The Tubs Announce New Album, Hard Life, out September 11th via Merge Records

JULY 26 “stoop to me” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqyxUkQ-H6M

JUNE 26   “Who’s Gonna Love You Now?”
https:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=UultKdtvJ7I

LIVE 7th December - Bruges, BE – Cactus

Earlier this year, The Tubs announced their signing to Merge Records with an incredible cover of Metallica’s “Fade to Black.” Today, they announce their new album, Hard Life, out 11th September and release the lead single, “Who’s Gonna Love You Now?” Having perfected their sound across two albums and hundreds of shows, the London-based Celtic jangle boyband — Owen Williams (vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass), Dan Lucas (guitar), Taylor Stewart (drums), and Max Warren (bass) — push themselves even further into the shimmering heart of virtuosic indie rock. The band will also tour the UK this autumn

The Tubs persona familiar to listeners of previous albums Cotton Crown and Dead Meat — to quote Williams, “navel gazing about romantic abjection, London squalor, and the indignities of grief and OCD” — is still present on Hard Life, but so too is a second voice, steelier and more experienced. “The second persona doesn’t have much time for the first,” Williams explains, “often haranguing him for his self-indulgence and immaturity; sometimes fairly, sometimes unfairly.”

It’s the scold who takes center stage on lead single, “Who’s Gonna Love You Now?”His questions, from the titular one to more concrete concerns like “Who’s gonna pay the rent?” existing in mocking opposition to ideas like moving to the city and really starting to live. Though Williams plays the crank, the song is a raver, guitars ringing out over an organ-brightened horizon. “It’s your life,” Williams sings, the life chugging away beneath him sounding exceptionally keen.

Of “Who’s Gonna Love You Now?”, Williams says: “This is a sort of Northern Soul, Royal Headache influenced pop number with organs. The lyrics are from my scold persona - it’s a kind of anti-sexual freedom, pro-monogamy song. I sermonise that the other Owen will end up lonely and unhappy if he takes a grass is greener approach to life, moves to London and so on. I think the scold doesn’t live in London. Whereas I and the classic Tubs persona do.”

On Hard Life, these voices argue, pester one another, merge into each other, and break apart, sometimes over the course of a single song. They’re two sides of the same coin, people who’ve experienced grief, disappointment, regret, and shame, emerging from the wreckage as changed men. “I’m interested in the way sympathy and patience for someone suffering always runs out eventually,” Williams says. “How this can be a good and liberating thing as well as a sad and brutal thing. But mostly they’re just pop songs.” Exquisite, irresistible pop songs. Spin them until the healing starts, then spin them again.

On Hard Life The Tubs are  joined by frequent collaborators Lan McArdle (vocals), George Nicholls (guitar), and Rachel Kenedy (keyboards), all of whom have orbited various Tubs and Gob Nation-adjacent efforts dating back to Joanna Gruesome, as well as fiddle player Chris Haigh.

Hard Life Tracklist:

1. Hard Life
2. Who’s Gonna Love You Now?
3. If You Don’t Love Me
4. Stoop to Me
5. Heaven or London
6. Didn’t I Say?
7. Do Yourself a Favor
8. Now and Then
9. The Way It Goes
10. Hell
11. In Your Place
12. As Long as You Leave

Even voorstellen – Lambchop ‘punching the clown’
LAMBCHOP " PUNCHING THE CLOWN” 21/08 (city slang/konkurrent)

JULY 26  “the new world wave” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQFxSfJHoJo

