Bubble - How 'Bout This? (2000)

Low-Fi grunge punk act Bubble are somewhat of a well-kept secret in musical circles, enjoying minor-league cult status in the US with next to no exposure in the UK and ploughing a lonely furrow of self produced albums, videos and publicity whilst being largely ignored, well completely ignored, by the mainstream music press. When you consider the band on How ’bout This? comprised of ex-Vixen bassist Share Pedersen on vocals and guitar, ex-Dogs D’Amour drummer Bam Ross and ex-Faster Pussycats Eric Stacy and Brent Muscat, the apparent lack of exposure seems rather odd!

That said, to get the most from How ’bout This? you really need to put aside any preconceptions as to the style of music you’re about to hear based on the aforementioned band member’s pedigrees as Bubble are most certainly NOT of glam metal styling. Largely a vehicle for Share Pedersen and her now-husband Bam, Bubble offer a heavily stripped-down, punky Nirvana-esque sound with Share handling guitar and vocals on short, snappy rock tracks with no frills.

Opening track Shake has a grinding riff and Ross’s vocals are husky and growled throughout Don’t Talk To Me is one of the standout tracks with, again, a deep and grinding riff but this time with a more memorable hook with a simple but effective guitar solo mid-way through. In fact, I think that simple but effective best sums up Bubble’s overall sound and approach – and I mean that in a good way!

Independently Wasted has a bit of a mid-70s Bowie feel to it – you could certainly imagine the late Mick Ronson playing on it – and does give reason to wonder why Bubble register under the radar of mainstream music success.

All I Want is a move to a more commercial approach – albeit one of the territory once occupied by The Breeders – which is followed by Sex Sells which opens with Bam playing a beat which bears no resemblance to that of the song proper when it kicks-in! The actual song is a slow burner, following the good old mantra of light and dark so well plundered by the Pixies and Nirvana sometime later and no less well-executed by Bubble here.

Sparklestar opens with a melancholy piano over which Share Pedersen sings a more straight forward melodic verse minus the growl that dominates her vocals elsewhere and is a track for which Bubble won the prestigious Song of the Year Award in the John Lennon Song writing Contest . . . again, surely such recognition should have broken the band into the big time? Furthermore, this is a sweeping, well-composed and executed ballad and well-deserving of the accolade it won.

Drug features a crashing chord riff and creates an incredibly dense sound during the chorus akin to the Pixies in full flight and is one of the more aggressive numbers on the album. Goin’ Down For You drops the mood to a mellow more mainstream commercial sound and chorus hook – although the subject matter would probably render Bubble unlikely to be requested to perform it on Letterman any day soon!

6000 Miles is one of the weaker numbers on the album but Eye follows with a very deep, ominous riff which persists throughout with Pedersen growling and snarling her vocals from start to finish. Apart from the odd thump now and again from Bam, the track is a guitar/vocal piece throughout.

And talking of Bam, in he comes with an up-tempo beat leading into Baby Lately with Share Pedersen taking the role of backing vocals for this track. Then it’s to all-out punk territory with Slut Motorchopper but, I stress, not in the corporate bloated Green Day way but a stripped-down retro-punk feel mixed with a bit of sleaze for good measure.

Kickin’ Walls is another up-tempo number with and would have been good single fodder as it’s melodically strong throughout both verse and chorus and is one of the strongest tracks on the album. Castle Hill follows in a similar vein and leads into the closing track Lullaby which is an acoustic-guitar led track with Pedersen once again dropping the ‘growl’ in favour of singing delicately over the mellow guitar melody. Nice to hear a band buck convention too by closing an album with their most mellow number!

I’m not sure quite what went wrong here – well, to be honest, everything about Bubble is wrong from my perspective: Share Pedersen dropped the glam of Vixen to front a punk/grunge band, Bam from Dogs D’Amour was on drums (saw them many terms back in the day and hated the whole ’sleaze’ schtick) and in spite of being award-winning they’ve achieved virtually negligible success. However, in the face of this Bubble are a great band producing solid, no messing around low-fi rock tracks with ease with How ’bout This beings a very strong album indeed and one I’d definitely recommend!

• Share Pedersen – Guitar/Vocals
• Brent Muscat – Guitar
• Eric Stacy – Bass
• Bam – Drums