The Bug Club

The 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, Very Human Features, arrives June 13th, hot on the heels of the band’s first Sub Pop release, 2024’s On the Intricate Inner Workings of the System. That 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 hear about and that’s as far as we get. This record 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, a new batch of typically playful, riff-laden, smart Bug Club Tunes.

But first, a standalone single, because that’s how things are done here. “Have you ever been to Wales?”, asks the band in “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. Oh, to be from a country where national pride is something other than the mark of a tosser. 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 (read more at Sub Pop).

The Bug Club’s name does a good job of introducing the band and their music: a tight-knit, collaborative effort focussed on telling tales of the everyday that we often take for granted, shot through with humour and riffs-a-plenty. Comprising the creative trio of Sam Willmett (guitar/vocals), Tilly Harris (bass/vocals) & Dan Matthew (drums), The Bug Club formed in 2016 in the little-known rock n' roll hotbed that is Caldicot, Monmouthshire. The band were picked up by Bingo Records and released their first single 'We Don’t Need Room For Lovin’ in Feb 2021. The announcement of the EP Launching Moondream One followed.

In Nov 21 the band released the 'Pure Particles' EP including the singles 'The Fixer' and 'My Baby Loves Rock & Roll Music'. So far in 2022 the band have offered the multi-song track 'Intelectuals' and the Two Beauties release featuring 'Lay Down Your Roses' and 'Pretty As A Dog In The Light'. The second half of 2022 will bring us the debut album and more!!!