CHUBBY AND THE GANG

ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM, 

‘THE MUTT’S NUTS’

OUT AUG 27th ON PARTISAN

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SHARE NEW SINGLE ‘COMING UP TOUGH’

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE

Album pre orders – Here

MAMMOTH 40-DATE UK & IRELAND TOUR ON SALE NOW

West London 5-piece Chubby and the Gang have detailed their much-anticipated second album – The Mutt’s Nuts out August 27th via Partisan – and shared its first single with accompanying music video. ‘Coming Up Tough’ is part snapshot of modern London, part punk rager about government failure and the school-to-prison pipeline. It comes from frontman Charlie Manning Walker (aka Chubby Charles)’s own experience with one of his family members.

Charlie explains: “‘Coming Up Tough’ is about a family member of mine who ended up going to prison at a very young age for over 20 years. He went in as a kid and spent most of his life in the system. Where’s the justice in that? You come out and have to prove yourself to a world that shut you away – what chance do you have? There’s no attempt at actual rehabilitation, no empathy, just a cage to be forgotten about. I wanted the song to feel like a snowball effect. The character gets thrown out of his house at first and it feels almost juvenile, but then as it progresses you realize the real trouble he’s in. And too often once you’re in trouble you can’t get out.”

The Mutt’s Nuts was produced by Jonah Falco of Fucked Up, and features Charlie backed by Tom ‘Razor’ Hardwick, Meg Brooks Mills, Ethan Stahl, and Joe McMahon (aka the Gang). Charlie has lived in west London all his life and works full-time as an electrician, and most of the band also work trade or artisan jobs. As a result, the songs are inherently political, rather than political by design. Alongside classic rock and roll themes of love and loss, the lyrics are rooted in worker’s rights, inequality, police brutality, government failure and gentrification – issues that are built into the fabric of the UK, and magnified in the English capital.

Despite the chaos of these inspirations, Chubby and the Gang’s music is straight-forward and (for a hardcore band) accessible. While not all of the influences are apparent – they’re infinite, and range from Hank Williams to The Bobby Fuller Four to Skeeter Davis to Lightnin’ Hopkins to Brooklyn-based 50s girl groups to British blue-eyed soul and Merseybeat – they do manifest in the band’s obvious appetite to do something different, something exciting. The songs on The Mutt’s Nuts marinate speed and sick-of-it-all energy with a mixture of 50s pop sounds. The result is a prickly take on the older, more melodic genres that punk derives from, chewing them up and spitting them out into something mangled but revitalized.

Two additional tracks from The Mutt’s Nuts – ‘Lightning Don’t Strike Twice‘ and ‘Life’s Lemons‘ – were released this spring as part of a double A-side 7″ and are available now.

The Mutt’s Nuts follows the band’s surprise 2020 critical hit, Speed Kills. Thanks to an unrelentingly fun concoction of hardcore, pub rock, doo wop, and blues, the album cemented them as leaders in a pack of new bands coming out of a new wave of British Hardcore. Speed Kills received an 8.0 Pitchfork review,  while The Guardian declared them “UK punk’s most vital new band” and NME called them “the scene’s clear front-runners” and Speed Kills “a thrilling white-knuckle ride through multiple flavours of hardcore punk”.

Chubby and the Gang have confirmed a run of UK and IE tour dates later this year (full dates further below) and hope to tour the US extensively behind The Mutt’s Nuts. More info to be announced shortly. The band also performed at this year’s virtual SXSW, watch them rip through Speed Kills highlight ‘All Along the Uxbridge Road’ HERE.

UK/IE Tour Dates:

 

Aug 27th | London – Rough Trade East (Ruff Trade Tour)

Aug 28th | London – Rough Trade West (Ruff Trade Tour – signing + dog show only)

Aug 30th | Bristol – Rough Trade (Ruff Trade Tour)

Aug 31st | Kingston-Upon-Thames – Banquet/Pryzm (Outstore)

Sept 1st | Nottingham – Rough Trade (Ruff Trade Tour) 

