The new album from The Jack Rubies on a Vinyl LP.
$25.00
THE JACK RUBIES (London, England and abroad)
Big Stir Records is the proud home to the ongoing, 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. After relaunching themselves in 2023 with a series of indie singles, the returned in full force in 2024 album on Big Stir Records with the acclaimed comeback album CLOCKS ARE OUT OF TIME. 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. And in the wake of that record's success, the band is moving forward with breathtaking urgency, already releasing new singles on the road to their fourth studio LP, due in early 2026.
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. Clocks Are Out Of Time proved that point in no uncertain terms, and it was followed 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. Stand by for the next chapter in their utterly contemporary tale.
For more on THE JACK RUBIES, see:
The new album from The Jack Rubies on CD in a Digipak with a 16-page booklet.
$12.00
The 100% cotton unisex classic tee will help you land a more structured look. It sits nicely, maintains sharp lines around the edges, and goes perfectly with layered streetwear outfits. Plus, it's extra trendy now!
• 100% cotton
• Sport Grey is 90% cotton, 10% polyester
• Ash Grey is 99% cotton, 1% polyester
• Heather colors are 50% cotton, 50% polyester
• Fabric weight: 5.0–5.3 oz/yd² (170-180 g/m²)
• Open-end yarn
• Tubular fabric
• Taped neck and shoulders
• Double seam at sleeves and bottom hem
• Blank product sourced from Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Bangladesh, Mexico
Disclaimers:
• Due to the fabric properties, the White color variant may appear off-white rather than bright white.
• Dark color speckles throughout the fabric are expected for the color Natural.
$25.00
The 100% cotton unisex classic tee will help you land a more structured look. It sits nicely, maintains sharp lines around the edges, and goes perfectly with layered streetwear outfits. Plus, it's extra trendy now!
• 100% cotton
• Sport Grey is 90% cotton, 10% polyester
• Ash Grey is 99% cotton, 1% polyester
• Heather colors are 50% cotton, 50% polyester
• Fabric weight: 5.0–5.3 oz/yd² (170-180 g/m²)
• Open-end yarn
• Tubular fabric
• Taped neck and shoulders
• Double seam at sleeves and bottom hem
• Blank product sourced from Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Bangladesh, Mexico
Disclaimers:
• Due to the fabric properties, the White color variant may appear off-white rather than bright white.
• Dark color speckles throughout the fabric are expected for the color Natural.
$25.00
The new album from The Jack Rubies on CD on a six-panel foldout DigiPak.
$12.00
The 100% cotton men's classic tee will help you land a more structured look. It sits nicely, maintains sharp lines around the edges, and goes perfectly with layered streetwear outfits. Plus, it's extra trendy now!
• 100% cotton
• Sport Grey is 90% cotton, 10% polyester
• Ash Grey is 99% cotton, 1% polyester
• Heather colors are 50% cotton, 50% polyester
• Fabric weight: 5.0–5.3 oz/yd² (170-180 g/m²)
• Open-end yarn
• Tubular fabric
• Taped neck and shoulders
• Double seam at sleeves and bottom hem
• Blank product sourced from Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Bangladesh, Mexico
$25.00
Visions In The Bowling Alley
The Jack Rubies
The Jack Rubies "Visions In The Bowling Alley" CD Download |
$12.00
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The Jack Rubies "Visions In The Bowling Alley" Vinyl LP Download |
$25.00
|
Big Stir Records is proud to begin 2026 with the January 23 release of a new album by acclaimed UK postpunk veterans THE JACK RUBIES: VISIONS IN THE BOWLING ALLEY on CD, Streaming and, for the first time since 1990, Vinyl Read more
Big Stir Records is proud to begin 2026 with the January 23 release of a new album by acclaimed UK postpunk veterans THE JACK RUBIES: VISIONS IN THE BOWLING ALLEY on CD, Streaming and, for the first time since 1990, Vinyl as well. The band's fourth album and the followup to their critically-hailed 2024 comeback CLOCKS ARE OUT OF TIME, the full-length release features the band's recent indie hits “Are We Being Recorded?” and “Greedy” as well as “Phantom” as heard on BSR's 2025 Halloween collection, along with nine more all-new tracks. It's up for pre-order and presave now:
https://orcd.co/jackrubies-vitba
The time-tested lineup of THE JACK RUBIES – Ian Wright (lead vocals and guitar), SD Ineson (guitar, harmonica, backing vocals), Steve Brockway (bass), Lawrence Giltnane (percussion), and Peter Maxted (drums, and also the album's producer) – is exactly the same today as it was four decades ago when the band emerged from the English C86 and postpunk scene, and the new record even sees the return of violinist and honorary sixth member Emma Peters who guested on the debut album and performed live with the band during the early UK tours. At that time, they won the hearts of fans of college radio and MTV's 120 Minutes with their angular, noir-tinged sound, memorable melodies and sly, literate lyrics, shared stages worldwide with the likes of Katrina & the Waves, The Triffids, They Might Be Giants and Modern English, and delivered two deeply engrossing albums, Fascinatin’ Vacation (1988) and See The Money In My Smile (1990), for TVT Records. Then came the grunge and Britpop years, and the band slept, as life and other exploits took center stage until the unlikely catalyst of the 2020 pandemic led the geographically-dispersed members to rekindle their collaboration with all on board and, miraculously, their original chemistry intact. The resulting flurry of activity led first to a series of singles (all of them at once of a piece with the band's early work and yet shockingly contemporary in every sense) and ultimately to the 2024 release of their third album, CLOCKS ARE OUT OF TIME, hailed by rock writers worldwide as not just a return to form but the band's best work yet.
