Yard Act, Stuck

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Sandra Ebert

The band Yard Act.

Yard Act

A set of dispatches from post-Brexit England, The Overload piled up critical accolades on its release in early 2022. Yard Act’s debut album is angry and funny, punky and dancey, unafraid to experiment, and probably was an instant favorite for fans of bands like Gang of Four, Art Brut or Pulp. The natural follow-up is, of course, an eight-minute song “about” trench coats (honestly, it does make sense, stick with it). If Yard Act continues to grow musically, this will be a show you will be very glad to have seen for free on the Terrace. With spiky Chicago quartet Stuck.

WUD Music. Free.

media release: Yard Act present their new single and video, “The Trench Coat Museum."  Co-produced by the band and Remi Kabaka Jr. of Gorillaz, “The Trenchcoat Museum” is an epic return, marking Yard Act’s first original music since the release of their Mercury Prize-shortlisted debut album, The Overload, “an endlessly clever, devilishly sharp post-punk screed on British politics and class warfare” (SPIN), released in January 2022.

A lyrical study on ego, vanity, perception and legacy, “The Trench Coat Museum” recalls Yard Act’s James Smith’s reaction to reaching a level of visibility, which — in Smith’s  words — “left us open to security and disdain just as much as love and appreciation.” He says, “Criticism is fair game and the internet is lawless so you gotta take it as it comes, but I definitely stopped searching for myself on Twitter the day I read that someone wanted to punch my lights out.”

He continues: “‘The Trench Coat Museum’ is about how our perception of everything shifts both collectively and individually over time at speeds we simply can't measure in the moment. Within whatever space in society we occupy, we often see our own beliefs as being at the absolute pinnacle of what should be the ‘cultural norm’ and whilst the completely human trait of being self-assured can’t be helped, it's an absolute hindrance on our collective process. We are one etc. (Are we fuck).”

“The Trench Coat Museum” video was directed by James Slater who adds, “The video serves as a continuation and expansion of the Yard Act universe we explored on the first album. It’s set some 30 years in the future in this strange, dystopian trench coat museum in which an enigmatic character — the visitor — takes an audio guided tour. The song's an eight-minute banger so I wanted the exhibits to come to life so that we could transition from an exhibition tour to a warehouse rave. It feels like a mini-film which is no accident, we see this as the first part of a Yard Act movie that coincides with their next album.”

Praise for Yard Act & The Overload:  

“A little bit Sleaford Mods, a helping of The Fall and a dash of Pulp, the group craft smart vignettes of modern life with a confident, witty delivery across their debut full-length, The Overload.” — Paste  

“A savagely brilliant debut album” — Under The Radar  

“In between the wry wordplay, urgent instrumentation and scathingly dry—very Leodensian—delivery, The Overload is pensive and observant.” — Newsweek  

“[The Overload is] a confident debut LP from a young band seizing its moment and cutting the tension with a chuckle.” — Pitchfork  

“The Overload is one of those rare albums that feels universally anticipated across the pop-cultural firmament, showcasing a sound with the energy and clarity of purpose to meet our present moment, to help us make sense of it.” — Guitar World  

"A collection of 11 witty, political, and yet exceedingly danceable tracks." — INTERVIEW  

“Every sound in The Overload feels deliberate, and the same can be said about Smith’s lyrics, which can range from hilarious to heartfelt in a single bar.” — Consequence  

“An album of deeply relatable storytelling for the plight of the ordinary people” — The Line of Best Fit  

“An exhilarating record” — MOJO, Album of the Month  

“witty post-punks confront post-Brexit Britain” — The Guardian, Album of the Week  

“Seldom do you hear such sentimentality and beauty in music as brusque as this” — NME