June 26 “stella” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2SUuOs2K4Y

May 26 ‘WEAKENED’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bW_EXLRPBk

LIVE
      2 Dec - Antwerp, BE @ Arenberg

   3 Dec - Roeselare, BE @ De Spil

Lambchop have announced their new album, Punching The Clown, will be released on 21 August 2026 via City Slang. Along with the announcement they have shared the lead single “Weakened”, which finds band leader Kurt Wagner alongside Andrew Broder on guitar, Justin Vernon on banjo, a full choir helmed by Blake Morgan; recorded and mixed by Mark Nevers and produced by Ryan Olson.
“Weakened”, the album’s first single, is an anthem for the weak-spirited in a feverish world, carried by the interplay of voices that ultimately merge into a coda demonstrating just how much power this Lambchop line-up can generate. This music needs no noise to grow; it finds its strength from within.
The musical world of Lambchop in 2026 consists of: vocals, backing vocals, banjo, guitar. That’s all the new album “Punching The Clown” needs. With this line-up, they’ve created music that lies somewhere between gospel, folk and country. On the one hand, it’s focused and stripped-back. On the other hand, incredibly rich and powerful. By the way, Justin Vernon plays the banjo. And when it came to songwriting, Kurt Wagner was more consistent than ever: he learnt from the best and resolved to give a chance only to songs that could measure up. And so, “Punching The Clown” in the band’s 33rd year is the new masterpiece of the masterful Lambchop discography.
Nashville, 2024: Kurt Wagner drove to the petrol station; an old song was playing on the car radio that he couldn’t get out of his head. “A simple song,” he says, “a banjo holding a single chord, with a few voices singing along.” A mix of folk, country and gospel. “Breathtaking. Beautiful.” For a few days, Wagner tried to find out what this piece was that had so captivated him. He didn’t succeed. Instead, during his research, he came across a form of music that has long been forgotten, yet continues to exert a major influence on country and folk to this day. Wagner stumbled upon the song form known as ‘lining out’, which originated in British churches in the 19th century, at a time when many people could not yet read. A lead singer, known as a “clerk”, would set a simple melody and lyrics, and the congregation would repeat them. This musical form reached the United States via the settlers and flowed into the great American melting pot from which gospel, country and Appalachian folk music developed. A plan had long since taken shape in Kurt Wagner’s mind: to record a Lambchop album that reflects the spirit of this music and of that mysterious song from the radio.
“Punching The Clown” is that album.
It is not unusual for Kurt Wagner to have a precise plan in mind before he sets to work. There are many examples of this in Lambchop’s unique discography. In 1997, Wagner named the third album “Thriller”, hoping that the title alone would multiply sales figures. The Lambchop classic “Nixon” combined soul and country, Curtis Mayfield and Hank Williams in 2000. “Is A Woman”, released two years later, was a piano-driven work; with “FLOTUS” in 2016, Kurt Wagner introduced an autotune effect into the Lambchop universe – for very pragmatic reasons, as he explains: “At the time, the autotune felt like a buddy by my side.”
Essentially, each of the 15 Lambchop albums released to date has pursued the idea of constantly reinventing the band’s sound based on what had already been created. One might think that after 33 years and with album number 16, there couldn’t be much left to offer. And then comes “Punching The Clown”: within seconds, you find yourself in a new Lambchop world where everything sounds fresh yet wonderfully familiar. It feels like returning to a favourite place in a dream.
The new songs are, of course, shaped by Kurt Wagner’s voice.
No one else sings and speaks like him. Wagner’s vocals are an art form in themselves; he should be given a Grammy for them. This time, he’s done away with the Auto-Tune effect. Instead, he’s brought in choirs to join him. Two ensembles can be heard, each led by Blake Morgan: one from Eau Claire with six voices, and one from London with eleven. The choirs do not merely accompany Wagner; they engage in a lively dialogue with him. “They’re my new buddies, just like the Autotune device used to be,” he says.
And then there’s the banjo. “I’m not a big fan of this instrument,” Wagner admits. Too much ‘yeehaw’… Others would steer clear of it in such a case. He, however, finds it motivating. “Because if you allow yourself to overcome your own prejudices, you’re rewarded by discovering new facets.” The plan: to make the banjo cool and appealing. So it was very fortunate that up in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, 800 miles north of Wagner’s hometown of Nashville, someone was currently working intensively with the banjo: Justin Vernon of Bon Iver. A star. But also a nerd who immediately agreed when Kurt Wagner asked him if he wanted to be part of this new Lambchop line-up.
This line-up therefore consists of: Kurt Wagner and Andrew Broder, who has been accompanying him live as a pianist for several years. Added to this are the two backing vocals of Blake Morgan and Justin Vernon on banjo. There has never been a group like this before. Nor a band like Lambchop. It’s also worth mentioning producer Ryan Olson. “Not just someone who fiddles with buttons,” says Wagner, “but someone who leaves his mark as an artist.”
Precisely because this line-up is so good and special, Kurt Wagner absolutely needed excellent songs. “I took the job of songwriting for this album very seriously,” says Wagner. He studied how other great songwriters write, read biographies for this purpose, analysed their songs, and formulated questions he asked himself: “What touches and moves you about your favourite songs – and why? And how can you succeed in applying these insights to your own world?” His home study was followed by initial attempts at songwriting, many of which failed. Hence: a fresh start. Things improved, but it still wasn’t enough. Another fresh start, combined with a request to guitarist Andrew Broder to co-write with him– and suddenly it all fell into place.
Thirty songs were created, recorded as demos. Now it was a matter of selecting twelve for the album and putting them in the right order. The structure of “Punching The Clown” was therefore already in place before actual production began. “We viewed the album as a whole from the very start,” says Wagner. No wonder it sounds so coherent and self-assured. Typical of Lambchop. On the one hand. On the other hand, the record goes one step further. The quality of the songs, the band’s line-up, the uniqueness of the arrangements and production – “Punching The Clown” is a masterpiece within Lambchop’s masterful discography. Including lyrics to make you fall to your knees.