Even that is now old news, and with VISIONS IN THE BOWLING ALLEY, The Jack Rubies demonstrate just why their new material feels so very urgent: the band were almost always unquestionably ahead of their time. It's difficult to take joy in the fact that we now live in times so closely resembling the dystopian collapse that the Rubies' early lyrics so often seemed to depict, but here we are, and there could be no better sonic documentarians of the present day. If the songs on Clocks Are Out Of Time dealt in part with The Jack Rubies’ miraculous regeneration, then Visions In The Bowling Alley sees their collective gaze turn to the strange new future world where they now find themselves. Visions indeed, that summon gluttonous desires, artificial malevolent lovers, Martian pyramids and London buses, labyrinths, phantoms (always phantoms), Beatles books and devil boys, bullet trains and deep fakes... all of these and more inform the album, taking their place among bewitching guitar textures, infectious beats and deadpan but consummately melodic vocal deliveries.
It's not just the tenor of the times but also the enduring resurgence of the postpunk sound in this century, from Interpol to Dry Cleaning, that make THE JACK RUBIES feel more relevant than ever. Even so, there's a freshness and urgency to the band's newest material that sets them apart from their followers, and part of that is a function of the band's own inspired need to keep its own eerie flame alight. The single “Phantom,” with its tense lyrics and Remain In Light-inspired groove, was all over indie radio by October 2024, mere months after CLOCKS ARE OUT OF TIME's release, and the even more unsettling remix featured here was a highlight of Big Stir's Halloween collection CHILLING, THRILLING HOOKS AND HAUNTED HARMONIES a year later. Between Autumns, fans were treated to the very of-the-times postmodern spy music outing “Are We Being Recorded?” and most recently, setting the stage for VISIONS, there was the standalone release of the album's archly humorous rocker of a lead track “Greedy.” The new singles have all been accompanied by compellingly original and artistic music videos of the kind they just don't make any more, with all the media telegraphing just how driven the band is to seize the moment and make it their own.
VISIONS IN THE BOWLING ALLEY makes good on every last bit of that ambition. Beyond the singles, the album features hooks and grooves aplenty and deeper explorations of the kind of paranoia, scrambled identity and media saturation that's barely science fiction any more. There are cautionary tales of intrusive technology like the loping “My Perceptron,” the near-blues retro vibes of “Dead Man” framing a '50s-era character study involving ghosts and Martians, and the darkly twanging tones of the genuinely spooky and likewise flying-saucer-inspired “Flying Machine.” Fragments of ska and ABBA-inspired piano mingle with the noir guitar leads on the humorously menacing “Asteroid,” while “This Is Not A Joke,” an exploration of a delusional world of secret societies, false rumors and omens of impending upheaval, radiates unease with mounting layers of guitars, keyboards, and backing vocals.
For all its tales of untethered personalities adrift in an unhinged world that frighteningly resembles our own, VISIONS IN THE BOWLING ALLEY, even at its darkest, is shot through with humor that's too clever and heartfelt to be truly bleak. It ends with a trio of tracks that are conversely too knowing to be considered strictly gleeful, but which sport indelible hooks that are sure to spark joy in anyone who hears them. “Boat Rocker” finds the band in almost Squeeze-like pop territory, and it's followed by an irresistibly toe-tapping cover of The Sensational Alex Harvey Band's “Swampsnake” pushed over the edge by guest Ayumi Ishito's saxophone. And the closing “Be Good Or Be Gone” is simply a delight: with its dancefloor beat, wailing harmonica, soulful backing vocals courtesy of Cat Henry, and one of Ian Wright's most instantly memorable vocal hooks ever, it's quite simply a hit waiting to happen.
