By Ethan Tapper
The Bubs are releasing their first full-length album, “Cause a Fuss” on March 14, 2020. Cause a Fuss will be available for digital download, streaming, and on vinyl.
““BEING IN THE BUBS MAKES ME FEEL LIKE GLITTER ON FIRE””
Who are The Bubs?
Trying to answer that question has been surreal and deeply humbling. I’ve taken a deep dive into our story, what we’ve become in the two years that we’ve been playing music together, and I don’t get it. There has been no architect, no plan, no direction, just a bunch of imperfect people who care deeply about each other trying to create something and to have a good time doing it. The energy of the band and our music have been filtered through all of us and become something completely unique, far more than the sum of its parts. I don’t know how The Bubs became what we are and I don’t think anyone could have designed something so beautiful.
Because The Bubs are all about cooperation I’ve incorporated the words of current Bubs, and a couple Bubs emeriti, into this article to help tell our story.
““THERE’S A TRANSGRESSION OF THE LINE BETWEEN THE BAND AND AUDIENCE AT A BUBS SHOW… IT OVERTHROWS YOU.””
““WE SING ABOUT REAL FEELINGS AND PLAY OUR HEARTS OUT IN A WAY THAT MAKES EVERYONE FEEL SO ALIVE…WE’RE ALL BRINGING OUR OWN HISTORIES AND PATCHED-UP HEARTS TO PRACTICE AND SHOWS, AND HOLD EACH OTHER THROUGH WHATEVER’S COMING UP.””
The Bubs started with a tiny seed, me alone in my bedroom with a midi controller, a shitty electric guitar and a microphone, at a time in my life when I just wanted to do everything different. The sweetness and loneliness and earnestness of those songs still adorns our music, running through them like a golden thread.
““I’VE NEVER ROCKED SO HARD…I LIKE TO SEE HOW MUCH RAW ENERGY I CAN CHANNEL INTO SOMETHING SIMPLE.””
““WE HAVE A GOOD TIME AND GO CRAZY WHETHER WE’RE PLAYING FOR NOBODY OR EVERYBODY. WHEN PEOPLE SEE AND HEAR US, I THINK IT GIVES THEM AN EXCUSE TO FORGET ABOUT THE OTHER SHIT GOING ON IN THEIR LIVES AND LET GO FOR A MINUTE.””
I now know that I was casting seeds into the wind, unknowingly building a foundation for something which didn’t yet exist. I couldn’t realize what those songs were about until I had 9 friends and a seething, swelling crowd to interpret them for me.
When we first started playing together we would practice in my garage on Decatur Street and neighbors would come by with their children to watch. Getting booked in venues was a challenge, so we organized our own shows in the garage with our friends’ bands. Somehow these shows activated this insane, raucous energy --- everyone went crazy, and the next thing we knew the audience was screaming and we were all screaming and everything was melting on us and in us and all around us. None of the early songs were really written as punk songs – they just evolved from the energy at these shows.
If you’ve never been to one of our shows, I think that they are powerful. We invite you into your body and out of your body, to lose yourself and find yourself in something remote and present and familiar and alien. We invite you to scream, thrash, love, and to open your soft being to fight the hopeless battle for all the best things in the universe.
““IT’S A CELEBRATION OF LIFE AND A WARM EMBRACE …AS A BUB, YOU CAN COME AS YOU ARE. THE SENSE OF PRIDE, OWNERSHIP, AND LOVE FOR EACH OTHER’S WORK GOES BEYOND ANYTHING I’VE EXPERIENCED… THIS IS JUST THE MOST DAMN FUN I’VE EVER HAD PLAYING MUSIC.””
““WE EAT OUR FANS AND TURN THEM INTO BUBS.”
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I believe that what we’ve become since those early days is something truly special and unique. We’re a 10-piece matching-jumpsuit-clad tattered crew of friends who have figured out how to rock SO hard through pain and frustration and fun and relationship with each other. While finding our sound we have become a teetering spire of liquid energy, careening through Burlington’s music scene like a bike with no brakes, smiling through the holes in our teeth, spitting out light like a broken star.
“ “IT’S FUN TO THRASH, SING, AND SCREAM WITH PEOPLE I LOVE… IT’S PREVENTIVE MENTAL HEALTH CARE.” ”
““THE BUBS THRIVE UPON THE BENEFITS OF COLLECTIVE SONIC DISRUPTION CALLED ‘GETTING REAL,’ ‘GETTING DOWN,’ ‘GETTING REAL DOWN.’ … FUN IS SPECIAL, AND THE BUBS HAVE IT.”
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Our music is sweet and powerful and profane and hopeless; we try too hard, we hurt ourselves, I lose my voice, we break our stuff. In the midst of the hugeness and the explosiveness and the ferocity, the band has also become a family, a tender, broken body held up by a scaffold of love and mutual support. We take really good care of each other. The community that we’ve built gives all of us the freedom to explode in complete rock-n-roll catharsis.
““THE MUSIC IS BIRTHED BY AND INTENDED FOR PEOPLE STRUGGLING WITH THE EMOTIONAL COMPLEXITY OF ADULTHOOD…THE LIVE SHOWS ARE A PLACE WHERE PEOPLE COME TOGETHER, SHED THEIR INSECURITIES AND DANCE AND SCREAM IN COMPLETE CATHARSIS … IT’S A SHARED COLLECTIVE EXPERIENCE WHERE EVERYONE IS ON THE SAME TEAM AND CONTRIBUTING EQUALLY.” ”
Being in the Bubs feels like when you’re a kid and you get all your friends together and make a band — you’re not perfect and music isn’t perfect and it doesn’t matter. While Mitch (bass), Ben (lead guitar) and Jon (drums) form a solid melodic core to our music, many of us are non-traditional musicians, having never been in a band before or playing instruments that we’re not virtuosic at. In lieu of expertise we try our hardest, pouring everything into the music. The songs are like teacups made of a thousand mismatched fragments, crooked vessels for pain, nostalgia, empowerment and vindication, filtered through a dirty sieve.
Addie once said: “it’s seriously medicinal music we’re makin’,” and when I’m yelling my voice away and the audience is thrashing and Lydia’s in mid-air and we’re all sweating and the lights are in our eyes it really feels that way. The challenge we faced when recording was to distill that feeling into an audio format – we hope our new album will do that.
““THE SOUND AND ENERGY ARE REALLY MAGNETIC AND CATHARTIC – BOTH FOR THOSE OF US PERFORMING AND EVERYONE THRASHING ALONG WITH US… IT HAS HELPED ME FIND MY VOICE.””
Our deepest ambition is not fame, recognition or renown — we just want to continue to make music that we love and that we hope is important to other people. If we can keep having fun with our friends, and we continue to make people feel things, we’ll keep on creating.
I am so proud to be a part of this band and to share this new album with you all. Hopefully it mean something to you – I know it means everything to us. I hope you will find within it the expression of a family — a community – that feels everything and is doing the best we can.
Our new record comes out on vinyl, digital download and streaming on March 14, and we’ll be releasing it with a blowout show at Old Spokes Home on North Winooski Avenue in Burlington on that date. We hope you’ll check it out and join us for a show sometime. We think you’ll have a good time.
You can follow the Bubs on Facebook, Instagram (@thebubsvt) or through our website at TheBubsVT.com.