The Tubs Ride The Line
Although we focus on covering independent artists in the Southeast, we want to bend the rules a bit for this one…
Recently, London-based guitar pop band The Tubs made their way through several southern towns during their U.S. tour. The shows served as a helpful reminder to revisit their most recent record, “Cotton Crown,” which Trouble In Mind Records released earlier this year.
The Tubs photo by Robin Christian
The album is a nine-track gem, a tightrope walk between precision and looseness, between unrelenting self examination and humor. Nothing else sounds like it (although some critics have made comparisons to Hüsker Du, Mekons, The Smiths, and Richard Thompson).
If you know nothing about the band, you might initially be caught off guard by frontman Owen Williams’s ever-shifting vocal delivery. He moves seamlessly between shouting across the bar and melodic gut crooning—at times, it’s like listening to two polar opposites in dialogue with one another. Just let it whack you over the head and go with it.
As a whole work, “Cotton Crown” is a lesson in openness and unexpected language. With words like “deranged,” “putrid,” and “heinous,” Williams sidesteps overused adjectives and platitudes and, instead, opts for phrases that illuminate the draining and humiliating side of intimate relationships (which makes sense given what he’s been through in recent years). You can read up on the painful circumstances that informed some of the record in this piece from The Guardian.
If you need an entry point for the album, set aside a couple minutes and cue up the anti-anthem “Freak Mode.” For anyone who’s felt outside of themselves in a relationship, the track will surely resonate. These stinging lyrics say it all: “Yeah I’m not myself, haven’t been him for weeks, been deranged, been such a freak.” If you’ve been there, you get it.
Lifting up each song is the warbled, chorus-laden lead guitar work of George Nicholls. He’s an expert in leaning in and stepping back at the right times, while also avoiding overindulgence. Cut on “Narcissist” and listen to him paint the scene.
Visit Trouble In Mind’s Bandcamp and spend some time with the record (which is nearly sold out). Also, for those who want more from Williams and his collaborators, check out their former band, Joanna Gruesome.
