Ruts DC – Tour and new video

Ruts DC – Tour and new video

www.rutsdc.com

Fresh and fighting fit from a lengthy European tour, Ruts DC return this month with an extensive December tour and a new video for ‘Faces In The Sky’, the opening track from last years acclaimed ‘Counterculture?’ album.

“The video captures the intention of the song,” says bassist and singer John ‘Segs’ Jennings. “It’s the paranoia of these modern times. The lyric reads, ‘How can we tear the dream from a lie?’ – Beware the tech you wish for.”

The video perfectly compliments the songs sense of foreboding and dread, yet like all great Ruts DC compositions, it’s defiant and bold in its lyrical and musical approach. 

Always a thrilling live band, Ruts DC will be ending 2023 with a run of dates in December, displaying once again their impeccable musicianship and endless back-catalogue of rousing anthems.  

Catch Ruts DC on tour this month at the following dates:

December:

7th           Colchester, Arts Centre (*Support from The Duel)

8th           Dublin, The Workman’s Club

9th           Belfast, Voodoo

10th         London, The Garage (*Support from The Duel)

13th         Leeds, Brudenell Social Club

14th         Glasgow, Oran Mor

15th        Edinburgh, Mash House

16th         Manchester, The Ritz

17th         Nottingham, Rescue Rooms

19th         Exeter, Phoenix (*Support from The Duel)

20th         Cardiff, Clwb Ifor Bach (*Support from The Duel)

21st         Southampton, The 1865 (*Support from The Duel)

22nd        Guildford, Suburbs @The Holyroyd (*Support from The Duel)

23rd         Bristol, Thekla (*Support from The Duel)

More supports to be announced.

Tickets and venue info at: rutsdc.com

Ruts D.C – ‘ElectrAcoustic Volume Two’ (Sosumi Recordings)

Ruts D.C – ‘ElectrAcoustic Volume Two’ (Sosumi Recordings)

Follow 2021’s ‘ElectrAcoustiC’ album with a second volume of acoustic interpretations that delves into their back catalogue as both The Ruts and Ruts DC, and also reimagines some of the choice cuts from their new ‘Counterculture?’ album from last year. Segs Jennings and David Ruffy knock out a master class in reinventing electric songs acoustically. Returning to Perry Vale Studios in Forest Hill, South London, the album was once again recorded by former Vibrators bassist Pat Collier and mixed and mastered by Greg Wizard Fleming. The mantra of if it ain’t broke don’t fix it serves these gentlemen well as they kinda fix a sound that aint so much broke but reimagined.

Whilst Ruts DC’s reputation as an awesome live electric band they aren’t strangers to stripping it back to its most basic unplugged sound as back in 2014 they took to the intimate 12 Bar stage to do just that.

More recently they took this version of the band’s songs to the large surroundings of the prestigious Opera House stage at Rebellion Festival this year, Ruts DC’s catalogue of songs lends themselves perfectly to this unplugged vibe and reimagined they take on a new lease of life and certainly a whole new feel and appreciation for how good these songs are.

In 2022, the band finally followed 2016’s ‘Music Must Destroy’ album with their acclaimed new album ‘Counterculture?’, giving Ruts DC a whole new arsenal of songs to strip-down and refocus but not forgetting their history and back catalogue.

Gathering at drummer David Ruffy’s house with guitarist Leigh Heggarty, the band sat together and went through songs from the present, and the past, testing what would work well in the acoustic setting. Cherry-picking some choice moments from ‘Counterculture?’ they reached back to the original Ruts days to revisit ‘Backbiter’, the anthemic ‘Staring At The Rude Boys’ and a sublime ‘Love In Vain’.

The band doesn’t shy away from their often painful look early days when Malcolm passed and the 1981 album ‘Animal Now’, recorded soon after Owen’s tragic passing, with Segs taking over on lead vocals. It was understandably a really tough time for the band, but the music lives on and in many ways has thrived since with time an appreciation of just how good these songs are. Reclaiming them in different guises and treating them with respect and giving them a new lease of life must be a great feeling because they do sound fantastic, and the likes of ‘Despondency’, ‘Mirror Smashed’ and the rarely played single ‘Different View’ given this new acoustic life but whilst being stripped back they are no less powerful and that’s down to the class songwriting and the masterful playing.

A fantastic album that deserves your attention and turntable time – Buy It!

