If you haven’t read Ted Kessler’s biography To Ease My Troubled Mind: The Authorised Unauthorised History of Billy Childish yet, I highly recommend you do so. Not only is it a fascinating story in itself, but it also helps to better understand (a bit) that the British genius’s discography has once again been expanded with an inimitable mix of novelty, reinterpreted, and well-borrowed.

Although 35 months have passed since CTMF’s year-end list-worthy Failure Not Success LP, we have seen the band members’ names pop up regularly in the meantime. On their next full-length album, House On Fire, you’ll find some alternative versions of some of the tracks that were already known: covers of The Saints’ Untitled and The Yardbirds’ Shapes of Things, the Juju-penned hit Traces of You (previously released on 7″ vinyls), The Rope Puller (also by The William Loveday Intention), Blues That Kills (released in 2024 with both The Chatham Singers and The North Kent Folkways Revival), and the title track (an instrumental on the latest from the Guy Hamper Trio), along with original new recordings that no one else could have written.

You know what to expect: biting, bluesy garage rock with that characteristic raw sound (it works very well that both Billy and July provide the vocals on a number of songs), a rekindled spark of grit and glory.

House On Fire—recorded by Jim Riley—is out now digitally, on CD and vinyl LP, through Damaged Goods Records. Featuring Billy Childish (guitar, vocals), Julie Hamper (bass, vocals), and Wolf Howard (drums, percussion).

Add to wantlist: Bandcamp || Damaged Goods

PS
Simultaneous is also an EP released entitled Keep Mojave Weird, with the track from the title of the above LP, plus three non-album tracks (a cover of Chuck Berry’s Memphis Tennessee, a new version of Wile E Coyote, and the new instrumental Thaypo Fuel Station), reportedly inspired by a recent US visit.