Punching The Clown tracklist:
1. Just West Of Nicollet

2. A Doctor In The House
3. Weakened
4. Stella
5. Punching The Clown
6. White People
7. The New World Wave
8. Andrew Jackson Asshat
9. Afterburner
10. Cigar
11. To Do
12. No Chicago
    
    Additional info:
    >> Please be sure to read the accompanying notes on the album written by Kurt Wagner. A text as beautiful and clear as the lyrics for Lambchop.

⏁

in early 2024 i heard a song on the radio on my way to get some gas.

just a minimal single chord strummed banjo and a small group of voices.

it seemed perfect in the moment as the moment became perfect in itself.

i never found out who it was, sounded kinda like early country gospel?

in a time of searching i discovered a type of gospel singing known as lined out singing

which is said to have begun in the late 1800s in scotland.

it migrated to appalacia and became an obscure root of american gospel, country....

a spontaneous call and response type of acapella singing led by a clerk with a chorus of singers

revealing the raw beauty and power of the human voice with its unique varieties

its unadorned simplicity gave weight to the words as they were sung.

i wanted to make a record that emulated this kind of music.

⏄

is this that? Perhaps

ryan and i decided to make another record together after the bible.

my idea was to go back to writing songs in the manner in which i began

then present them as described in ⏁ solely banjo voice and choir

ryan mentioned that justin had been playing the banjo

i’d done some prior work with blake for a live london performance with a choir

and there it was

recorded in 3 days, a year thereafter at april base

andrew justin ryan nevers blake with his selected six part choir

trusting in our mutual love and respect for each others proclivities

later adding 12 more singers in london and randal in minneapolis

we figured it out.

⏃

the songs took some doing

i needed to become a better writer

so i asked andrew to write some hits

he’d rarely written songs in this way of simple song demos of guitar and voice

i took to the study of the works of the many great songwriters, their work, lives, process.

in doing so allowing their madness pain and truth to become mine

i failed so often until i didn’t

it got better

in the end there were 30 songs that transcended into consideration

ryan and i picked 12 and decided the track listing

which we adhered to throughout the entire process

⏇

i’m conflicted not offering a more detailed accountings for these songs but this feels like enough

let’s just say i tried for simple, restrained vocabulary to get closer to a modest amount of truth

through a guise of hyper-naturalism grief love and humor

Concertevents presenteert - European Philharmonia en Nani Vazana brengen magisch muzikaal eerbetoon aan Amy Winehouse in Brugge, 3 oktober 2026 - Concertgebouw Brugge

The Magical Music of Amy Winehouse, 3 oktober 2026 - Concertgebouw Brugge

Op 3 oktober 2026 wordt het muzikale nalatenschap van de betreurde Amy Winehouse gevierd met een magisch eerbetoon in Concertgebouw Brugge. Nani Vazana - een ijzersterke zangeres met Portugese roots - brengt onvergetelijke hits als Rehab, Back to Black en Valerie op verbluffende wijze, geruggesteund door de symfonische arrangementen van European Philharmonia. Tickets voor 'The Magical Music of Amy Winehouse' zijn verkrijgbaar via www.concertevents.be.

Of je nu al jaren fan bent van Amy Winehouse of haar muziek pas later hebt ontdekt, haar unieke stem en rauwe eerlijkheid hebben een onuitwisbare indruk nagelaten op de moderne muziekgeschiedenis. Met haar karakteristieke mix van soul, jazz en rhythm-and-blues gaf ze een nieuwe generatie een stem. Intens, kwetsbaar en tegelijk onweerstaanbaar krachtig.