Enter, then, the hallucinatory delirium of this thoroughly inviting fever dream of a record, where lions weep and creatures crawl. Where birds fly in reverse and truant scarecrows flee their fields. Yes, folks, nothing too weird or outlandish here – just the matrix overloading in this Garden of Earthly Delights. As the enigmatic Netherlandish rock star Hieronymus Bosch is unreliably reported to have said, “Life is a simulation!” You are invited to overindulge, go overboard, and wolf down this sonic slice of post punk pie. It’s The Jack Rubies’ new album... binge on!
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Greedy 3:060:00/3:06
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My Perceptron 4:260:00/4:26
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Primordial Sludge 4:120:00/4:12
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Dead Man 4:580:00/4:58
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Flying Machine 3:090:00/3:09
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Phantom 4:520:00/4:52
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Asteroid 3:410:00/3:41
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0:00/3:22
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This Is Not A Joke 5:030:00/5:03
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Boat Rocker 3:310:00/3:31
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Swampsnake 4:140:00/4:14
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Be Good Or Be Gone 4:300:00/4:30
Clocks Are Out Of Time
The Jack Rubies
CD - The Jack Rubies "Clocks Are Out Of Time" Download |
$12.00
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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 Read more
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
With their new album VISIONS IN THE BOWLING ALLEY announced at the end of last year and set for release on Vinyl, CD and Streaming in late January, UK postpunk veterans THE JACK RUBIES offer up one more single to preview Read more
With their new album VISIONS IN THE BOWLING ALLEY announced at the end of last year and set for release on Vinyl, CD and Streaming in late January, UK postpunk veterans THE JACK RUBIES offer up one more single to preview the record. “Be Good Or Be Gone,” a slice of groovy guitar pop as danceable and hook-heavy as anything from the band's four-decade history, is out January 9 on all digital platforms worldwide and up for preorder and pre-save now:
https://orcd.co/jackrubies-bgobg
With their new album VISIONS IN THE BOWLING ALLEY announced at the end of last year and set for release on Vinyl, CD and Streaming in late January, UK postpunk veterans THE JACK RUBIES offer up one more single to preview the record. “Be Good Or Be Gone,” a slice of groovy guitar pop as danceable and hook-heavy as anything from the band's four-decade history, is out January 9 on all digital platforms worldwide and up for preorder and pre-save now:
https://orcd.co/jackrubies-bgobg
Big Stir Records brought the THE JACK RUBIES back onto the global stage with their original lineup (Ian Wright on lead vocals and guitar, SD Ineson on backing vocals, guitar and harmonica, bassist Steve Brockway, percussionist Lawrence Giltnane, and Peter Maxted on drums) for their acclaimed 2023 comeback album CLOCKS ARE OUT OF TIME, accompanied by the streaming debut of the band's full back catalog from their beloved late '80s/early '90s run on TVT Records. The full body of work demonstrates a band whose unique, noir-tinged spin on the postpunk sound have always combined with sly, darkly humorous lyrics to create a sound that, while originally prophetic, is now eerily aligned with the dystopian present day. The songs on the new album VISIONS IN THE BOWLING ALLEY (out January 23 on Vinyl, CD and Streaming) bear out that urgent timeliness with delightful, albeit sometimes alarming, aplomb. Nowhere does their combination of grooves, hooks, and sardonic wit shine more brightly than on the album's closing track and the latest preview single “Be Good Or Be Gone.”
THE JACK RUBIES may have emerged from the British C86 scene and be more often thought amongst the likes of Shriekback or Nick Cave, but there's something about the groove and hooks of “Be Good Or Be Gone” that whispers “Madchester” – think “Fool's Gold,” “Step On” or “Groovy Train”. You can most certainly dance to it, and the vocal interplay between RUBIES frontman Wright and guest CAT HENRY (returning after the last album's hit single “I'll Give You More”) is thrilling. It sounds like a party, and while the words betray an underlying darkness, it's of an almost pop-classicist bent, as direct as a set of Johnny Cash lyrics: “You crucify me then you dance up and down on my grave/That’s what I say even though it isn’t true.” Taken together, it's the stuff of which enduring hit singles are made.
“It's based on an almost forgotten sketch from yesteryear and with a nod to our past,” the band offers, “a dance-flavored and nostalgic meditation on the closing of a chapter.” The Rubies' SD Ineson features on harmonica, adding to the rootsy flavor, and delivers signature guitar lines that complement Wright’s slide guitar and and tight postpunk funk rhythms. Drummer/producer Peter Maxted’s keyboard textures float, then punctuate, while bass and percussion hold the beat close until gradually letting go as the track wistfully concludes. “It’s time to move on. Two empty deck chairs are all that’s left on a deserted beach,” the band says in summary. And ever forward in step with the times, THE JACK RUBIES move toward the release of VISIONS IN THE BOWLING ALLEY, just weeks away. Join them at the lanes on January 23.
