The new album from The Jack Rubies on CD on a six-panel foldout DigiPak.
THE JACK RUBIES (London, England and abroad)
Big Stir Records is proud to announce the invigorating return of English C86 and postpunk survivors THE JACK RUBIES. Three decades on from their last release on TVT Records, the Rubies have reformed with their original lineup and every bit of their bewitchingly jagged sound intact. Having relaunched themselves with a series of indie singles, the band joins the Big Stir Records roster with a new single, “Poltergeist”, ahead of their third full-length album set for release in early 2024. It's an astonishingly fresh record that takes listeners back to a time before corporate grunge and commercialized pop punk, when darkness, humor and hooks co-mingled in the vital and daring sounds of college rock that could and should have conquered the airwaves. THE JACK RUBIES, then and now, distill those possibilities like few others.
Emerging from the UK’s C86 scene, The Jack Rubies formed in East London, England with an edgy, melodic, noir-tinged sound sometimes likened to Bowie, Nick Cave and Serge Gainsbourg. In the febrile, oppressive climate of ‘80s Britain, a Thatcher-fatigued young generation responded with a flurry of indie activity -- championing outsider art events, surreal stand-up, poetry rants and a bumper crop of new bands. With Ian Wright on lead vocals and guitar, SD Ineson on backing vocals and guitar, bassist Steve Brockway, percussionist Lawrence Giltnane, and Peter Maxted on drums, the Rubies quickly found themselves playing out regularly at alternative London venues and garnering a rapturous response from the often-jaded British music press. A run of acclaimed indie singles followed, and the band became fixtures on the college circuit and guests of The Blow Monkeys, Katrina & the Waves and The Triffids among others on nationwide tours across the UK.
By the late ‘80s, The Jack Rubies had caught the attention of the US, signing with New York’s TVT Records. Fascinatin’ Vacation (1988) compiled the British singles into a full album for the US market. The rolling drums and knowingly dark lyrics of the lead single “Be With You” hooked US college radio and the video became a favorite on MTV’s 120 Minutes. With the release of the second album See the Money in My Smile (1990), the group toured extensively throughout America, often appearing with They Might Be Giants and Modern English. By the early ‘90s, the group had come to an impasse: acid house and grunge had become the dominant forces in music, and neither style chimed with the Rubies. The group disbanded to consider other options.
Dispersing to locations as far-flung as North Carolina and New York City, the individual Rubies remained musically engaged as elements of their scene's signature sound regained ever more cultural currency (think Interpol or Franz Ferdinand). Perhaps appropriately, it wasn't until the dark times of the COVID-19 pandemic that all five members felt compelled to begin experimenting with their old chemistry, having scant expectations that the results would be as bracingly “now” as they proved to be. After decades of silence, The Jack Rubies are back, and their new material is perhaps even more vital than ever. The brand new album Clocks Are Out Of Time is out now on CD/Digital from Big Stir Records, and it's accompanied by the digital streaming debut of their two original albums, 1988's Fascinatin' Vacation and 1990's See The Money In My Smile. Once described as uglier than The Stones, the slightly sinister Jack Rubies are, as ever, a mercurial delight, an utter delicacy... and one now to be savored in a new century.
For more on THE JACK RUBIES, see:
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Big Stir Records is proud to announce the release of CLOCKS ARE OUT OF TIME, the first new album from reunited English C86/postpunk veterans THE JACK RUBIES in over thirty years, on CD and Streaming worldwide. The band returns with their original lineup and bewitchingly angular sound fully intact, as heard on last year's global indie radio hit “
Big Stir Records is proud to announce the release of CLOCKS ARE OUT OF TIME, the first new album from reunited English C86/postpunk veterans THE JACK RUBIES in over thirty years, on CD and Streaming worldwide. The band returns with their original lineup and bewitchingly angular sound fully intact, as heard on last year's global indie radio hit “Poltergeist” and the new single “Hark”. Those tracks are joined by ten more noir-tinged, melodically gripping and darkly humorous tunes, easily the equals of anything the band crafted in their '80s heyday and startlingly contemporary in both sound and outlook.
The title CLOCKS ARE OUT OF TIME bespeaks urgency, and its songs pair titles like “Heaven Shook Me,” “Corrupted” and “Shark Attack” with a thrilling push-pull between taut rhythmic passages and lush, wide-open guitarscapes that deliver that tension-and-release dynamic to great effect. But the record's name also suggests a kind of glitch in the universal timeline, and it's easy to hear why. Anyone familiar with the band's original run (including their two now-highly-sought-after albums for TVT Records), or their context among contemporaries like The The, Nick Cave and The Fall, could be forgiven for thinking that Clocks is a lost album of that era. At the same time, followers of newer postpunk revival groups like Interpol, The National and Dry Cleaning might well mistake it for the debut of a band that could only come into being in the here and now of the 21st Century. Both points of view would be correct: it seems like the times have finally caught up with what The Jack Rubies always had in mind.
