The Imbeciles

The Imbeciles are a post-punk, experimental rock band that grew out of Wartoad – a mainstream punk act that formed in 2014 with musicians from LA, London and Texas, and described by The Reprobate magazine as 'an extraordinary experience. Effectively, everything you might want from a rock band is here, defying convention and blitzing the audience into astounded submission.' The turning point for the band came in 2018 during its tour of small venues in Southern California, Texas, and the North of England. Wartoad realized they had more in common with idiosyncratic acts - Wire, Gang of Four, Devo – than they did with the mainstream punk scene. The band set themselves an immediate goal: to record an album that sounded like it could have been recorded four decades ago, in 1979, but without in any way being derivative or a 'soundalike.' The result was a new name, a new sound (leaner, louder, and more brutalist), and a new, eponymous album. 15 songs on the themes of paranoia, anger, violence, and betrayal (individual and state-sponsored) recorded all analog, in seven frenetic days at Sonic Ranch on the Texas / Mexico border.