Yuck played on the UK TV show Football Tonight a few days ago, you can watch a clip of them performing “Hearts In Motion” now via YouTube. You can also watch a video of a couple kids, ages 10 and 11 reviewing the new LP Stranger Things right here. As an early heads up, the full LP will be streaming via NPR First Listen as of this Thursday, Feb. 18.
The new Yuck album Stranger Things is available for pre-order along with various other bundles of merch & Yuck-related fun over at PledgeMusic: http://smarturl.it/strangerthings
Though Yuck have been a band for less than a decade, the London-based garage-pop outfit has already managed to cram what feels like a lifetime of Behind The Music-worthy experiences into their backstory. Formed in 2009, when most of the band members were still in high school, the group quickly garnered attention for their early singles (2010’s “Georgia” being a standout) and in 2011-after having already toured with the likes of Tame Impala-they released a self-titled debut album (the gloriously fuzzed-out Yuck) to critical and commercial acclaim. This early success was followed by the departure of founding member Daniel Blumberg in 2013 and the induction of new guitarist Edward Hayes. The band promptly got to work on a sophomore album (2013’s Glow & Behold) in upstate NYC whilst overcoming the anxiety of a lineup change and the realities of a bug-infested recording studio.
As rock and roll stories go, theirs is not an uncommon one-or even an outrageously dramatic one-but for frontman Max Bloom, the path has felt almost comically arduous. “It’s so cheesy, the whole thing,” he says. “Being in a band really is like Spinal Tap. There’s so many situations in music rockumentaries that actually echo my life, it really is a giant cliché.”
Cliché or not, the path that Yuck have taken has seemingly all been leading up to the band’s excellent third album, Stranger Things, a record brimming with manic energy and pop hooks for days. Released online last summer, the record’s first song “Hold me Closer” is a visceral primer for what the rest of the record has in store. “I remember the first couple of songs that started the record off, I basically wrote one morning when I was very high on coffee,” says Bloom. “I guess it set the tone for everything that came after that.” To that end, tracks like “Cannonball” come ripping out of the gate with the appropriately buzzed-out guitar sound that made previous Yuck tracks like “The Wall” such epic jams, while “Yr Face” could be a long-lost lover to an old Dinosaur Jr or Built to Spill record. Stranger Things is a remarkably gentle record as well, with tunes like “Swirling”, “Like a Moth”, and “I’m OK” addressing the fears and uncertainties that followed the band for the last few tumultuous years. “‘I’m Ok’ is a very personal song because it’s just about the anxiety I’ve been feeling over the last couple of years. It’s very cathartic to write about in a song, but definitely not easy to speak about,” says Bloom. “It felt important with this record to deal with a bunch of that stuff, clear out the past, and make a fresh go of things.”
Recorded in London over the course of several months at the band’s own pace, Stranger Things reflects the refreshingly un-fraught state of affairs within the group. “The band feels better now than it ever has,”says Bloom, “We recorded the drums in a rehearsal studio by our house, which we’ve rehearsed at for ages. Everything else was done at my parent’s house–in the same room we recorded the first record, which wasn’t an intentional thing. It’s just the only quiet space that we have access to in London! Mostly I wanted to make the in a space that I was comfortable in. I wanted no one else involved–just me and Ed and Mariko and Johnny. I just wanted to get on with it and make something that was truly us and not affected by any outside influences. We basically spent no money on the record and it was a really relaxed way of doing things. I really, really like it. I’m more proud of it than anything we’ve ever done.”
Stranger Things is the sound of a band firing on all cylinders, finally comfortable in their own skin and in control of their own vision. Having overcome the weird expectations that come with being a buzzed about new band and all the attenuating complications and growing pains that come with it. Having made exactly the record they want to make, the band-who have now sold well over 50,000 albums worldwide-are looking forward to getting back on the road and playing the songs that made them so happy to create.
Yuck are:
Max Bloom (guitar/vocals)
Mariko Doi (bass, vocals)
Jonathan Rogoff (drums)
Edward Hayes (guitar)
Photo by Caspar Bucknall
TOUR DATES:
Feb 26: Moth Club, London
Feb 27: Moth Club, London
Mar 11: Savannah Stopover, Savannah GA
Mar 12: Aisle 5, Atlanta GA
Mar 13: Spanish Moon, Baton Rouge LA
Mar 14-18: SXSW, Austin TX
Mar 19: Spillover Festival, Dallas TX
Mar 21: Crescent Ballroom, Phoenix AZ
Mar 23: Soda Bar, San Diego CA
Mar 24: The Echo, Los Angeles CA
Mar 25: Cellar Door, Visalia CA
Mar 26: Great American Music Hall, San Francisco CA
Mar 28: Mississippi Studios, Portland OR
Mar 29: Fortune Sound Club, Vancouver BC
Mar 30: The Crocodile, Seattle WA
Mar 31: Neurolux, Boise ID
Apr 02: Larimer Lounge, Denver CO
Apr 04: 7th St. Entry, Minneapolis MN
Apr 05: High Noon Saloon, Madison WI
Apr 06: The Empty Bottle, Chicago IL
Apr 07: The Loving Touch, Ferndale MI
Apr 09: Silver Dollar Room, Toronto ON
Apr 10: The Haunt, Ithaca NY
Apr 11: The Sinclair, Cambridge MA
Apr 12: Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn NY
Apr 14: The Space, New Haven CT
Apr 15: Rock & Roll Hotel, Washington DC
Apr 16: Phuzz Phest, Winston-Salem NC
May 12: Arts Centre, Norwich
May 13: Sneaky Petes, Edinburgh
May 14: Broadcast, Glasgow
May 15: Deaf Institute, Manchester
May 16: The Boileroom, Guildford
May 17: Oobleck, Birmingham
May 18: Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar, Brighton
May 19: Exchange, Bristol
May 20: Bodega, Nottingham
May 21: Gold Sounds, Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
May 22: Esquires, Bedford
Yuck
Stranger Things
(MAMÉ RECORDS)
CD / Vinyl / Digital
Street date: Feb. 26, 2016
Pre-Order it here
or via iTunes here
Track List:
Hold Me Closer
Cannonball
Like A Moth
Only Silence
Stranger Things
I’m Ok
As I Walk Away
Hearts In Motion
Swirling
Down
Yr Face