Lets bring back the art of deep listening to full albums! The LA Times recently wrote about this and I think, with all this time on our hands, its a great way to spend your afternoon… Listen to your favorite music but also listen to new music, artists are our fortune tellers and in times of abrupt change they can also be our soothsayers. The Bubs first full length album, Cause a Fuss, is a perfect foil for this kind of deep listening, it will move you, it will motivate your steps if you’re listening on your 5g earbuds (not the cause of the pandemic!) it will lift the spirits of you and those around you if you commit this music to escaping your home stereo speakers. Your Alexa will blush at how much she hates to admit that The Bubs fucking nailed it on their first record, a record of tunes that feel effortless and seem to be coming from a deep well of potential.
Like what you’re hearing? Feel like you’ve never heard anything like it? The Bubs have a playlist on Spotify that will illuminate their deep catalog of influences and musical loves.
The Bubs have fortunately and unfortunately release their first full length album at the start of the pandemic. On one hand this record will likely not see the credit it is due to timing, on the other hand you can take this music, the full album, as a catharsis in a time of uncertainty and isolation. If you are listening to this music you are fighting the good fight. No bull shit, balls to the wall stomp and holler. Cause a Fuss by The Bubs is a shout into the unknown, pop music for the future, futurist artist collectives, it is as thoughtful as it is bombastic. From the opening track, You’re so Enigmatic, The Bubs waste no time in getting right to the point. The song smacks, with the first yelp, a direct shot into the sweet spot nexus of Garage Rock, NO WAVE and proto-punk. The artistic movements on the west coast, NYC and Boston circa late 1970s to early 80s undoubtably serve as a launch pad for Ethan Tapper, lead singer and guitar player. (For a great read and look at photos about NO WAVE check out this book by Marc Masters detailing the timeline and origins of NO WAVE. We have a copy at the loading dock if you want it wiped down and loaned out just let us know!)
Cause a Fuss by The Bubs can be your anthem right now, your excuse to turn on your stereo and blast this record and dance/bounce on all the living room furniture... and you know what? Thats ok, is all gonna be ok.
I love the confident guitar, rollicking drums, and twangy basslines. Every song has a hay yo, call and response combination of voices, it sounds like a joyous gang. That is what The Bubs are, a jubilant boisterous gang. At 10 band member strong, The Bubs are a garage rock big band that knows how to work their numbers to the fullest effect. The straight-from-the-garage sound sounds so right, the forcefulness of the lead vocals as well as the push and pull in sonic intensity as that natural analog ebb and flow that all unites us with a big collective pounding heart. Play this album start to finish. Cause a Fuss by The Bubs can be your anthem, your excuse to turn on your stereo and blast this record and dance/bounce on all the living room furniture.
Staccato rhythms and wordless vocalizations is the perfect recipe for something that is immediately familiar even though you are hearing it for the first time. Now that is timeless, that defies all divisions in music. The Bubs are a rock big band and like great big bands in the past the sense of effortless orchestration is key to keeping the ball bouncing and weaving between all legs and drop in sweet releases left and right. Listen to track 5 Fuss and tell me that this does not move you. The Bubs take on rock for right now is so on the money, we will all look back on this record as a singular statement from an amazing band.
My first impression of The Bubs, live and in person, was that they were all friends. Their energy is infectious before they play a single note. I got introduced to The Bubs last summer shortly after Solid Sound at MassMoCA. My son, Brody, and I ran around the galleries trying to find Rough Francis, it was probably 10 or 11am. The raw power of this band was so jaw dropping, I knew nothing about them and come to find out that they are a Burlington VT band! I immediately bought their music and sent them a message about playing the loading dock (they are already out of our reach). Sometime after I was nosing around their IG and saw an image of this gang of rockers leaping about in white union suits… So I listened, I loved the music immediately and reached out to them via IG. Before The Bubs played the loading dock I heard a few of their tunes, enough to know that I personally wanted to hear their new album live and in person but I had no idea how much I would come to appreciate and fall for this band.
I am glad I got introduced to the songs on Cause a Fuss live first before hearing the record. Now when I listen back to this record my memory is of seeing them play these tunes and the recorded version serves as a truthful documentation of the live experience. I think being introduced to music the other way around is also super amazing. There is nothing like that feeling of knowing a host of songs from a band and then the total exaltation of hearing and seeing the actual humans in the here and now, live and in person performing the tunes.
Experiencing The Bubs live is an absolute must. The band is just so damn jubilant, just try your hardest to stand there unmoving with your arms crossed. Before you know it you are swinging your arms and bobbing to the beats. The guitars are jangly and interwoven. The super solid core of this band comes from guitar/bass/drums tightness. Solar flares of synth, lead guitar choruses, yowly voices supported by from-the-gut hollering that links everything together. The Bubs are happy and on a perma sugar high. Addie, synth player and vocalist, had a big bag of candy from Chutters when they played at the loading dock. Most bands have beers on stage, not The Bubs, they had bags of penny candy. Listening to this album is risking a sonic induced sugar high only without the threat of an impending crash, just put Cause a Fuss on repeat and let that sugar loop on and on.