UK postpunk veterans THE JACK RUBIES return once again to continue their 21st Century renaissance and set the scene for their new, fourth album due early next year, with the fresh and very much of-the-moment single “ Read more
UK postpunk veterans THE JACK RUBIES return once again to continue their 21st Century renaissance and set the scene for their new, fourth album due early next year, with the fresh and very much of-the-moment single “Greedy.” Out November 21 on all digital platforms worldwide, it's up for preorder and pre-save now:
https://orcd.co/jackrubies-greedy
As the Season of The Feast fast approaches, hard on the heels of their recent indie hit “Are We Being Recorded?”/ “Phantom (Chilling, Thrilling 2025 Remix),” The Jack Rubies serve up a new fingerlicking delight in the shape of “Greedy” - the official second tasty treat to be offered from the band’s soon-to-come fourth long-playing platter (and the second of their remarkable return after their initial late '80s/early '90s run on TVT Records). Big Stir Records, who brought the Rubies back onto the global stage with their original lineup (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) for their acclaimed 2023 comeback album CLOCKS ARE OUT OF TIME along with the streaming debut of the band's full back catalog, will be bringing you the new collection on Vinyl and CD, and “Greedy” sets the table for its January 2026 bow. From a declamatory intro quote that tags the mysterious power of Parmesan cheese, the band launches in with uptempo glee, peppering the riff with globs of call and response vocals before hitting the sing-along chorus, where a melodious kalimba and the guest vocal harmonies of Annabel Wright join the mix. A somewhat feral synth solo grabs the tune by the scruff of the neck before the group barrels on to the finishing line with handclaps and monkish “aah”s to the fore. Enter then the hallucinatory delirium of this fever dream, where lions weep and creatures crawl. Where birds fly in reverse and truant scarecrows flee their fields. Yes, folks, nothing too weird or outlandish here - just the matrix overloading in this Garden of Earthly Delights. As the enigmatic Netherlandish rockstar Hieronymus Bosch is unreliably reported to have said, “Life is a simulation!” It all serves to prove that THE JACK RUBIES haven't lost a step over the decades, and that their noir-tinged new wave sound and postmodern, occasionally dystopian lyrical approach are, if anything, more urgent and contemporary than ever.
You are invited to over indulge, go overboard and wolf down this sonic slice of postpunk pie. It’s another signpost on the journey to The Rubies’ impending new album. Binge on!
Postpunk heroes THE JACK RUBIES return to continue their 21st Century resurgence with a new two-track single, teasing both a new album due next year and the band's key role in an upcoming Big Stir Records Halloween event. Read more
Postpunk heroes THE JACK RUBIES return to continue their 21st Century resurgence with a new two-track single, teasing both a new album due next year and the band's key role in an upcoming Big Stir Records Halloween event. “Are We Being Recorded?” backed with a new “Chilling, Thrilling Remix” of their recent hit “Phantom” see joint release on September 19, and are up for pre-order and pre-save now:
https://orcd.co/jackrubies-awbr
It's been amazing to watch and hear THE JACK RUBIES, known for their noir-tinged postpunk '80s/'90s albums on TVT Records, return in the 2020s with their original sound intact and more relevant than ever. Now they once again break cover with this missive from a brave new world. As singer, guitarist and co-writer Ian Wright avows: “No, it’s not a play on ‘Is it rolling, Bob?’ or studio silliness (tho’ we love a double meaning) - rather, it’s an elegant Orwellian boogie, err... dancing to the tune of an unhinged world that’s slipping off its moorings!” “Are We Being Recorded?” is the first official single from the Rubies’ upcoming and fourth full length album, and continues the startling renaissance that began with the release of 2024’s excellent return to form CLOCKS ARE OUT OF TIME on Big Stir Records (who are soon to announce a very special roster showcase Halloween release also featuring the band, previewed on the B-side here).