Sept 5th | Brighton – Resident Records

Nov 4th | Woking – Fiery Bird

Nov 5th | Bournemouth – Anvil

Nov 6th | Coventry – Central Library

Nov 7th | St. Albans – The Horn

Nov 8th | Hull – The Polar Bear

Nov 10th | Hebden Bridge – Trades Club

Nov 11th | Stoke – The Sugarmill

Nov 12th | Blackpool – Bootleg Social

Nov 13th | Edinburgh – Mash House

Nov 14th | Aberdeen – Café Drummond

Nov 16th | Sunderland – Independent

Nov 17th | Huddersfield – Parish

Nov 18th | Liverpool – Jimmy’s

Nov 19th | Sheffield – Delicious Clam

Nov 20th | Sheffield – Delicious Clam

Nov 21st | Milton Keynes – Crauford Arms

Nov 23rd | Exeter – Cavern Club

Nov 24th | Southampton – Joiners

Nov 25th | Oxford – The Bullingdon

Nov 26th | Bedford – Esquires

Nov 27th | Cambridge – Portland Arms

Nov 28th | Southend – Chinnery’s

Nov 30th | Tunbridge Wells – Forum

Dec 1st | Margate – Elsewhere

Dec 2nd | Dover – Booking Hall

Dec 3rd | Portsmouth – Guildhall Studio

Dec 4th | Brighton – Green Door Store

Dec 5th | Norwich – Waterfront Studio

Dec 6th | Nottingham – Bodega

Dec 8th | Birmingham – Castle & Falcon

Dec 9th | Leeds – Belgrave Music Hall

Dec 10th | Newcastle – Think Tank

Dec 11th | Glasgow – King Tuts

Dec 12th | Cardiff – Clwb Ifor Bach

Dec 14th | Manchester – YES

Dec 15th | London – Scala

Dec 17th | Bristol – Exchange

Dec 18th | Dublin – The Workman’s Club

Dec 19th | Belfast – Voodoo

Hailing from West London, Charlie Manning and his group of wandering minstrels – Chubby and the Gang – might be right up there with Dirt Box Disco in the “don’t be fooled by the shit name” awards but could be real contenders to nick the latter’s Rebellion crown.

Kicking off with a fast and frantic two-minute declaration on intent – Do “Chubby and the Gang Rule Okay”? Fuck yeah!

 

I guess you could start with a Sham or Cockney Rejects comparison. It’s certainly very London street punk but there’s definitely some Damned in there too along with a ton of other bands in your record collection. But that’s a good thing, right?  Believe me, you’re gonna love it…….

 

Second up is “Pariah Radio” and it’s a banger, proving that speed and melody aren’t mutually exclusive

 

I’ve heard a few people say that this could be the album of the year and three songs in, “All Along The Uxbridge Road” may have sealed the deal for me. If you don’t believe me, feast your eyes on this…

 

“Speed Kills” is the first song so far that breaks the two-minute barrier and with a sprinkling of Generation X it doesn’t disappoint. While “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” might be a bit more of the same, “Trouble” slows things down a gear with a bit of a love song. A wonderful tuneless tune with a hint of Madness.

 

After a momentary pause in the frantic riffery, we’re off again…..“The Rise And Fall Of The Gang” and “Hold Your Breath” gets the fists pumping in oi-tastic fashion and when bands can play live again, “Moscow” is gonna rip your local club apart.

 

“Bruce Grove Bullies” kicks into a Kinks-tastic riff and with a healthy undercurrent of Hammond Organ, while the yanks will go mental over the bark and bite of “Blue Ain’t My Colour”.

 

There’s no way you can avoid the comparison of “Grenfell Forever” to early Billy Bragg but fuck it, I for one think it’s a real stand-out tune.

 

“Union Dues” rounds things on in a Quo-tastic way. And what a way to say goodbye.

 

So there you go, thirteen songs that’ll fit on one side of a C60.

 

Speed Kills is available to pre-order now on the band’s Bandcamp page on yellow vinyl (with cartoon sticker sheet), black vinyl (with colour-in sleeve and crayons), hipster-friendly cassette, and ye olde traditional CD.

 

Buy ‘Speed Kills’ Here

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Author: Fraser Munro

The good news just keeps coming for these city Herberts with the release of a new song ‘UNION DUES’ – LISTEN HERE

Their album ‘SPEED KILLS’ will be reissued on Nov 20th  Eagle-eyed viewers will clock famed West London venue Bush Hall in the video and the band are thrilled today to announce a live show there for May 15th 2021.

 

Fronted by local electrician Charlie Manning, Chubby and the Gang have been leading a pack of bands coming out of a new wave of British Hardcore. Underneath an unrelentingly fun concoction of hardcore, pub rock, doo wop, and blues, Speed Kills boasts songs of deep substance and political conscience with a precise sense of time and place. Produced by Jonah Falco of Fucked Up, it has also proved to be one of this year’s surprise critical hits.

 

The album was remastered for vinyl at West London’s Metropolis Studios. The standard edition will be available on yellow vinyl and include a cartoon sticker sheet. There will also be a limited-edition version that includes a black-and-white colour-in sleeve with crayons.

Chubby and the Gang will return with a new album in 2021 – more details on that coming shortly.