The Tubs announce new album, Cotton Crown, due 7th March on Trouble in Mind
The Tubs
Announce New Album, Cotton Crown
Due 7th March On Trouble in Mind
Share Lead Single "Freak Mode" - Watch/Listen Here
UK Live Dates inc London's Moth Club on 2nd December
London-based Welsh band The Tubs announce their second album, Cotton Crown, out 7th March via Trouble In Mind, and share the lead single, “Freak Mode.”
The followup to their 2023 debut Dead Meat, which saw the band land on year-end lists from the likes of The Guardian, MOJO, Uncut, Aquarium Drunkard, Brooklyn Vegan, Stereogum, Paste, and more, Cotton Crown sees the “Celtic jangle boyband” (their own self-description) venture into darker, more personal territory while continuing to hone their highly addictive brand of songcraft.
The Tubs - "Freak Mode"
https://youtu.be/Y3MDLKzwwZo?si=qzcypLtrUPJm6ra2
Streaming Services:
TheTubs.lnk.to/FreakMode
Album Preorder:
TheTubs.lnk.to/CottonCrown
UK Live Dates
21st October - Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff*
22nd October - Electric Ballroom, London (supporting The Hard Quartet)
23rd October - The Flapper, Birmingham*
24th October - Craufurd Arms, Milton Keynes*
25th October - O2 Academy, Oxford*
26th October - Oslo Hackney, London*
*Supporting Fucked Up
2nd December - Moth Club, London w/ Grazia & Expiry (free show)
Further UK, EU and US 2025 tours to be announced shortly.
Cotton Crown sees the band expand their sonic palette to take in a kaleidoscopic range of influences: everything from soulful pub rock, to Hüsker Dü aggression, to melancholy sophisto-pop gets a look in. As Pitchfork noted, The Tubs see jangle as a “vast world of moods and muses” and Cotton Crown sees them continuing to explore this world and creating a distinctly Tub-ular sound in the process.
This is in no small part down to Owen ‘O’ Williams’ vocal performance- often compared to a young Richard Thomson- and his frank, bleakly funny lyrics. Cotton Crown sees him delve further into his favorite themes of love-psychosis, unsympathetic mentally ill behavior, and the humiliations of being a musician in London. This time around, however, there’s a palpable sense of risk in his self assessments/confessions. Centered around life in the period following the suicide of his mother (the folk singer Charlotte Greig.), Williams sings of the clumsy, intrusive, and well-meaning social interactions that follow. Lead single “Freak Mode,” according to Williams, was written “about dating while grieving the death of my mother. It’s about making wacky tragicomic romantic assumptions and being an emotional freak, but also kind of being self aware about that and explaining it to whoever you’re shagging.”
The album artwork features an image of Williams as an infant being breastfed by Greig in a graveyard- a promotional shot taken around the release of her debut album (the re-issue of which was featured in The Guardian in 2023.)
The essential trick Cotton Crown plays is to offset Williams’ lyrical bleakness with joyous, hook-laden blasts of pop perfection. This is largely down to the guitar work of George Nicholls, who, across the album, effortlessly slips between the virtuoso jangle of Marr, the driving folk-rock of Pentangle and the chorus-heavy hi-fi grooves of contemporary bands like Tops or The 1975. Add to that the breakneck rhythm section of Taylor Stewart (Drums) and Max Warren (Bass) - who attack each song with power-pop ferocity, recalling Guided by Voices at their drunken-yet-tight best - and you’ve got yourself a recipe for indie rock greatness.
The band’s debut, Dead Meat, was a word-of-mouth sensation that saw the band earn accolades from Pitchfork, The Guardian, MOJO, Uncut, SPIN and more. They even gained some celeb fans: the inimitable Mark Proksch (The Office, Better Call Saul, What We Do in the Shadows) starred in the video for their “Round the Bend” single & punk legend Iggy Pop has praised them on his BBC 6Music radio program. The band (minus Stewart) were previously members of Joanna Gruesome - who won the Welsh Music Prize, toured the UK and US extensively, and were praised in Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, The Guardian and others. Lan McCardle (Joanna Gruesome, Ex-Void) also provides backing vocals on several tracks.
Cotton Crown Tracklist:
1. The Thing Is
2. Freak Mode
3. Illusion
4. Narcissist
5. Chain Reaction
6. Embarrassing
7. One More Day
8. Fair Enough
9. Strange
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