New is a relative concept. Take for example Cardiff-based bilingual post-punk/slacker pop band SYBS (SUBS), featuring Osian Llyr (guitar, vocals), Kieran Macdonald-Brown (guitar), Herbie Powell (bass) and Daf Adams (drums). These two songs will soon appear on their long-awaited debut album*, but in reality they have been playing them live for many years. Shoegazey Bad Old Days even is the oldest song on the record – it’s about teenage feelings and experiences that can still follow and affect a person throughout their life – and although there’s been a few versions recorded throughout the years, this should be the definitive take. A pretty good one, but it’s the re-recorded version of Paid Gofyn Pam – translated: Don’t Ask Why – that in my opinion will be reason enough in itself to justify purchasing the LP, because the combination of jangling guitars, grooving rhythm section and infectious vocals is nothing more than awesome. Old or new, who cares?
Double A Side single Bad Old Days b/w Paid Gofyn Pam is out now streaming via Libertino Records.
*Update (May 3): Full-length debuut album Olew Nadroedd (Snake Oil) is out now digitally, on CD and vinyl LP, through Libertino Records. They call it “a moving time capsule of the excitement and wide eye wonder — on one hand fear, and anxiety on the other — of young adulthood. A lot of the lyrics are reflective, anxious and uncertain but the music for the most part is vibrant, noisy, and almost hyperactive.”