id":"very-human-features","title":"Very Human Features","description":"\u003ch4\u003e\u003cspan style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.roughtrade.com\/browse\/albums-of-the-year-2025\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAlbums of the Year 2025: #75\n\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/h4\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Bug Club are back, again, for their annual appointment at the garage rock makers’ market, where they’re flogging yet another pedigree record. LP number four, \u003cem\u003eVery Human Features\u003c\/em\u003e, arrives hot on the heels of the band’s first Sub Pop release, 2024’s \u003cem\u003eOn the Intricate Inner Workings of the System\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThat record saw the band continue their love affair with BBC Radio 6, start up a new one with KEXP thanks to a session with them, and crop up in the pages of the NME. Anything else from the bucket list? Oh yeah, festival slots including packing home ground Green Man’s Walled Garden to its non-existent rafters. Then shows across the US in those venues us Brits tend to only hear about. This record - a new batch of typically playful, riff-laden, smart Bug Club tunes - gives the band an excuse to continue their never-ending tour and feed their baying fans, engorged and expectant thanks to this band’s relentless record-releasing hot streak.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e“Have you ever been to Wales?”, asks the band in the album’s lead single, “Have U Ever Been 2 Wales.” If not, why not? It’s good. A new, discordant national anthem, if they didn’t already have a decent harmonious one. Starting as a classic, chugging chantalong, it’s interrupted by what sounds like an alien choir before they let rip. Think Dinosaur Jr. with a job at the tourist board. And Welsh. Definitely Welsh.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eOn \u003cem\u003eVery Human Features\u003c\/em\u003e The Bug Club have continued in their habit of presenting as a collective mind. Two-in-one. Rarely do you find a band with two creative forces that have such a singular, shared perspective, sense of humour and knack for a pop melody. In “Beep Boop Computers” vocalists \u003cstrong\u003eSam\u003c\/strong\u003e (also on guitar) and \u003cstrong\u003eTilly\u003c\/strong\u003e (on bass) swap between “I”s, “my”s and “we”s as if there isn’t any difference between the lot, all the while skewering interpersonal relationships and experiences in a glorious, glam rock dismantling of the human aspects the album’s title references.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eStaying on topic, “How to Be a Confidante” does that-thing-The Bug Club-really-know-how-to-do where they, again speaking as two voices from the same mind, pluck out common aspects of how we all live and make them sound ridiculous. The surreal is in the familiar, not in ignoring the familiar - The Bug Club know this and that understanding joins an unrelenting bassline in forming the backbone of this garage rock-infused belter.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHaving gained an appropriately beefed-up stateside following thanks to the beefy slab of garage-punk on \u003cem\u003eOn the Intricate Inner Workings of the System\u003c\/em\u003e, and the band’s subsequent US tour, The Bug Club’s fruitful partnership with Sub Pop gets even tastier with \u003cem\u003eVery Human Features\u003c\/em\u003e. An assured and endlessly witty whirlwind of literary, self-referential, good-humoured rock ‘n’ roll, the new record sees the band riding their ever-swelling wave of popularity as if it’s a quick whizz around the Caldicot Aldi carpark on a pair of rollerskates. Long may it continue.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sub Pop","offers":[{"title":"LP - Yellow Green Transparent | Rough Trade Exclusive","offer_id":51474967200075,"sku":"R9233-3068","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP - Pink (UK)","offer_id":51476836516171,"sku":"R9233-7051","price":23.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"LP - Purple (US)","offer_id":51511042539851,"sku":"R9233-1554","price":23.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":51476836483403,"sku":"R9233-3067","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/TheBugClub_VeryHumanFeatures_1500px_fdd9d700-a816-48da-9297-10785bdb0ab3.jpg?v=1752242741"},{"product_id":"every-single-muscle","title":"Every Single Muscle","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Bug Club are back with a new album. It’s been a whole seven months since their last. Where have they been?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eEvery Single Muscle\u003c\/em\u003e, 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).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEver self-effacing, songwriters Sam (guitar, vocals) and Tilly (bass, vocals) go as far as to claim that they’ve been sitting around “doing nothing at all” during the song “It’s Our Manager David.” That’s clearly a lie. \u003cem\u003eEvery Single Muscle\u003c\/em\u003e gets off to a full-throttle, chugging start with “Miss Wales 2012,” 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 “A Good Day For Dying.” He’s given two seconds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHappily, 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 “just about technically proficient on our instruments.” This record’s an exercise in efficient maximalism - the musical equivalent of your dad packing the car for a holiday. Bring what you like; space is tight but they’ll get it in there somehow.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn to the words: While Very Human Features did an excellent job of pointing at everyday things and highlighting their absurdity, on \u003cem\u003eEvery Single Muscle\u003c\/em\u003e The Bug Club look more closely at themselves. Not so much in an introspective way, though. More in a way an alien might probe a captive specimen on an intergalactic gurney. Horror movies get their “body” subgenre, now garage rock albums get theirs. Self-interested in an entirely new sense of the term, the human form and condition is prodded and inspected from every angle over the course of the album. We get a sense of surreal detachment from the self that sets up the ever-present ennui-laden humour; the last song sees Sam announce he’s “bored of being human.\" The Bug Club seem almost suspicious of the concept of being a person - as if they’ve woken up in a costume they didn’t want to put on and cannot take off.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIs three the magic number? Probably not. But \u003cem\u003eEvery Single Muscle\u003c\/em\u003e - Sub Pop album number three for The Bug Club - certainly comes close enough to convince your average strange human person that it might be.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sub Pop","offers":[{"title":"LP - Blue","offer_id":56529177018699,"sku":"R6675-8867","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":56529177051467,"sku":"R6675-4514","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/TheBugClub_EverySingleMuscle_1500px.jpg?v=1771241766"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/collections\/the-bug-club.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}