Dread never sounded so good

By Henry Lipput

On Visions In The Bowling Alley (Big Stir Records), the great sounding new album from The Jack Rubies, the faders are pushed to their limit and the troop of female background singers add, depending on the song’s lyrics, either a hint of lust or more than a hint of menace. Taken all together it’s a toxic mix that mirrors the toxic society in which we now live.

Visions In The Bowling Alley is a dreadful (as in “full of dread”) album warning us of not only the dangers that await us but also letting us know that many of them are already here. For example, “Are We Being Recorded?,” the album’s first single released earlier this year addresses not only the surveillance state we are forced to deal with every day but also the algorithms that take notice of everything we watch or listen to on whatever form of media we are using.

And speaking of dread, if such a thing has a song it would be “This Is Not A Joke” which begins with the sound of an upcoming disaster, a message from the future letting us know the dread we’re fearing might already be here: “This is not a joke/The lost look in your eyes/The rules are there are no rules.” The song gets under your skin and not in a good way.

And don’t even think of having a stable or lasting relationship. On the bass-heavy “Phantom” swirling backwards guitar licks combine with a violin played by the devil himself. Following a breakup a devastated man moves to a slum with probably the only possessions he can carry to what the lyrics describe as “a senseless killing neighborhood.”  Once there he continues to see his former loved one wherever he looks or wherever he is and wonders if she’s actually there or a figment of his broken(-hearted) mind.

Lead singer Ian Wright and the full band have a field day with the bluesy “Swamp Snake.” It’s a terrific listen with Wright spouting metaphors as he eases himself into someone’s bedroom.

“Be Good Or Be Gone” might seem like a threat at the beginning of a relationship but on this song it’s more of a kiss-off message at the end of one: “You can do anything you wanna do I feel no pain/That’s what I say even though it isn’t true/That’s what I say now I’ve lost you/Be good or be gone babe.” Guitarist SD Ineson adds Jagger-like harp fills to the mix and background singers Annabel Wright and Cat Henry become an essential element to the song’s sound.

New Singles From The Legal Matters and The Jack Rubies

By Henry Lipput

2026 is already starting to look like a good year for music. Both The Legal Matters and The Jack Rubies have both released singles for albums coming out early next year by Big Stir Records.

“Everybody Knows” – The Legal Matters

Next year it will be six years since Chapter Three, the last album by Michigan’s The Legal Matters, came out in 2021. I became a big fan with their brilliant second album Conrad (2016) and so it came as great news that Lost At Sea will be available early next year.

The new single, “Everybody Knows,” is the kind of wonderful pop for which The Legal Matters is known. The core band is made up of Keith Klingensmith, Andy Reed, and Chris Richards. Richards is lead vocalist on the new single and all three take turns in the spotlight. The trio also provides the soaring harmonies that lift the songs to Fab heights.

"Greedy" -- The Jack Rubies

“Greedy” is the second single and the lead-off track from Visions In The Bowling Alley (out on January 2026), the new album from The Jack Rubies. These post-punk and C86 veterans’ comeback album Clocks Are Out Of Time was a Pure Pop fav last year. 

With “Greedy” The Jack Rubies continue to mine the vein of what our (insert your own adjective) world has become. Following the single “Are We Being Recorded?”, a look at the surveillance state, the new song asks the musical question “When is it ever enough” and responds to the many -illionaires that are made each day: “What you have you do not need.”

All of this might sound more than a bit overbearing and scholarly but you don’t have to worry – because it rocks!

Big Stir Records doubles down on the scary

By Henry Lipput

 “Are we being recorded?”

Last year the UK’s The Jack Rubies released two songs that fit perfectly with the Halloween spirt we’re celebrating right now. But both “Poltergeist” and “Phantom” were also metaphors for a relationship on the skids.

The band’s latest release, the great sounding “Are We Being Recorded?” (Big Stir Records) is even scarier because it deals with a real threat to more than just a couple of kids on the outs. The surveillance state is tracking our every move and there’s a real menace from hackers trying to get into our phones and computers.  Even the algorithms attached to the streaming services we use to watch our favorite programs and listen to our favorite tunes gather information in order to suggest what we should do next.

