What do you know about Ruts DC? What do you want to know about Ruts DC? It’s nearly fifty years since the two sevens clashed. In a little over fifty more years, they will clash again. Roughly around the time they last clashed the Ruts were hot wiring barbed wire guitar, passionate poetry and rhythm weaponry together somewhere in a London that probably does not exist anymore. Splicing heat haze dub thinking to the energy flash of punk close to the big bang of late twentieth century culture. Open to ideas. Committed to ideals.
Some band’s sound punk. Some look punk. Some even look and sound punk. And some, simply, are punk. Without turning this into a game or statistics, Ruts DC were early challengers to the misunderstood notion that punk was a somewhat luddite dogma wherein complexity, creative exploration and musical prowess were considered a shameful affectation. Ruts DC songs moved with a precise muscularity and carried lyrics of eloquent and graceful rage. No two-chord thrash with shouting over the top. Go back. Listen to everything. From the very beginning to now, with the forthcoming release of new album ‘Counterculture?’, the much-anticipated follow-up to 2016’s incendiary ‘Music Must Destroy’ album, due this November 11th via their own Sosumi Recordings.
Counterculture. Now is the time. Was there ever an age with more reason to rebel? Counterculture. Do not think you can simply buy a way in. To Counter; to push against, to oppose and redress. By being a spectator, you are NOT a part of the counterculture.
“Counterculture? For us, it never went away,” says bassist and vocalist John ‘Segs’ Jennings. “We’ve always been on the outside and still are. It’s ok to be a freak. That’s why The Ruts started in the first place. If it’s still inside you, it’s time to light that flame again. Get to know what you don’t know. Come and borrow my lighter.”
Today, we get to hear the first taste of the new album in the title track and new single ‘Counterculture’. Drums and Bass building the defence wall. Guitar and whatever else lobbed in stun/attack mode. That is Ruts DC. That is all you really need to know.
Watch the video for ‘Counterculture’ HERE:
People unite.
‘Counterculture?’ will be released November 11th via Sosumi Recordings and is available to pre-order HERE:
‘Counterculture?’ track listing:
- Faces In The Sky
- Caught In The Kill Zone
- X Ray Joy
- The Question Is…
- Born Innocent
- Counterculture
- Too Much
- Poison Games
- Sleep
- Cyclone
- Pretty Lunatics
Album credits:
Visual concept and art direction: Graham Erickson
Typography and graffiti: Mason Wells
Produced by Segs / Ruffy and Wizard for Sosumi Recordings
See Ruts DC live in the UK November & December 2022 on the ‘Faces In The Sky / Counterculture’ tour at the following dates:
18/11- Exeter Phoenix
19/11- Southampton Brook
20/11- Cardiff Globe
21/11- Oxford O2 Academy
22/11- Stoke Sugarmill
23/11- Glasgow St Lukes
26/11- Liverpool Arts Club
28/11- Sheffield O2 Academy
29/11- Bristol Thekla
30/11- Nottingham Rescue Rooms
02/12- Birmingham Institute
03/12- London Islington O2 Academy
Ruts DC are:
John ‘Segs’ Jennings – bass/vocals/guitars
David Ruffy – drums/backing vocals
Leigh Heggarty – guitars
Find Ruts DC online:
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FACEBOOK
TWITTER
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