In deze bijzondere tribute staat haar muzikale nalatenschap centraal. Tijdloze songs als Rehab, Back to Black, Valerie, Love Is a Losing Game en You Know I'm No Good krijgen een nieuwe dimensie in een groots symfonisch kader.

Nani Vazana - een ijzersterke zangeres met Portugese roots - maakt de herinnering aan Amy Winehouse opnieuw levend. Met haar performance kruipt ze echt onder de huid van Amy. Haar indrukwekkende stem, gecombineerd met de symfonische arrangementen van European Philharmonia, zorgt gegarandeerd voor kippenvel. De algemene muzikale leiding van dit unieke concert is in handen van dirigent Walter Proost.

Nani Vazana

Bereid je voor op een avond vol soul, emotie en pure muzikaliteit tijdens dit onmisbare eerbetoon aan de iconische Amy Winehouse!

Kom genieten van deze buitengewone tribute en bestel je tickets voor 'The Magical Music of Amy Winehouse' op zaterdag 3 oktober 2026 in Concertgebouw Brugge via www.concertevents.be
www.houseofentertainment.be

Even voorstellen - Teenage Fanclub - Do Not Dare To Dream


9/10 (merge/konkurrent)
“Day in the Sun” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6d_Fh91X5Y

On October 9, Teenage Fanclub will release their new album Do Not Dare To Dream on Merge Records. The band’s 13th studio album follows the acclaimed 2023 release Nothing Lasts Forever and finds the group continuing to evolve their signature blend of melodic guitars, warm harmonies, and reflective songwriting. Today the band is excited to share the album's lead single “Day In The Sun,” alongside an accompanying music video filmed on location at Black Bay Studio on Great Bernera by Donald Milne. A melodic meditation on renewal and shifting perspective, the track is available now on all digital platforms for playlist consideration.

For nearly four decades, Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley have been at the heart of Teenage Fanclub as one of indie rock’s most enduring and beloved bands. On Do Not Dare To Dream the band continues to refine their signature blend of melodic guitars, warm harmonies, and reflective songwriting. As Blake puts it, “It’s difficult when it comes to… coming up with a name for an album. Especially after you’ve made 12 of them.”

Taking its title from Blake’s wryly named “I Do Not Dare To Dream,” the album gently pushes back on hollow optimism while still embracing a quietly hopeful outlook. “Those ‘dare to dream’ sentiments are kind of ridiculous,” Blake explains, “I don’t think the world works that way.” Instead, like its predecessor Nothing Lasts Forever the record is grounded in resilience, taking stock of an uncertain world without succumbing to despair, and finding clarity and comfort in everyday moments.

Throughout Do Not Dare To Dream, Teenage Fanclub balance introspective lyricism with richly layered arrangements shaped by decades of collaboration. The songs unfold with a natural ease, drawing on acoustic textures, organ tones, and interwoven guitars to create a warm, immersive atmosphere. Reflecting on the album’s outlook, McGinley notes, “We can still be cheerful and optimistic in the face of things not being great.”

Recorded at Black Bay Studio on the remote Scottish island of Great Bernera,the album captures a band deeply attuned to collaboration and place. Great Bernera is the band's most remote recording location yet, which helped the band focus on the work but also put them in a place of awe, surrounded as they were by the crashing sea and ancient ruins. Teenage Fanclub likes to take advantage of what a studio has available to use, and at Black Bay the band found a Domus church organ (prominently heard on many songs, including “Over And Over”) and a lot of different synthesizers

Joined by longtime members Euros Childs, Francis Macdonald, and David McGowan, this quintet has played together long enough now that neither of Teenage Fanclub’s principal songwriters and guitarists feel the need to fuss over their songs or work up arrangements before they enter the studio. They’d rather wait for the rest of the group’s input. The result is a collection of songs suffused with the proper perspective of musicians who have been around for a while, recorded in a place that has been around even longer.

As Blake puts it, “I think what happens is you just move from one thing into the next and before you know it, 30 years have passed. McGinley adds: “Yeah, it’s been a while since we started doing this thing we do, but to us it feels like no time at all. In the place where we made the record people would have been singing thousands of years ago. Life is short, but music is eternal.”

Do Not Dare To Dream Track List
1. There Was You

2. Tomorrow People
3. Over And Over
4. Be With You Tonight
5. The Same Air
6. I Do Not Dare To Dream
7. Take Time
8. Day In The Sun
9. Somewhere To Land
10. Young And Wise