Most people wait until later in life to write their memoirs. UK indie-poppers the Tubs haven’t been around for a very long time; they were a Stereogum Band To Watch just a couple of years ago. But co-leader Owen Williams has done plenty of other things, as well. He makes his own music under the name Cotton Crown, and he used to be in Joanna Gruesome. Williams’ other band Ex-Voïd just played their farewell show a few days ago. As part of the Gob Nation Collective, Williams launched Perfect Angel Pressa small literary operation dedicated to “spiteful literature.” And anyway, Williams’ book might not even be about his experiences in music.
According to Book BrunchRough Trade Books has signed on to publish Owen Williams’ book Atrocity Exhibitions: Grieving In The TikTok Underworld. On Instagram, Williams calls it “a sort of memoir ft TikTok, JG Ballard, John Waters, Camille Paglia , Chris Chan and Lewis Saunderson.” The “grieving” part has a context: Williams lost his mother, the folk musician Charlotte Greig, to suicide. Earlier this year, Williams told Stereogum that he wrote a novel a few years ago.
Williams’ editor Will Burns tells Book Brunch“Given that I’d spent much of the first half of the year becoming a newly-obsessed superfan of Owen Williams’ music, I was delighted to find out he’d also tried his hand at non-fiction. Of course, the rock ‘n’ roll highway is littered with the detritus of fantastic lyricists who can’t quite make that transition to the page, but I had no doubts about Owen and so it proved his prose was tight, his thinking smart and authentic (even or especially when questioning notions of authenticity), his material surprising, contemporary, deft in its assimilation of influence and its deployment of original thought.” We don’t have a cover or a publication date yet.
Check out our feature on the Tubs’ recent album Cotton Crown here.