Fellow guitarist SD Ineson penned the insistent Bond-like riffs that backbone the verse and chorus of our A-side “Are We Being Recorded?” before dovetailing seamlessly into Wright’s jaunty middle eight. The whole affair is daubed with curlicues of spy movie guitar while the syncopated bass tones of Steve Brockway firmly hold court. The three guitars stride along in thrall to the mesmeric undertow of Lawrence Giltnane and Peter Maxted’s percussive march while ominous cold war textures filter in and out from Maxted’s keys and guest pianist Doc Durston. The wry paranoia of Wright’s lyrics weave a tale of surveillance, loss of privacy and dystopian foreboding: “I left a lot of mess with my footsteps... now I’m on sale” he opines ruefully even as such ruminations are misleadingly sweetened by the dulcet backing vocals of cover star Annabel Wright. It's all emblematic of the way THE JACK RUBIES' sound and lyrical approach is, if anything, more relevant today than during their celebrated original run.
As a virtual “b-side”, The Rubies deliver a brand new take on their previous single “Phantom". This special remix is also destined to haunt the grooves of Chilling, Thrilling Hooks And Haunted Harmonies: The Big Stir Records Halloween Grimoire - a beautifully designed and compiled collection of Halloween-themed tracks from the BSR roster, which lovingly evokes the vintage platters of yesteryear and is scheduled for release October 10th. For this alternative version, the Rubies are delighted to re-enlist the services of violinist and honorary sixth member Emma Peters, last spotted on the band’s debut album Fascinatin' Vacation and onstage with the band during the early UK tours. As her perfect foil, Brooklyn's rising jazz star Ayumi Ishito seasons the cauldron with her hypnotic saxophone asides.
Halloween brings the next appearance of THE JACK RUBIES, and early 2026 will welcome second album in the Phase 2 of the band's journey. Brace yourself for both impacts.
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0:00/3:22
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0:00/4:52
As October rolls around again, THE JACK RUBIES waste no time in following up their first album in over 20 years with an all-new standalone single, just in time for Halloween. “Phantom” is not just the followup to the Read more
As October rolls around again, THE JACK RUBIES waste no time in following up their first album in over 20 years with an all-new standalone single, just in time for Halloween. “Phantom” is not just the followup to the acclaimed 2024 reunion album CLOCKS ARE OUT OF TIME from the postpunk/C86 survivors, it's also their Second Annual Halloween Single for Big Stir Records, establishing a tradition we hope to see continue indefinitely! “Phantom” sees worldwide release for streaming and download on October 18 and is up for presave and pre-order now:
https://orcd.co/jackrubies-phantom
It was this time last year when Big Stir Records announced the surprising and welcome news that THE JACK RUBIES – the London-based band fondly recalled for their two hit college rock albums on TVT Records, FASCINATIN' VACATION (1988) and SEE THE MONEY IN MY SMILE (1990) – had reformed. What's more, the entire original lineup of Ian Wright (vocals, guitar), SD Ineson (guitar, vocals, harmonica), Steve Brockway (bass), Lawrence Giltnane (percussion) and Peter Maxted (drums) were returning in brilliant, noir-tinged new wave form with a single entitled “Poltergeist”, which, as expected ruled playlists throughout October and well beyond. The time since then has been a true renaissance for The Jack Rubies: the brand new album CLOCKS ARE OUT OF TIME bowed in February, 2024 to ecstatic reviews, and their entire back catalog finally debuted on streaming services courtesy of BSR, spotlighting the band as both a too-often-overlooked legacy act and a genuinely vital going concern, as of-the-moment as any indie band the 21st Century has offered up.
As October rolls around again, the band signals that there is more to come... and, as they did with “Poltergeist”, they encapsulate the eeriness of the eldritch season as only they can on “Phantom”. Swampy guitars twang ominously to rolling percussive chatter, while a spooky harmonica punctuates the bubbling stew, all welded to a thunderous bass-driven groove. “I, I see a phantom,” sings Wright over the propulsive beats, “How long will this house be haunted?” In classic Rubies style, the imagery hints in equal parts at a troubled relationship, cultural unease, and maybe, just maybe, something genuinely supernatural.
“I was trying to conjure up something redolent of Can perhaps, or Remain in Light-era Talking Heads, with a side dish of New Order - but of course, it doesn’t sound anything like that!” states Ian Wright, who wrote and sings the tune. Drummer and producer Peter Maxted adds, “As a rhythm guy, the beats of old school hip hop and 70’s soul are part of my palate and an influence, subliminally at least, since we’re an indie guitar band from London, after all!” Drawing on those diverse influences and blending them with their own well-established, ahead-of its-time sound, The Jack Rubies don't sound the least bit “retro” here. The music's simply too urgent. There's no question that “Phantom” will have a shelf-life long after the trick-or-treaters have gone home: it is, in fact the first single to preview the band's fourth LP, nearing completion even now. It's a sweet treat in its own right that THE JACK RUBIES have, for the second year running, delivered the indie pop world's quintessential Halloween hit. But this a band for all seasons, and there is more to come.