Released: 2023
Spitballing for a second, imagine the contents of “Greatest Driving Album Songs..Ever” compilations in twenty years time. Of course the contemporary audiences of now will by then be ranting at clouds, but what if the compilers went for a bold third disc of twenties classics as a bit of a gamble?
By 2045 the only place you’ll be able to find the likes of Canned Heat and Status Quo is in that medium, but the chances of The Tubs being included are probably zero. In a different era their lineage though they would’ve had a pre-Oasis Alan McGee salivating, Owen Williams and friends escaping the South Wales underground scene and previous outfit Joanna Gruesome for an itinerant’s life in the capital.
Let’s pretend for convenience’s sake however that a miracle occurs and they make it. Dead Meat is ninety seconds of bliss conflated from indie perfection, a smorgasbord of endearing scuzz via the late eighties American underground (Dinosaur, Hüsker), kitchen sink lyrical pathos a la Gedge and a sprinkling of Johnny Marr playing idyllic guitar.
Why does this matter? Well, because art is cyclical, brilliant music is being written and recorded every day and the idea that the human mind can be removed from the creative process should repulse everyone. Dead Meat is all of us, fantastic, flawed and fragile, a sweetly magnificent sheep in wolf’s clothing. It’s time to open up your mind – and throw those car keys away.
The Voice Of Unreason 