The Anglo-American Imbeciles are enigmatic writer/guitarist Butch Dante's creation, with a history of being vividly reborn. In chrysalis form they were a conventional punk band, Wartoad, till a Californian tour finished at an ex-biker roadhouse, whose former denizens were still inclined to dig up guns and bury bodies in the surrounding desert. Improvising with extreme freedom at what felt like the end of the world, The Imbeciles were born here. 2019's 'The Imbeciles' debut album was taped in eight deranged days, in a haunted studio on the Texan-Mexican frontier, a record of abrupt razor-edits and spectral moods. Colonel Kurtz and Hunter Thompson had seemed guiding spirits during the first album’s stoned madness. For the new album, Youth's El Mirador studio in southern Spain was equally extreme in its way, rewarding the Imbeciles who’d survived Texas’s purifying flame with a hippieish, bohemian Shangri-La. Along with the band Youth's musical partner Michael Rendall played keyboards, with Youth playing bass and co-writing throughout.The Imbeciles have meanwhile completed tour rehearsals at their UK base - secreted away from prying eyes in Sussex downland near where Virginia Woolf lived and drowned, with a machine-gun facing the road, and a stone circle in its garden. They will soon meet Youth again, when they support Killing Youth on their UK tour, climaxing at the Hammersmith Apollo. It's quite an upgrade from the first Imbeciles' implosion. Butch Dante's not surprised. His mysterious changing band are on their second resurrection and feeling immortal.The Imbeciles are: Butch Dante (guitar and backing vocals), Ben Rice (guitars, lap steel, backing vocals), John Kent (lead vocals, backing vocals, drums, percussion), Joshua Lattanzi (guitars and backing vocals), Youth (bass guitar).
