The Truth: Oft-loved indie stalwarts HATCHAM SOCIAL returned to the live stage after a half-decade-long hiatus with a packed out Pandemicamonium show at The Victora in Dalston last autumn. Very splendid it was, too, as was their comeback new / old song 'If You Go Down To The Woods Today (Three Cheers For Our Side)'. Now comes the follow up, 'Wild Creatures' (Tim Burgess Version) which is another chattering, chuntering track taken from the vaults and given a perpendicular indiepopping rebirth. Because both of these tunes will appear on a career-spanning compimilation release called 'We Are The Weirdos', due out March March 25th 2022 on lovely limited edition purple coloured vinyl.
HATCHAM SOCIAL LAUNCH THE 'WE ARE THE WEIRDOS' ALBUM WITH A SPECIAL INSTORE LIVE AND SIGNING APPEARANCE, LIKE THIS:
The Date: MARCH 30TH 2022
The Place: LONDON BRICK LANE ROUGH TRADE EAST
The Ticket Link: link.dice.fm/g8f575e66249
"'Wild Creatures' is a stamping allegory to the confines of working class possibilities being opened up by music itself," explains singer Toby. "Making nods to Echo and The Bunnymen and Pavement as well as absurd children's stories, the lyrics chart a celestial journey of two brothers climbing out from the dirt.
"I guess I was thinking about shaking free the monochrome grey of the Lewisham dole-office buildings and construction jobs, through the looking glass into a HD colour spectrum of the psychedelic universe; with wide eyes set to full throttle youthful overdrive. But you know, set to a Motown-influenced slightly odd indie guitar jangle. I think it was probably influenced by the fact that at this time I was working next to the magic mushroom stall in Camden and they got shut down, giving me a big pile of many shapes and sizes..."
So this version of Wild Creatures was recorded as part of the first album sessions at Big Mushroom in Middlewich in 2008, produced by the legendary and multi-talented Tim Burgess, with Jim Spencer (The Charlatans, New Order, Johnny Marr) on engineering duties.
"We had previously recorded the song for Loog Records with Andy Savours at Ben Hillier’s studio in South London," adds Finn, "as a follow up single to our big hit 'So So Happy Making' (produced by Faris Badwan and engineered by Savours). But with this version we wanted to capture the sound and vibe of what we were getting with Tim in the director’s chair.
"I distinctly remember that Tim didn’t want to hear the original version at all before diving in, as to not influence the new take on the song. We ended up with this lovely picking part that fills out the verses and a whole new intro and middle instrumental section, culminating in something much more raw and aggressive, reflecting the atmosphere of what we were harnessing during the five weeks we were there - a lot of which involved watching David Lynch classics and old '70s horror."
'We Are The Weirdos' then. Offbeat by name, offbeat by nature. A rickety, rackety, rockety compimilation album which brings together the very best and lost singles and singalongs from the four albums released during the curious career of one of Great Britianshire's greatest unsung beatpop groups. Those tunes tippytoe from 2006 to 2015, a near-decade filled with melodic indie nonchalance and casually excellent haircuts. Now, six years on those tunes resurface to shine a light on a highly enlightened collective.
Hatcham Social - for 'tis they - very much see themselves as the creative partnership of brothers Finn and Toby and the families they have created along the way. With a shared love of Orange Juice, the Beach Boys and Josef K they formed Hatcham Social proper, naming themselves after the original name of New Cross, meaning a Clearing In The Woods, and taking the idea of utopian anarchism from the pages of an Art Theory textbook as a starting point for a band that wanted to fuse the anger and anarchy of punk with a lyrical absurdity born of Dada, and a messy pop sensibility.
After a string of furiously catchy and scratchy DIY singles and a cassette mini album, they signed to TBD (ATO) Records in the USA and fierce panda in the UK and went in the studio with Tim Burgess to record their debut long player, 'You Dig The Tunnel, I’ll Hide The Soil'.
Fuelled by some suitably precocious press support (a 10/10 review from Vice for 'You Dig The Tunnel...' was a particular standout), they went on to release three more albums and gig extensively over the following years with various musicians based around the brothers supporting a selection of indie delights such as Crocodiles, The Charlatans, Tim Burgess, The Maccabees, Good Shoes, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, The Walkmen and Crystal Stilts.
'We Are The Weirdos' collects together some of those key early singles and adds in three extra never-released before tracks - Baxter Dury's version of 'Hypnotise Terrible Eyes', Tim Burgess's version of 'Wild Creatures' and the lead-off single 'If You Go Down To The Woods Today (Three Cheers For Our Side). Hurrah! indeed...
HATCHAM SOCIAL: AN INDIEDISCOGRAPHY
'YOU DIG THE TUNNEL, I'LL HIDE THE SOIL' (fierce panda, 2009)
'ABOUT GIRLS' (fierce panda, 2012)
'CUTTING UP THE PRESENT LEAKS OUT THE FUTURE' (Ogenesis, 2014)
'THE BIRTHDAY OF THE WORLD' (Crocodile, 2015)
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