Basht. just dropped a heavy one. The band are sharing new single Kids Vs Guns, the latest taste of their debut album ‘Poor Advice’, landing 9th October via LAB Records. Tour dates are on sale now too, so keep reading.
A Song Written Head-On
Kids Vs Guns follows recent singles Terror TV, Keira Knightley and Perfume. Those tracks set the pace for the record with looming atmospherics, intoxicating vocals and pitch-black subject matter. This time the band ease off the lightning-quick post-punk and go for tumbling guitar riffs and impassioned vocals. It might be the most direct statement on the whole album, with the band responding to the genocide in Palestine and confronting it head-on.
Vocalist and guitarist Jack Leavey explains where the song came from:
“This song started off as a poem written in response to the genocide in Palestine, it highlights the one sided conflict where innocent children are left in the direct firing line. Kids Vs Guns is my favourite song off the album and my proudest.”
And here’s a line to sit with:
“Bottle rockets met with missiles, soldiers marching on parade.”
About the Album
‘Poor Advice’ is a ten-track concept album, and Leavey lays out the big picture:
“Poor Advice is a bruising concept album that traces the tangled wires between power and those crushed under it.
Through 10 tracks, it maps the old dance between church and state in Ireland, where pulpits and governments traded sermons for policy and shaped a generation with guilt, silence, and obedience.
It then pulls that thread into the present, following how moral authority has been outsourced to boardrooms and barracks, with the military industrial complex running like a grim metronome: conflict brewed, weapons sold, grief managed, contracts renewed.
Poor Advice is the title because it’s all the counsel handed down from above: keep your head down, say your prayers, trust the deal.”
The record was produced by Ali Chant (Dry Cleaning, Perfume Genius, PJ Harvey). A kind of quiet patience murmurs at the core of Basht., with the band only showing their hand when the right moment presents itself. Their gift is turning the reflective and emotionally heavy into the sprawling and powerful.
The Band Behind the Noise
Basht. have built a devoted fanbase in the run-up to the album. Their knockout live show has gone out on tour with DEADLETTER, Everything Everything and Wunderhorse, and they’ve played festivals including The Great Escape, Truck, Supersonic Block Party, Liverpool Sound City, Dot To Dot, Live at Leeds and Other Voices.
The lineup is Jack Leavey (vocals, guitar), Lughaidh Armstrong-Mayock (lead guitar), Ryan McClelland (drums) and Louis Christle (bass).
Listen to Kids Vs Guns here and pre-save / pre-order ‘Poor Advice’ here.
Catch Basht. Live
- Sept 25 – Other Voices, Derry, NI
- Sept 26 – Gathering Sounds, Stockton, UK
- Oct 04 – Spindizzy, Dublin, IE
- Oct 07 – Music Zone, Cork, IE
- Oct 09 – Rough Trade East, London, UK
- Oct 10 – Resident Records, Brighton, UK
- Oct 11 – Rough Trade, Bristol, UK
- Oct 12 – Rough Trade, Nottingham, UK
- Oct 13 – Jacaranda Baltic, Liverpool, UK
- Oct 14 – Wax & Beans, Bury, UK
- Oct 15 – ASSAI, Glasgow, UK
- Oct 16 – ASSAI, Edinburgh, UK
- Oct 17 – NBHD Festival, Manchester, UK
- Oct 18 – Castle & Falcom (w/ Jacaranda Records), Birmingham, UK
- Oct 19 – Headrow House (w/ Crash Records), Leeds, UK
- Oct 20 – Independent, Sunderland, UK
- Oct 21 – Foundry (w/ Bear Tree), Sheffield, UK
- Oct 23 – Mutations Festival, Brighton, UK
- Oct 27 – Rescue Rooms, Nottingham, UK – LOW TICKETS
- Oct 28 – Art School, Glasgow, UK – SOLD OUT
- Oct 29 – Gorilla, Manchester, UK – SOLD OUT
- Oct 30 – KOKO, London, UK – LOW TICKETS
- Nov 07 – Button Factory, Dublin, IE – SOLD OUT
- Nov 11 – Empire, Belfast, NI
- Nov 18 – M for Montreal Festival, Montreal, CAN
‘Poor Advice’ track listing
- Dive
- Perfume
- Keira Knightley
- Terror TV
- Superchurch
- Vermilion Reptilian
- Circadia
- Moth
- Kids Vs Guns
- Poor Advice
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