The Anglo-American Imbeciles are enigmatic writer/guitarist Butch Dante’s creation, with a history of being vividly reborn. In chrysalis form they were a conventional punk band, Wartoad, till a Californian tour finished at an ex-biker roadhouse, whose former denizens were still inclined to dig up guns and bury bodies in the surrounding desert. Improvising with extreme freedom at what felt like the end of the world, The Imbeciles were born here.
2019’s The Imbeciles debut album was taped in eight deranged days, in a haunted studio on the Texan-Mexican frontier, a record of abrupt razor-edits and spectral moods. This was followed by an unhinged gig at London’s Heavenly Social where the band crashed and burned, with Dante pulling only singer John Kent from the wreckage with him.
As lockdown hit in 2020, the Dissolution Sessions EP was the first sign of renewed life, with a rebuilt line-up and sound. “I said, ‘I want to do pub-rock,’” Dante says, “and it went over really well.” It outsold the original album, with Crystal Palace fan Dante’s art-punk football anthem “Sunday Leaguer” being played on Match Of The Day. Youth (aka Martin Glover), loved it, and invited them to his Andalusian studio to properly begin Phase 2.
Colonel Kurtz and Hunter Thompson had seemed guiding spirits during the first album’s stoned madness. Youth’s El Mirador studio was equally extreme in its way, rewarding the Imbeciles who’d survived Texas’s purifying flame with a hippieish, bohemian Shangri-La. Waking up in Peter Murphy’s bed (the Bauhaus singer is a regular guest), Dante had to pinch himself at this ascension into post-punk heaven. “It’s on a mountain on Spain’s southern coast,” he recalls, “where Youth has built a big compound with Moroccan-style minarets. It’s quite chaotic, with incredibly esoteric furniture, art and books. You climb up a ladder to a sorcerer’s library in a tower dedicated to music. It’s got a huge, sunken sitting room with a big fire, and a pool. When we got there, it was just me, John Kent and Youth. For three days we just ate food and talked, listened to music and watched Kubrick movies – and Final Destination! – and decided what we were going to do. The rest of the band turned up and plugged in, and things started happening.” Youth’s musical partner Michael Rendall played keyboards, with Youth playing bass and co-writing throughout.
The first fruits of the sessions for new album ‘Imbecilica’ can be heard today in new single ‘Tiny Blue People’, a high-energy attack that explodes with vitality and melody. The Tiny Blue People in the video live an invisible existence at the bottom of swimming pools in the suburbs United States, cunningly camouflaged by their blue skin. At night they emerge to cause mischief and mayhem – and, sometimes, gory murder – before retreating back to their chlorinated and aquatic world.
“The song is about the duality of American middle-class society,” reveals Butch Dante. “At one level everything looks perfect, idyllic – but in reality, those perfect lawns and crystal blue pools conceal the vilest perfidy, a world ruled by egotism and base cruelty.”
The video for Tiny Blue People is by The Imbeciles long time animation collaborator, Shane Beam. Watch the video HERE:
‘Imbecilica’ will be released May 20th via Cadiz Music. Pre-order the album HERE:
The Imbeciles have meanwhile completed rehearsals at their UK base – secreted away from prying eyes in Sussex downland near where Virginia Woolf lived and drowned, with a machine-gun facing the road, and a stone circle in its garden. They will soon meet Youth again, when they support Killing Youth on their UK tour, climaxing at the Hammersmith Apollo. It’s quite an upgrade from the first Imbeciles’ implosion. Butch Dante’s not surprised. His mysterious changing band are on their second resurrection and feeling immortal.
The Imbeciles are: Butch Dante (guitar and backing vocals), Ben Rice (guitars, lap steel, backing vocals), John Kent (lead vocals, backing vocals, drums, percussion), Joshua Lattanzi (guitars and backing vocals), Youth (bass guitar)
Catch The Imbeciles live on tour with Killing Joke in March/April at the following dates:
March
Mon 28th Cardiff Tramshed
Tue 29th Nottingham Rock City
Thur 31st Bristol 02 Academy
April
Fri 1st Liverpool 02 Academy
Sat 2nd Birmingham 02 Institute
Mon 4th Manchester Albert Hall
Tue 5th Newcastle Boiler Shop
Wed 6th Glasgow Barrowland
Fri 8th Leeds 02 Academy
Sat 9th London Eventim Apollo