There won't be many finer scrappy guitar albums released this year than The Tubs' Dead Meat. The London-based Welsh band features ex-Joanne Gruesome members Owen Williams and George Nicholls. Together they have continued to channel their former band's jangle-pop sound, pushing folky melody to the front and mainlining the perky energy of Flying Nun bands The Chills and The Clean. The 9 songs on Dead Meat rattle by in just over 25 minutes, each one offering a sugary new high.
One fan of the band is Scott Jacobson, a writer for Bob’s Burgers. Upon hearing Dead Meat, he reached out to the band and offered to make a video for free. The result is "Round The Bend," premiering below.
Williams has described his songwriting with The Tubs as offering something of a riposte to some of the modern ways of framing mental health issues. On "Round The Bend" he sings of dealing with extreme mood swings with blunt self-deprecation, describing himself as "a pain in the arse" and singing "here I go/ another manic episode" like it's a trip to pick up groceries.
In his video for the song, Jacobson takes the "Round The Bend" title in a different direction. Mark Proksch, best known for his role as "energy vampire" Colin Robertson in What We Do In The Shadows, plays a Lyft driver whose incessant rocking out to The Tubs drives his passengers to despair.
Speaking to The FADER, Owen from The Tubs: "'Round the Bend' is about OCD manic states and I wanted the tune's atmos to reflect the way those experiences can be a weird combination of painful, delusional, energizing, and comical. Scott's done an amazing job of taking that vibe and running with it, and we were, of course, blown away by Mark's deranged, hilarious performance. We were already big fans so it's been an unexpected honour. That goes for the all-star cast, too!”
Jacobson, meanwhile, adds, "I really loved the Tubs’ album — it came out of nowhere for me and is easily my most listened-to album this year. It gave me the itch to direct a video, so I cold-emailed the band through their Bandcamp like a real pro.
"While coming up with a concept for 'Round The Bend' I discovered it’s a song that’s impossible not to sing along with in the car. Also, it’s about having a sickly dawning realization that you’re an annoyance to the people around you. So I tried to combine those ideas in a video. I’m a huge fan of Mark Proksch and was lucky to get him involved. All it took was sending him the song — I think he now loves the band as much as I do."
The Tubs live dates