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Author: Dom Daley

December 2023 tour:

Thursday, 7th December – COLCHESTER – Arts Centre

https://tinyurl.com/2wda2hzz

Friday, 8th December – DUBLIN – The Workman’s Club

https://tinyurl.com/2p9mep5x

Saturday, 9th December – BELFAST – Voodoo

https://tinyurl.com/2t2xmk94

Sunday, 10th December – LONDON – The Garage

https://tinyurl.com/2y4y74kn

Wednesday, 13th December – LEEDS – Brudenell Social Club

https://tinyurl.com/ycx2d6v4

Thursday, 14th December – GLASGOW – Oran Mor

https://tinyurl.com/32jxxrc3

Friday, 15th December – EDINBURGH – Mash House

https://tinyurl.com/4kxjtbx2

Saturday, 16th December – MANCHESTER – The Ritz

https://tinyurl.com/4b8je6h2

Sunday, 17th December – NOTTINGHAM – Rescue Rooms

https://tinyurl.com/2y4y74kn

Tuesday, 19th December – EXETER – Pheonix

https://tinyurl.com/yub4s9af

Wednesday, 20th December – CARDIFF – Clwb Ifor Bach

https://tinyurl.com/y3jup94h

Thursday, 21st December – SOUTHAMPTON – The 1865

https://tinyurl.com/tbkusm8c

Friday, 22nd December – GUILDFORD – Suburbs @ The Holroyd

https://tinyurl.com/mryznurd

Saturday, 23rd December – BRISTOL – Thekla

https://tinyurl.com/2y4y74kn

Ruts DC release X Ray Joy

Ruts DC release X Ray Joy

Tickets for their UK May Tour are selling nicely, a reminder that you can get tickets from the Ruts DC directly with no added booking fees HERE

‘CounterCulture?’ has now been Re-pressed on Translucent Red Vinyl exclusively for the shops across the UK & Europe – going on sale from April 21st 2023. 


To celebrate they have 100 advance copies of the beautiful NEW Translucent Red Pressing, in stock and available on their shop HERE

Ruts DC- ‘Counterculture’ (Sosumi Recordings)

Ruts DC- ‘Counterculture’ (Sosumi Recordings)

It’s been a while since I dipped into the Ruts DC sound, even longer since I caught them live, way back in the Melkweg in Amsterdam with Johnny H and in truth a break from a Brutal afternoon of Gimp Fist, Lions Law and Discipline!!!

But on to this baby, welcome to One of my Favourite LPs of the year so far in a year that’s had some real blinders. A reminder of the times we’re living in, while also reminding us that Punk has a voice, and sometimes it just has to be listened to.

Opener Faces in the sky is one of the strongest openers to have hit these ears in a while, then Caught in the Kill Zone just moves it up a gear!!! That guitar sound that we all love front and centre.

Next up X-Ray Joy, shifts sound and focus, much lighter before things again move up a gear the sound just washes over you, drawing you in deeper and deeper. There’s the merest hint of a reggae skank to the beginning of The Question is before that Bass run takes over and that stabbing punk guitar nudges you reminding you of where the Ruts come from, where the sound is grounded, a societal scream of anguish, a story waiting to be told. Born Innocent gives you that hint of a dub reggae opening before the message in the lyrics stands tall and we move into some gorgeous lead guitar work.

Next up Counterculture again draws on that Ruts heritage, the guitars picking at you, “Whatever happened to the Counterculture?!” standing tall as a vocal refrain, probably standing up as my fave track on the LP. Too Much has an almost soft rock intro before that’s put firmly in its place and we’re back into that guitar sound we all know so well.

Truth be told there isn’t a weak track on this LP!!! Definitely, an LP for the times we’re struggling to survive in, led by the latest Tory Austerity measures, paying astronomical bonuses to the bankers (Give it 5 years and we’ll be bailing them out again) with Energy suppliers bleeding us dry, more than ever we need to turn and embrace the Counterculture, giving that light of Hope that music provides.

Fair play what an LP!!! Get in there!!!

Buy Here

Author: Nev Brooks

RUTS DC – ‘COUNTERCULTURE?’ TO BE RELEASED NOVEMBER 11TH

RUTS DC – ‘COUNTERCULTURE?’ TO BE RELEASED NOVEMBER 11TH

RUTS DC ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM ‘COUNTERCULTURE?’ TO BE RELEASED NOVEMBER 11TH VIA SOSUMI RECORDINGS

PRE-ORDER THE ALBUM HERE:

UK TOUR CONFIRMED FOR NOVEMBER/DECEMBER

What do you know about Ruts DC? What do you want to know about Ruts DC? It’s nearly fifty years since the two sevens clashed. In a little over fifty more years, they will clash again. Roughly around the time they last clashed the Ruts were hot wiring barbed wire guitar, passionate poetry and rhythm weaponry together somewhere in a London that probably does not exist anymore. Splicing heat haze dub thinking to the energy flash of punk close to the big bang of late twentieth century culture. Open to ideas. Committed to ideals.

