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‘Saying you’re in a jangle-pop band is a red flag’: the Tubs talk speed, squalor and their glorious second album

As they embark on a UK tour, the band’s frontman recounts how terrible dates, struggles with OCD and a family tragedy all fed into their new record

Williams paints an equally unforgiving picture of being a musician in the modern world – one in which nobody makes any money any more, and any glamour associated with indie rock has long since vanished: “When you’re dating, telling someone you’re in a jangle-pop band is basically a red flag these days,” he says, laughing. It has to be said, few would be tempted to sign up for the rock’n’roll lifestyle after listening to Dead Meat’s title track, in which Williams explores the previously untapped subject of simultaneously running out of beans and the steroid cream you use to treat a stubborn groin rash. The same month also saw the departure of Nicholls, whose spidery, Johnny Marr-like guitar lines elevated the songs (for all Williams’s claims of minimal rehearsing, the band can undoubtedly play).

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