Following their eponymously named debut album in 2019, art punks The Imbeciles return October 30th with a new self-released six-track EP titled ‘Dissolution Sessions’, that features a new band line up – and a different sound.
“We’ve slimmed down from a meandering, vegan, six-member prog-rock combo, to a tight-knit, guitar-led, steak-eating 4-piece,” says lead Imbecile, Butch Dante. “The guitar sound is fuzzy punk beast-master AF, and we like it.”
The band had originally gone into the studio earlier this year to record a radio session for BBC R6. That ended up being cancelled because of the pandemic crisis.
“We were there anyway so we started riffing on some new songs and everything came together really fast,” says Butch.
The result is three new songs and three new editions of tracks that first appeared on the album. “The music is still weird, but everything just gets to the point faster,” says Butch. “You can hear that energy in Yes I Am; it’s the sound of a band having fun being creative again after a difficult year.”
‘Yes, I Am’, today’s taste of the new EP, is a Foo Fighters / STP/ Stooges-style banger but played on Imbeciles terms – one-note leads and guitar scrapes, with off-beat stabs and a pop-punk drum track that pulls the whole together. And the overall vibe of the EP is an NSFW hybrid of 1979 London punk (Skids and The Ruts), with the second guitar stolen from eighties’ Echo and Bunnymen and Bauhaus art rock.
“The video for Yes I Am is what you get when a band has too many ideas, no grown-ups, and zero clues how to actually make a music video,” laughs Butch. “
Charlie Conkers makes his debut on the EP as the band’s drummer. “He’s young, good looking, and talented. It’s quite annoying, actually,” Butch says.
New lead guitarist Stan Moseley makes a sideways move into the band from his previous role as The Imbecile’s chief engineer and co-producer – the producer role now being occupied by music legend, Youth, with whom the band has just started working on a new album, to be released in 2021.
“Having Youth involved as producer and co-writer is the most dope thing that has ever happened to the band,”
kip Larson
“Having Youth involved as producer and co-writer is the most dope thing that has ever happened to the band,” says lead singer and bass player Kip Larson. “Everyone is in a super positive, hyper-creative place right now and we can’t wait to see what we come up with.”
So, what about the name, Dissolution Sessions? Was it a nod to the pandemic, or a reference the band breaking up and reforming again with its new members in January?
Neither, according to Butch. “Kip was super hungover at the session. too many Dos Equis, yo. Hence: Dissolution Sessions.”
The Imbeciles emerged from the ashes of punk act Wartoad in 2014 – with musicians from LA, London and Texas, although no one was quite sure of the true personal identities of the band.
It’s all a bit bonkers and yet – and YET! – it sort of makes sense in the context of an art-punk band called The Imbeciles making a song simply about being happy to be able to make music about being stoked to be making music, happily
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