Take 5 With Grub
Newcastle based Alt Rockers Grub are back again with the release of their explosive new single ‘Mights & Maybes’. The single was premiered exclusively by us just last month and to get to know the band a bit better today they’ve shared with us their five favourite tracks of the minute and why!
The return to Trophy Eyes’ old sound was an unexpected but welcome change, the raw vocals and riffs just hit so hard, and combine that with heart-wrenching but hopeful lyrics and you’ve got yourself a real banger. As soon as the opening notes play it’s got you hooked, and keeps the energy and interest up through the whole song, over and over again no matter how many times you listen to it. And I’ve listened to it a lot. Here’s hoping that it wasn’t just a B-side from Suicide and Sunshine, and we get some more stuff like this soon.
I think the simplicity of this song is what makes it so effective, the chord progressions, riffs and drum beat are relatively basic but the way everything is layered creates massive depth in their sound, while still being easy to digest. Fontaines have some of the best lyrics around at the moment and this song really lets them cut through and be a focal point, the unrelenting and poetic delivery gels really well with the music and it’s just a damn bop. It’s not easy to pull off such a dramatic change in style from your old records and still sound like yourselves, but these guys have done it, probably the best I’ve ever seen.
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Bad Neighbour – Heart Pumps Blood
This one is just a rollercoaster of emotions, it starts fast paced and energetic, but quickly brings you down into a melancholy state before it catapults you back up again, and you never know whether to scream or cry. The way that the song is produced really helps convey the emotion behind the lyrics, in the loud parts the guitar tones and jagged rhythms almost make the song feel like an anxiety attack, but when it backs off into the quieter parts you feel comfortable again, if only for a short time. Can’t wait for the album.
Pure filth. Try listening to this song without throwing elbows. It’s impossible. The guitar and bass tones are absolutely disgusting but it’s the drumming that gets you really listening, everything is played super tight but it still retains that raw, angry hardcore energy that can sometimes be lost when things start to get overproduced. The whole song is like a fine wine, the further you get into it the better it gets, especially the riffs and breakdowns at the end. It’s got everything you could want in a song like this- shit talking over meaty riffs, a tempo change at the end, a silly outro, and one of the hardest album covers you have ever seen.
Ways Away – Everyone I Know (The Optimist)
This song is very in line with the tone of how Grub songs often start out before they’re brought to the whole band and become something different entirely. The guitar and vocals in the intro of this song directly influenced parts of our latest single “Mights & Maybes”, it’s almost like the song that we wish we could’ve written if we didn’t get carried away and make everything heavier than it needs to be. The melancholic guitar and vocals at the start of the song are almost addictive, once they start you have to listen the whole way through, every time.
Grub’s new single, Mights and Maybes is available now, everywhere.