“You’re in my home sniffing ‘round/What have you found? Mr. Smith and Jones/Not your real names of course” sings the band’s Ian Smith (if that’s his real name). They go on to demand his real location but they already know and will delete his social media accounts.

Sounds like more trick than treat.

Chilling, Thrilling Hooks and Haunted Harmonies 

Did someone mention “Phantom?”

Chilling, Thrilling Hooks and Haunted Harmonies (Big Stir Records), is a frighteningly terrific new collection of Halloween-related tunes (including a spooky remix of "Phantom") interspersed with spoken-word horror stories presented as if Wolfman Jack was really a werewolf. The collection is a perfect accompaniment for your yearly candy and apple haunted house giveaways or your monthly neighborhood séance. (The collection is available on CD, digital, and a deluxe double LP in a gatefold package that unfolds to reveal a playable board game board.)

Speaking of hooks and harmonies, this Big Stir collection contains 21 tracks from the label’s artists. I could list my favorites but I'll just let the members of The Armoires tell you all about it.

Another Halloween treat from The Jack Rubies

By Henry Lipput

It’s scary how good this song sounds. The Jack Rubies’ new single “Phantom” (Big Stir Records) is a follow up of sorts to this year’s “Poltergeist” from the terrific Clocks Are Out Of Time album (their first in 30 years).

“Phantom” is a song that celebrates and acknowledges a time of year filled with monsters and goblins but would also, at any other time, be a major dance club hit. It’s certainly early enough in the year for the DJs in the know to pick up on this and make it part of their set (where's my 12-inch remix?). And the song is as much about the spirits that haunt us as it’s about relationships that end and create a haunted house with someone who is no longer a part of your life and seen out of the corner of your eye.

The sound of “Phantom” recalls the sounds of The Jack Rubies' original contemporaries like The Boomtown Rats (especially Mondo Bongo). There’s also some more time travel going on in the video for the song in which the band dons masks of their younger selves.

Here's the video:

The Jack Rubies are back for another shot

By Henry Lipput

Clocks Are Out Of Time, the terrific brand-new album from The Jack Rubies (Big Stir Records), their first in over 30 years, doesn’t turn back in the clocks in a daylight savings time sort of way as much as it continues the streak the band had in the late 80s and early 90s. Or to put it another way: 2024 is sounding a lot like 1988.

And although a lot of the music on Clocks Are Out Of Time can remind you of bands and musicians like The The, Lloyd Cole, and Nick Cave it’s important to remember that The Jack Rubies, along with others at that time, were soaking up influences not unlike the bands in the 60s; it was in the musical water supply and available for the taking. And it doesn’t hurt that the band on Clocks Are Out Of Time is composed of the original line-up of Ian Wright (lead vocals and guitar), SD Ineson (backing vocals and guitar), Steve Brockway (bass), Lawrence Giltane (percussion), and Peter Maxted (drums and also the album’s producer).

For me, there are two very different musical styles on Clocks Are Out Of Time. There’s the “slightly bruised and battered positivity,” as singer and songwriter Ian Wright put it, of the songs. On the “slightly bruised” corner is the noirish “Hark” with its line “Does anyone know the way back?” “Poltergeist” is a rollicking scare fest and “Read My Mind” is a love song doubling as a warning. Wright’s vocal does nothing to reassure the listener/target he only has good intentions.

It should come as no surprise my favorite set of songs are the ones falling under the “battered positivity” flag. Even though The Jack Rubies were a year of two late to be included in NME’s fabled original C86 collection, the songs “Angeline Soul” and “Heaven Shook Me” would have not only fit perfectly on that cassette but would have made a killer double A-side single. You can listen for yourself here:

“Heaven” is the best of the best. It has a big, brassy arrangement and tight playing by the band. It’s a glorious track and if there’s any justice in this world it should be the next single from Clocks Are Out Of Time but also a major hit.