No Wukkas
I’m back at Hyde Park Book Club on the day of the King’s Coronation, but I’ll admit I’m only there because I saw that a band called The New Republic were playing, and seeing as I can’t stand any element of the British monarchy, I thought it’d be fitting. Ten quid for a ticket, three bands, and a subtle ‘fuck you’ to the king. No brainer, really.
I’ll tell you what though – it’s No Wukkas, the second band of the evening, who end up blowing everything else out of the water.
They’re a Leeds-based group who’ve only been around for about six months, but they’re already making a name for themselves around the city. Their debut EP’s just been released, they’re headlining places like the Key Club, and they’ve established (or perhaps a better phrase would be ‘made up’) a whole new genre to slot themselves into.
Plogbert Rock does roll off the tongue pretty well, I’ll give them that.
They come onto the stage, and as soon as the first notes are played, their presence as the most exciting thing in the room becomes unquestionable. The bassist and guitarist have what I can only describe as the energy of a pair of coked-up ferrets, bouncing off the walls and getting themselves thoroughly acquainted with their environment from the get-go. The bassist’s glasses are flung from his nose by minute 2 of the first song, and the guitarist loses his keys about five minutes after that. It’s a wonder either of them manage to make it home after gigs, all things considered.
But this is the kind of energy that makes or breaks a performance. They very clearly know what an audience want from a band, and act accordingly.
The frontman, too, has his own sense of self-assurance about him. It’s not overbearing or cocky, but it’s honest, and he moves through the set like he’s done it a million times. Impressive for a band that have only played a handful of gigs thus far.
In terms of the music itself, No Wukkas sound the way an overexposed photo looks. It’s blown out and huge, loud and garish and above all else, utterly unmissable. They’re like a ‘roided up version of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, with notes of Squid (band, not cephalopod) – you want to dance to their music so badly, but almost don’t know how. Disjointed beats, changing tempos and fuzzy solos all work together to make their music feel less like a gig, and more like an experience.
It’s awesome. Psychedelic punk at its finest.
They’ve released two singles in 2023 so far: Sick Stan and THT, which are both artistically diverse and, more importantly, genuinely great songs. They often choose spoken-word lyrics over melodic ones, which adds an air of poeticism to an otherwise playful band, but it manages to avoid coming off as pretentious.
I also automatically appreciate a singer more when they stay true to their accent, which the frontman does beautifully. Those fake American twangs and trying-to-be-Alex-Turner impressions are fucking boring – give me a Yorkshire accent any day of the week.
Sick Stan was a tune I particularly enjoyed listening to, both when played live and later when I found it on Spotify. It’s one of those songs where the music is a part of the storytelling process, working with the lyrics to set the tone, the progression and ultimately the outcome of the narrative.
We hear the recounted tale of an unpleasant encounter with Stan, a drug dealer, succinctly described as a ‘slick little nasty piece of shit’ by the narrator. I’m sure we’ve all met a Stan before, and the character in this song is no different – you can quite easily visualise your own local nasty piece of shit blundering around the town-centre pub, starting fights and generally being a knobhead. Doesn’t music paint such wonderful pictures?
It’s a funky, psychedelic, jarring track, and ultimately ends in the musical equivalent of a bar-fight. You can imagine how that song might be received in the mosh-pit of a bigger venue, and I for one can’t wait until No Wukkas have a big enough following to make that happen.
Give them a few more months, and I’m sure it’ll create some carnage.
Their debut EP is out, and you can listen to it here. You can also follow them on Instagram (@nowukkasband)
