THE BUG CLUB - ON THE INTRICATE INNER WORKINGS OF THE SYSTEM

Released: 30/08/24

Welsh outfit The Bug Club have only been going since 2021, but somehow they've already managed to release 10 singles, two albums and two EPs (plus, according to the press release, “an album under a different band’s name”), all while playing 200-plus gigs a year. But more than just a laudable work ethic, the duo of Sam Willmett (vocals/guitar) and Tilly Harris (vocals/bass) also possess a knack for writing brilliant melodies and some of the most deliriously silly lyrics since Sultan of Ping’s ‘Where’s Me Jumper?’ (“Dancing in the disco, bumper to bumper – wait a minute, where's me jumper?”). 

Proving once again that it is big and clever to talk nonsense (not for nothing is Sultan of Ping’s lead singer Niall O'Flaherty now a lecturer in the History of European Political Thought at King's …), tracks such as ‘Quality Pints’ (“I'm thirsty for a quality pint / Do you serve quality pints in your town? / We heard you serve a quality pint …”) and ‘A Bit Like James Bond’ (“I like casinos, like James. I like tuxedos, like James … everybody thinks I look a bit like James Bond – James bond in The Quantum of Solace”) are more importantly infectious, shouty pop-punk jammers (not for nothing are they signed to the estimable Sub Pop) that are a kind of cross between The Buzzcocks and The Modern Lovers (Jonathan Richman of course being another silly clever person), and as great as that sounds.