Some band’s sound punk. Some look punk. Some even look and sound punk. And some, simply, are punk. Without turning this into a game or statistics, Ruts DC were early challengers to the misunderstood notion that punk was a somewhat luddite dogma wherein complexity, creative exploration and musical prowess were considered a shameful affectation. Ruts DC songs moved with a precise muscularity and carried lyrics of eloquent and graceful rage. No two-chord thrash with shouting over the top. Go back. Listen to everything. From the very beginning to now, with the forthcoming release of new album ‘Counterculture?’, the much-anticipated follow-up to 2016’s incendiary ‘Music Must Destroy’ album, due this November 11th via their own Sosumi Recordings.

Counterculture. Now is the time. Was there ever an age with more reason to rebel? Counterculture. Do not think you can simply buy a way in. To Counter; to push against, to oppose and redress. By being a spectator, you are NOT a part of the counterculture.

“Counterculture? For us, it never went away,” says bassist and vocalist John ‘Segs’ Jennings. “We’ve always been on the outside and still are. It’s ok to be a freak. That’s why The Ruts started in the first place. If it’s still inside you, it’s time to light that flame again. Get to know what you don’t know. Come and borrow my lighter.”

Today, we get to hear the first taste of the new album in the title track and new single ‘Counterculture’. Drums and Bass building the defence wall. Guitar and whatever else lobbed in stun/attack mode. That is Ruts DC. That is all you really need to know.

See Ruts DC live in the UK November & December 2022 on the ‘Faces In The Sky / Counterculture’ tour at the following dates:

18/11- Exeter Phoenix

19/11- Southampton Brook

20/11- Cardiff Globe 

21/11- Oxford O2 Academy

22/11- Stoke Sugarmill 

23/11- Glasgow St Lukes

26/11- Liverpool Arts Club

28/11- Sheffield O2 Academy 

29/11- Bristol Thekla

30/11- Nottingham Rescue Rooms

02/12- Birmingham Institute 

03/12- London Islington O2 Academy

Find Ruts DC online:

WEBSITE /FACEBOOK / TWITTER / INSTAGRAM

VIVE LE ROCK MAGAZINE LAUNCHES ‘VIVE LE ROCKDOWN’ Free Online Global Music Festival

VIVE LE ROCK MAGAZINE LAUNCHES ‘VIVE LE ROCKDOWN’ Free Online Global Music Festival

This Saturday Vive Le Rock magazine will host 32 acts from around the world for its free online music festival -VIVE LE ROCKDOWN. Acts include RUTS DC, COCKNEY REJECTS, MICHAEL MONROE(HANOI ROCKS), THE PICTUREBOOKS, KIRK BRANDON(SPEAR OF DESTINY) , DEREK FORBES (SIMPLE MINDS), SEX PISTOLS LEGEND GLEN MATLOCK and newer acts like TOKYO TABOO and the BARSTOOL PREACHERS.

All proceeds go to the Music Venues Trust to help keep our music venues alive!

VIVE LE ROCKDOWN-This Saturday May 23rd. 7pm U.K time at

 www.facebook.com/vivelerockworld www.vivelerock.net

Alvin Gibbs – ‘Your Disobedient Servant’ get Blood Red Re-press

Alvin Gibbs – ‘Your Disobedient Servant’ get Blood Red Re-press

One of the albums of the year gets a re-press on Blood Red vinyl for those who missed out on the initial press.  RPM  reviewed it Here and we urge you not to sit on your hands a second time as this will sell out as the first run did.  Go Go Go!
Alvin says, “For all you vinyl junkies that missed out on obtaining my solo album ‘Your Disobedient Servant’ on 12 inch vinyl earlier this year due the initial 300 being sold out in short order, Time & Matter Records have manufactured a new batch of 300, this time on blood-red vinyl and minus the accompanying CD and download code. This release will, therefore, be sold at the lesser price of £17 (the first pressing was priced at £22) and can be ordered from this Here”

It features twelve songs written by yours truly and an array of very talented guest musicians that reads like this: Brian James – The Damned / Lords Of The New Church; Leigh Heggarty – Ruts DC; Mick Rossi – Slaughter & The Dogs; James Stevenson – Generation X / Chelsea / The Cult / The Alarm; Barry ‘Barrington’ Francis – The Saints; Timo Kaltio – Johnny Thunders band/Hanoi Rocks / Cheap ‘N’ Nasty; Mel Wesson – Keyboard player & Ambient music designer – TV Smith’s Explorers/The Verve ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ / U.K. Subs ‘Diminished Responsibility’ LP / Films Mission Impossible 2, Batman Begins, Hannibal etc; Steve Crittall – The Godfathers; Jamie Oliver – U.K. Subs.

“I would advise interested parties to get their orders in sharp to avoid what occurred last time, which was a lot of people missing out due to the speed that the original batch sold at. In fact it was due to so many people voicing their disappointment at not being able to get a vinyl copy in time that persuaded T & M Records to go with this colour-altered second run. For those of you that are not so disposed to a bit of vinyl, there is also a CD version of the album available from the same link. Ta! A x”