Lol Tolhurst x Budgie x Jacknife Lee have dropped their new single “Uh Oh”, featuring guest vocals from Arrow De Wilde and guitar from Mark Bowen of IDLES.
The song features on their debut album ‘Los Angeles‘, out today, November 3 via Play It Again Sam. Get it here.
Commenting on the track the band say:
Lol Tolhurst: “Uh oh! – the title says it all to me. First we asked Mark Bowen from IDLES to put some guitar on it. What we got was sonic destruction design courtesy of the dentist. Great! Then our only female vocalist on the album, Arrow de Wilde, added her brand of mayhem and we ended up with something that proudly displays its punk roots. Uh oh indeed!”
Budgie, in his inimitable style, says: “‘Uh Oh’ is NOT like anything else! – It has one of those beats! A beat I stole from myself – The Creatures’ ‘Mad Eyed Screamer.’ Which I stole from Mitch Mitchell – Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Gypsy Eyes’. For the End I stole my Banshees’ Happy House beat. Oh it’s Such Fun! Fun! Fun! Pablo Picasso said, ‘Good artists copy, great artists steal.’ Los Angeles is full of Great Steals, from our Idols and Ourselves.”
Jacknife Lee adds:
“Mark Bowen has such a distinctive way of making noise. We sent a track to him that we thought was ready to release as it was, just out of curiosity, and then he delivered something quite extraordinary that gave us a whole new perspective on the song. It was both violent and oddly dance-y. It had a wildness to it that was pointing directly to the attitude and swagger of Arrow de Wilde.. I’d seen Starcrawler quite a few times and loved what they were doing. Arrow pulled up to Topanga and kicked this out of the park in a few hours.”
The track comes accompanied by a suitably frenetic video directed by Michael Frost, starring Arrow De Wilde, Lol and Budgie. Watch it below.
Made up of two of the most illustrious and inventive drummers of the post-punk era, The Cure’s Lol Tolhurst and Budgie from Siouxsie & The Banshees and The Creatures, along with stellar producer and multi-instrumentalist Garret ‘Jacknife’ Lee, this unlikely alt-supergroup have spent the last four years spiriting up one of the most extraordinary albums of 2023.
Photo credit: Pat Martin
