The Strange are Sam hartley; Elias Hartley; Matt Seel and Tyler Hanley.

Half were born into The Rock & Roll house, hence exposed to its vast record collection – in the womb and beyond.

When other children were taken to football and so on, they suffered the rehearsals of a succession of off-the-wall garage bands.

When other teenagers escaped from their parents’ households in order to behave badly, the converse was true for them and their friends flocked to the Rock & Roll house and its lifestyle, forming the hub of the next musical generation.

Inevitably they formed a band. As teenagers, they were forced by the cruel father to walk downstairs to the room beneath their bedroom to record a single in the infamous Eli Records back-room studio.

Matt and Tyler lived in the vile capital for a few years, and on their triumphant return to the motherland, the band continued.

As a family ‘bubble’ during lockdown, they recorded BADMASH in the same room, on the same 8-track.

It’s a raw blistering visceral affair – get it here and from Electron Records and Astonishing Sounds in Burnley

‘If love is the drug, you should see our back streets’.

Stylewise it sits in the same melting pot as Stooges, Strokes, Joy Division, Gang of Four, Television, Maccabees.

The lyrics are coruscatingly observational, reflecting the wracked reality of their Northern town:

She sucked sarsaparilla on hard-cornered streets

So willing to fall into eternal sleep

She’s a hung pig in the butcher’s clutches

She’s a daydream in the minds of others

The album is steeped in the post-punk DIY ethic, with everything possible done in-house. It’s mastered by Notsensibles bassist Gary Brown.

The covers and record label are all hand-printed using letterpress and woodblock. Like all Eli Records releases, it has its own individually cut woodblock. In this case, an anteater. It includes the single.

The single is available here and their 8 track CD album Sleep, recorded by Matt Heap at Suff Studios is available here.

Next outing: Unpeeled, The Ferret, Preston. Sat 20th November – tickets here