Brighten The Corners Presents jangly indie-pop band The Tubs at The Smokehouse on Friday 28th March 2025.
“Former Joanna Gruesome guitarist Owen “O” Williams’ new group taps into the chiming sound of ’80s college rock, channeling a wide range of jangly inspirations.” Pitchfork
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Time: 7.30pm - 11pm
Venue: The Smokehouse, Ipswich
Tickets: £12.50+bf
Supports: TBC
Age Restrictions: 14+ (14- 15s must be accompanied by an adult)Accessibility: There is step-free access into the venue and the bar / venue is all on one floor. There is a Changing Places toilet across the courtyard from the venue. Please be aware we are a small venue. For further information, please email info@brightenthecorners.co.uk so we can make your visit as comfortable as possible.
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Formed by the songwriting team of singer-guitarist Owen “O” Williams and guitarist George “GN” Nicholls, the Tubs sound like a lost ’80s indie-pop band that would have been college radio staples if they’d ever made it out of the UK. The band cites touchstones like Flying Nun Records, Canterbury folk-rock, and a handful of British indie-pop cult favorites. You can probably hear traces of ’80s American icons like R.E.M. and Bob Mould in their propulsive guitar jams, too. Really, when Williams is bellowing eruditely amidst zipping guitar lines and nervy rhythms, you might hear any number of iconic indie bands.
The Tubs' second album, Cotton Crown, sees the Celtic Jangle boyband venture into darker, more personal territory while continuing to hone their highly addictive brand of songcraft. It’s a true level up album which sees the band expand their sonic palette to take in a kaleidoscopic range of influences: everything from soulful pub rock (Chain Reaction) to Husker Du aggression (One More Day) to melancholy sophisto-pop (Narcissist) gets a look in. As Pitchfork noted, The Tubs see jangle as a ‘vast world of moods and muses’ and Cotton Crown sees them continuing to explore this world and creating a distinctly Tub-ular sound in the process.
This is in no small part down to Owen ‘O’ Williams’ vocal performance- often compared to a young Richard Thomson- and his frank, bleakly funny lyric writing. Cotton Crown sees him delve further into his favorite themes of love-psychosis, unsympathetic mentally ill behavior, and the humiliations of being a musician in London. This time around, however, there’s a palpable sense of risk in his self assessments/confessions. No more so in the track’s closing track Strange- an accounting of the clumsy, intrusive, well-meaning social interactions that took place in the period following the suicide of his mother (the folk singer Charlotte Greig.) As Williams says: “I’d tried a few times to write a song about it. The result had always seemed either mawkish, simplifying or like I was hawking my trauma. But then this one came out, and it felt right because it looked at something smaller: the weird, unsatisfying, strangely funny ways everyone, including myself, acted after the dust settled.” The album artwork features an image of Williams as an infant being breastfed by Greig in a graveyard- a promotional shot taken around the release of her debut album (the re-issue of which was featured in The Guardian in 2023.)