The band's original lineup of Ian Wright (lead vocals and guitar), SD Ineson (backing vocals and guitar), Steve Brockway (bass), Lawrence Giltnane (percussion), and Peter Maxted (drums, and also the album's producer) have picked up right where they left off, and it sounds miraculously contemporary. CLOCKS ARE OUT OF TIME fits the tenor of these times to a T, sonically and thematically. Jagged riffs and propulsive rhythms worthy of Gang Of Four, Shriekback or early P.I.L. drive darkly danceable grooves on “Heaven Shook Me” and “Hark,” while “Angeline Soul” and “Corrupted” squarely hit the vintage college rock sweet spot. “Chandelier” evokes Berlin-era Bowie with a distinctly Rubies twist, and both “Read My Mind” and “Poltergeist” suggest that the band might have evolved into a leading light of the dream-pop/shoegaze movement had they not gone into hibernation at the outset of the '90s.
Elsewhere, a stark rootsiness informs “Hidey Hole” and the genuinely funny preview single “Terrible Crime”, while “Shark Attack” lives up to its title with genuine bite. And you simply couldn't ask for a more satisfying closer than the gorgeous, soaring “I'll Give You More,” which the band call “a slice of Gallic infused chamber pop shot with dabs of Northern Soul harmonica, psychedelic backwards guitar solos, rhapsodic piano trills and all-round anthemic performances from all.” It's intended as a bookend to the desperate opener “Hark”, and succeeds brilliantly.
Across all of the songs on CLOCKS, Wright's insistent baritone spins tales of separation, isolation and the post-lockdown ennui that contributed to the general tone of the collection (balanced with the old wicked humor of yore). The overarching approach is thoroughly modern: seductively dark but too wry to be goth, brightly melodic but too sly to be pop. And for all its well-earned cynicism, the album is imbued with what Wright calls “a slightly bruised and battered positivity.” Perhaps that's born of the simple joy of THE JACK RUBIES rediscovering an alchemy that might have been lost for the ages. Fortunately, on CLOCKS ARE OUT OF TIME, it's been rekindled, sounding, if anything, more potent than ever. And that makes for a record that's not only a sort of miracle, but maybe a masterpiece as well.
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Hark 3:370:00/3:37
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Heaven Shook Me 3:250:00/3:25
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Hidey Hole 2:570:00/2:57
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Angeline Soul 4:210:00/4:21
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Chandelier 3:380:00/3:38
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0:00/3:14
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Terrible Crime 4:080:00/4:08
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Poltergeist 3:100:00/3:10
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Read My Mind 3:420:00/3:42
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Shark Attack 4:200:00/4:20
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Heaven 4:190:00/4:19
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I'll Give You More 4:450:00/4:45
The 1990 album from The Jack Rubies -- the second and last prior to their 21st Century reunion and the new album "Clocks Are Out Of Time" -- makes its digital debut in a newly remastered version.
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Book Of Love 3:300:00/3:30
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Mona Lisa 2:480:00/2:48
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Lost In The Crowd 3:040:00/3:04
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0:00/3:02
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Calamity Jane 3:200:00/3:20
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Beautiful Joe 3:010:00/3:01
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Western Sky 3:190:00/3:19
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Baby Fire 1:520:00/1:52
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0:00/3:08
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Crazy Letter 3:010:00/3:01
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0:00/2:52
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Haywire 3:370:00/3:37
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Tijuana Bible 3:150:00/3:15
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I Saw The Glory 4:040:00/4:04
The 1988 debut album from The Jack Rubies, newly remastered and officially available for download for the first time.
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Be With You 3:310:00/3:31
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Lobster 3:140:00/3:14
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Fascinatin' Vacation 5:010:00/5:01
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Over My Head 4:220:00/4:22
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Vegas Throat 2:420:00/2:42
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Wrecker Of Engines 2:570:00/2:57
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Falling 3:490:00/3:49
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You're So Wild 3:560:00/3:56
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Diamond Mine 3:070:00/3:07
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A Horse With No Name 5:190:00/5:19
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Foolish Boy 2:450:00/2:45
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Here Comes Love 2:580:00/2:58
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Dallas Blues 6:440:00/6:44
THE JACK RUBIES return with a new single, their dazzlingly dark sound fully intact as they prepare to launch their first new album in three decades on Big Stir Records in 2024.