PEOPLE SOUP is a new post-punk trio outta the capital of God’s Own Country, Leeds, comprised of singer-guitarist Harry Jones, bassist Ryan Walker and drummer Joe Willis.
They’ve got it going on and have just released their first single, “Rosemary”, via the offices of Bandcamp, who’ve certainly come through as one of the good guys in the year of the ‘rona, what with Bandcamp Friday.
They say they formed “moments before the pandemic” with “a shared need to bang out a prolific, caustic racket.”
And if that brilliantly skeletal, scratchy British post-punk sound is your bag – well, then maybe say hi to your new favourite band.
“Rosemary” manages to take playful lyrics – yep, it’s an ode to the fragrant herb, rather than a quaintly named amour – goes for a little of that de jour Speedy Wunderground declamatory style, but the slow simmer and that bass riff – well, that bass has escaped from This Nation’s Saving Grace, which is obviously a great place for bass.
If you pop y’self over to their Bandcamp page, you can also delight in the digital B-side to “Rosemary”: the wholly angular 92-second blast of “Wiping Arse Blues”, which is very much one for The Fire Engines and Bogshed fan. Two tracks that point to a wonkily bright future.
Why a paean to the particular herb though, chaps?
Harry has this to say: “People Soup is an instinctive, pessimistic reaction to the growing evil that has been in this country, and much of the West, my entire adult life.
“The gradual undoing of community spirit and the rise of hatred towards innocent folk the world over gives us little hope for the future.
“That said, pessimism can be funny, and so can singing about the fragrant beauty of rosemary, so I’ll be damned if I can’t have some fun as I struggle to see where we’re all be in the next five years.”
Follow People Soup at their Bandcamp page and on Facebook: they plan to see winter out in a blast of single releases. Good show.
