Yuck

By the close of 2010, still shy of his twentieth birthday, guitarist and vocalist Daniel Blumberg had joined forces with guitarist and vocalist Max Bloom to place their newest band at the heart of extensive music-press coverage. The pair, both natives of London and friends since childhood, had earlier played in Cajun Dance Party, where Bloom handled bass and the group stirred adolescent audiences with buoyant indie pop. After their 2008 XL Recordings debut Colourful Life drew widespread acclaim, the outfit dissolved, leaving reviewers and listeners alike let down. Blumberg and Bloom nevertheless resumed writing songs together, shaping a lo-fi aesthetic rooted in late-eighties and nineties textures that became Yuck.

Demos were tracked initially in Bloom’s bedroom, after which the duo recruited a rhythm section. Mutual contacts in London introduced them to Hiroshima-born bassist Mariko Doi, who came aboard following the dissolution of her prior group Levelload. Blumberg encountered drummer Jonny Rogoff while both worked on a kibbutz in the Israeli desert. In December 2009 Rogoff abandoned his New Jersey studies and his band Impossible Village to relocate to London, and Blumberg’s younger sister Ilana supplied airy backing vocals while continuing her university coursework out of the spotlight.

Yuck’s first release, a split single with Cleveland’s Herzog on Transparent, presented “Georgia,” whose brisk tempo and dense distortion drew from the rhythmic foundation of the Cure’s “Friday I’m in Love.” The band soon revealed a contrasting palette on the subdued, piano-centered Weakend EP, issued exclusively on cassette by Mirror Universe Tapes under the spelling Yu(c)k. Retaining that spelling, they contributed a cover of Porcelain Raft’s “Despite Everything” to a December 2010 Transparent split 7-inch; Porcelain Raft reciprocated by reworking “The Wall,” a track that had already appeared on the Weakend EP.

Far removed from the polished appeal of Cajun Dance Party, Yuck’s sound evoked Sonic Youth, the Cure, My Bloody Valentine, and the Jesus and Mary Chain. Despite the stylistic shift, the attention surrounding the group felt familiar to Blumberg and Bloom. They shared stages with Teenage Fanclub, Dum Dum Girls, and Modest Mouse; Mogwai reworked the heavily reverberant single “Rubber”; and the band appeared on the BBC’s Sound of 2011 list, all before Fat Possum issued their self-titled debut album in February 2011, the label having signed them the previous September.

In April 2013 Yuck disclosed plans to record a follow-up in New York with producer Chris Coady, though Blumberg departed beforehand to concentrate on solo work. Remaining a trio, the band delivered the brighter, less abrasive Glow & Behold that autumn. Guitarist Edward Hayes was soon added, and the expanded lineup toured in support. Their subsequent album, tracked at a measured pace back in London, emerged in early 2016 as Stranger Things on the band’s own Mame Records.