New Bad Things formed in that famous haunt of musicians, and the "tenth best Big City Arts Destination in the U.S.",Portland, Oregon. I first came across them when listening to John Peel's show many years ago, and more recently whilst listening to a recording of John Peels Festive Fifty from 1993, where the New Bad Thing's single "I Suck" had been voted into the number 16 spot.

"One of the best, and most sort after and most obscure records of the year. No one new where It came from, and I never managed to track down another copy of the record, although people offered me daft money for the one I've got. I wish I could tell you where to get a copy" said John Peel when he played it in that years Festive 50. Intrigued I began trying to track down the song online, and when I finally found the various band members I thought it was time the track was given a new lease of life. And here's the story in their own words...

"This was one of the first five songs we recorded, and honestly everybody thought it was a throwaway. It was an old song to some of us, dating back to our busking days, and it was just this amorphous jam.

"It was a great busking song, you see a guy in a rolling stones shirt you do a line like 'what's the use of replacing Keith Richard's blood, he's still a heartless bastard.' Guy's probably gonna pay some attention. Now you can work on a.) not getting beat up and b.) getting a dollar out of him.

"We put the song on the b-side of our first single, partly to get it out there and be done with it, and partly because we thought we were the Beatles and the clamour for our "work" would require us releasing every little thing our genius minds created and discarded like so many snotty tissues. Alas, it was just that kind of snotty tissue that came to bite us in the ass as I Suck (not the sensitive, arty A-side) became something of a radio hit in the UK and more importantly John Peel liked it. A lot. So, long story short, (with the long story thrown in for good measure) I Suck is a feisty come-from-behind kind of song, a real "second-half team”, with intensely intense lyrics and a thrilling, throbbing sound that just wants to make you think, you know? Like Fugazi or Steve Miller or something.

"Come for the irony, stay for the love." New Bad Things 2009