New Choons: Yuck - 'Rebirth'

I know its been a month since my last post, something that I'm going to apologise for in greater depth in another post I'm working on later. Nothing to worry about, content is on its way, I just feel like this blog needs a bit of a rebirth. Speaking of rebirth, Yuck have just released the first single from their upcoming second album fittingly titled er... "Rebirth". Its a particularly poignant title for a band who have in the past year had their lead singer quit the group. Indeed Daniel Blumberg decided to focus on solo project Hebronix, a more self indulgent affair than any previous Yuck material. Listening to the album today I was pleasantly surprised to find it wasn't too pretentious to enjoy. Still, I was eagerly awaiting what guitarist/new singer Max Bloom had to offer as it was his songwriting on Yuck's 2011 self titled debut, showcased on Bloom's only vocal track "Operation" as well as the captivating instrumental "Rose Gives A Lilly" and 7 minute album closer "Rubber", that had truly won me over. So today, after weeks of recording and mixing in New York, the band release "Rebirth", and as the saying goes, it does exactly what it says on the tin.

If Yuck's debut record could be (lovingly) accused of being an imitation of US Indie Rock bands such as Pavement, Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr, "Rebirth" would appear to display that Yuck have decided to cross back over the pond. Alas, the first thoughts of the new single I had were how it reminded me of a lot of UK shoegaze of the early 90s bringing to mind bands like My Bloody Valentine (Particularly the track "Blown A Wish"), Slowdive and The Verve's very early material. Ironic that the first record was made in the UK and the band travelled to New York to make this one! Anyway, comparisons aside "Rebirth" is an instantly enjoyable song for fans of 90s alt rock and shoegaze and is refreshingly different enough from the first album to escape any accusations of Max not moving on. "I don't want your love, I want you" Bloom sings with a dreamy voice that puts any doubts of his vocal abilities to bed. The last track Yuck revealed (though never released), "Chew" is actually a good indication that the band are choosing to go down a more psychedelic/atmospheric route. The lo fi production that characterised Yuck's earlier material is actually not too sorely missed on "Rebirth" with spiralling guitars and swirling synths elevating the song to epic new heights for the band. Hopefully the fans take to what is a well formed and enjoyably groovy song that bodes well for the upcoming album. Yuck reborn, "Rebirth" has me wanting more.

Available now, you can download "Rebirth" for free at www.yuckband.com

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Video: Yuck - 'Operation' & 'Soothe Me'

"Wait, what?"

"This just ruined my day."

"Thats a little fucked."

"How does a band record an album without their lead vocalist?"

"Yuck... is Daniel."

"Which one is Daniel?"

Just six of the amass of comments on the band's recent facebook post that revealed that Yuck were to record their long awaited (well... 2 years) second album WITHOUT the band's lead singer and second guitarist Daniel Blumberg. When I read this I was perhaps a little less surprised than other fans. I have a bit of a sad devotion to certain bands and tend to check twitter/facebook/instagram pages when theres been silence like a musical progression detective... ahem. Much like when Johnny Marr left The Cribs, the clues were already there. With guitarist Max Bloom in charge of the band's twitter page, pictures of the band's recent activity conveniently coinciding with their profile picture changing from Ilana Blumberg (Daniel's sister/occasion backing vocalist) to the cover of the band's debut album seemed to indicate that Daniel was doing other things (Sherlock eat your heart out!). And so it seems with his recent revealing of his new project Hebronix (see my review of single "Unreal"), and last year's solo outing under the name Oupa, he's not one to linger on the same thing.

The question on everybody's lips seems to be "So whose singing then?". Well as any self-respecting Yuck fan should know, even as a Blumberg-less 3 piece unit the band is not devoid of good singers. Firstly bassist Mariko Doi has been busy between Yuck album's with her side project Parakeet in which she has both sung more that capably and written some insatiably good songs. However I think Daniel's role will most likely be filled in by guitarist Max Bloom. Being the sole musical writer of Yuck's debut album he was the man behind the songs whilst Daniel (in no disrespect to his ability) seemed to just make more of a charming frontman. "Yeah ok but can this Max guy even sing?", yes he can! "Operation" from the band's debut LP was actually the first Yuck song ever made and its many might be shocked to hear its Bloom singing. Blumberg overheard it in demo form and liked it, forging the idea of Bloom writing songs for Blumberg to sing. Its possibly the albums rockiest affair (apart from perhaps "Holing Out") and a promising indication of Bloom's vocal ability as well as a sign that Blumberg's departure wont affect the quality of songs. His vocals are also incredibly similar to Blumberg's, no better or worse, so unless people are really fickle enough to care about the face of a band, I think this next album can only succeed if people are willing to give it a chance. For anyone still doubting the guitarist's abilities, I've included a live performance of b-side "Soothe Me" in which Bloom real steals the show with... well... you'll see why.

Operation with Max Bloom on lead vox

Soothe Me (Bloom on backing vox)

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New Choons: Hebronix - 'Unreal'

I liked Yuck's first album. I liked it a lot. At that moment in time it was incredibly refreshing to hear an indie band who weren't afraid of distortion pedals, especially when the songwriting team of guitarist Max Bloom and singer Daniel Blumberg could seemingly do no wrong. However the band were always haunted by two factors, firstly their age (with band members barely having reached their 20th birthdays) and their heart on sleeve influences that gave the music press a field day with taglines like 'The Teenage Teenage Fanclub', 'Dinosaur Jr Jr', 'Sonic Youthful' and several more awful puns. Perhaps that is the reason, to the shock of many, that Blumberg left the band (as was revealed earlier this month). The band announced they would be going to New York to record their Sophomore album as a 3-piece whilst Daniel would not join them as he had 'decided to focus on other things'. Days later Blumberg (probably sooner than intended) revealed his new project Hebronix and that an album entitled "Unreal" would be released this July. With this came a stream of a new track, also titled "Unreal".

From the get go its familiar territory. Like a more delicate moment on Yuck's debut LP, "Unreal" mixes Blumberg's signature whine with spindly spaced out guitars that wind the song into a steadily expansive affair almost resembling the dreamy psych pop of The Verve's early days, in particular the song "Slide Away". Its not a million miles away from Blumberg's former solo project Oupa, its just that the piano has been replaced with guitars. With lyrics like "Been sleeping for hours" and "I feel so unreal", its once again, you guessed it, signature Blumberg. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, personally it just makes me wonder why he's quit Yuck. Unless Max Bloom, the debut album's sole musical writer (Blumberg was lyricist), is taking the band in a drastically different direction, this song would have probably fit in seamlessly with the band's back catalogue. It's probably wrong to expect something wildly different but "Unreal" is a lacklustre outing in my eyes, hopefully what Yuck have to offer later this year will be more exciting. The album "Unreal" will be available July 8th on ATP Recordings.

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Upcoming Tour Dates:
Birmingham Glee Club (April 24)
Manchester Central Methodist Hall (25)
Gateshead The Sage (26)
Glasgow Classic Grand (27)
Bristol Trinity Centre (29)
London Barbican Centre (30)