Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard Share New Single ‘National Rust’
Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard | Photo Credit: Charlie Harris
Today, Cardiff-based four-piece Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard return with the announcement of their highly anticipated second album ‘Skinwalker’. Following closely on the heels of their critically acclaimed single ‘Therapy’, which came out just before the turn of the year, the new album is due for release on 12th April via Communion Records. It will come shortly after the band’s forthcoming UK tour which is set to take place across March 2024.
Following on from their Welsh Music Prize nominated debut album ‘Backhand Deals’ in 2022, the band wrote and recorded the album at frontman and producer Tom Rees's Rat Trap studio, the room where Rees has previously recorded and produced tracks for emerging talent - Panic Shack, Do Nothing and The Bug Club. The material – as previewed on ‘Therapy’ and their earlier single ‘Chew’ – showcases a heavier and more disquieting sound than anything the band have released to date.
This darker sound and aesthetic take inspiration from found-footage horror and the Navajo concept of the Skinwalker – a legendary malevolent shapeshifter – from which the album takes its name. Thematically, each track on the record is designed to take you through descending floors of Rees’s mind each becoming more horrific than the last with the Skinwalker at the final floor, representing his inner fears, self-sabotage, hatred, and self-doubt. It’s a deeply intimate record of self-analysis and personal growth told through heavy fuzz-drenched guitars, a crushing rhythm section, and fevered vocals.
The band still carry that same the fast-paced energy and subtle trademark ‘70s references from their earlier releases though, and this is particularly evident on the danceable, indie-funk inflected new single ‘National Rust’, which was premiered last night by Huw Stephens on BBC Radio 6 Music.
Speaking on the single Rees says, "'National Rust' was my attempt at consolidating my 2020 obsession with Sly and the Family Stone with my 2021 obsession with David Bowie's album ‘Low’. It was the first song that really paved the way for the new album, it broke a lot of the sonic boundaries that I was writing within when starting the second album, “I AM NOT AFRAID OF PLAYING FUNKY GUITAR!”, I exclaimed, mu-tron in hand.
Lyrically, it made a statement that informed my songwriting moving forward as well, being a flagrant rejection of my previous political song writing, and an admission of alienation amongst a plethora of information. 'National Rust' acts as a bridge between my younger, more political perspective, and my more recent, more apathetic one."
Hear / share ‘National Rust’ here
Elsewhere on the record, the harmony-filled ‘In My Egg’ sees Rees sing about the struggles to force yourself out of your comfort zone, whilst ‘Human Compression’ see the band delve into an almost desert-rock sound with hazy, unrelenting guitar work supporting Rees’s lyrics about the pressure he puts on himself. The psychedelic glam-tinged ‘Night Of The Skinwalker’ – a song which centres around his struggles with self-doubt- marks the albums opus, melding a number of styles and genres across almost six minutes.
Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard – Rees, guitarist Zac White, drummer Ethan Hurst and Rees’ brother and bassist Eddie – have been going from strength-to-strength since releasing their debut EP ‘The Non-Stop’ in 2020. They’ve since made of end-of-year lists with NME, DIY, and Dork; earned plaudits from the likes of the Guardian, The Telegraph, MOJO, Uncut, Record Collector, The Needle Drop, The Independent, CLASH, The Line Of Best Fit, and So Young; and have amassed significant radio support with plays across worldwide radio, and live session appearances across BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, NPR, Radio X, and more.
The band’s frenetic live sets have seen the band make fans in tourmates from The Magic Gang to Miles Kane and were set to support Noel Gallagher – another in a growing list of fans – at the Royal Albert Hall before the coronavirus struck. They’ve also performed widely across the festival circuit appearing at Glastonbury, Eurosonic, Latitude, All Points East, SXSW, and Green Man, and have toured extensively including a packed-out headline date at Scala. The band will go out on tour again next March hitting 16-dates across the UK where the band will continue to debut new material.
Full dates are as follows:
February 2024
24 – Swansea, Swansea Arena House Party
March 2024
01 - Oxford, Jericho Tavern
03 - Exeter, The Cavern
04 - Falmouth, Cornish Bank
06 - Norwich, Voodoo Daddy's
07 - Chelmsford, Hot Box
08 - Ipswich, The Smokehouse
10 - Tunbridge Wells, Forum
12 - Milton Keynes, Craufurd Arms
13 - St Albans, The Horn
14 - Ramsgate, Music Hall
16 - Peterborough, Met Lounge
17 - Birmingham, Hare & Hounds
18 - Hull, Adelphi Club
20 - Stockton, Ku Bar
21 - Sunderland, Independent
22 - Edinburgh, Voodoo Rooms
24 - Grimsby, Docks Academy
25 - York, The Fulford Arms
26 - Clitheroe, The Swan & Royal
27 - Frome, The Tree House
APRIL
02 - Rotterdam, Netherlands, V11
03 - Paris, France, L'International
04 - Hasselt, Belgium, Café Café
Tickets are on sale now - buy here
‘Skinwalker’ is out 12th April via Communion Records – Pre-order here
Tracklisting:
1. Intro
2. National Rust
3. Chew
4. My Star Sign Is A Basset Hound
5. Sugar Sandwich
6. The Drowning Bell
7. Leatherbound
8. In My Egg
9. Therapy
10. Human Compression
11. Night Of The Skinwalker
Follow Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard: Instagram | X | Spotify | YouTube | Website
Selected press for Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard:
Buzzard by name and buzzed by nature, this denim-loving quartet play good-times rock’n’roll,
- The Guardian
“Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard are intoxicating proof that they do make rock bands like they used to…”
- The Telegraph
“beautifully dreamy, Seventies-influenced rock”
- The Independent
"Spirited 32-minute entree to Welsh indie-glam insurgents… brief yet hugely entertaining debut… The Non-Stop feels wonderfully in-the-moment, thanks to frontman Tom Rees, whose mad-for-it charisma (explicitly modelled on The Hives' Howlin' Pelle Almqvist) and pungent ideas (see John Lennon Is My Jesus Christ) point to a Jarvis-style people's hero-in-waiting."
- MOJO
“Extremely good fun . . . Wonderfully big and bright . . . it’s fun, intoxicating and powered by pure feeling”
- NME
“Good riffs, good energy, good lead vocals, super catchy chorus... nice satire and social commentary, loving that, I think it’s very sharp and smart track all round.”
- The Needle Drop
“their reinvention of rock is certain to see them become your new firm faves asap.”
- DIY
“they're primed to be countless peoples' next favourite band”
- Dork
“love child of 70s eclecticism and jailbreaking rock ‘n’ roll”
- So Young
“the band tweaking sounds of yesteryear with enough swaggering individuality in their own right.”
– TLOBF
“a deliriously unkempt indie rock jammer with a heart of gold”
- CLASH
