Summer Bash 2025: 5 Albums I Want To Be Buried With #4: Buds.!

Something that can be only learned in England in a heatwave is that your sweat can actually sweat. Who knew? Fortunately when it comes to Summer Bash at The Facebar in Reading on Saturday 26th July, you’ll be able to relax as the air con buzzes, sipping the amber nectar and enjoying some incredible bands. When we say “some” we mean eleven, including your hosts Mercury’s Well, who make the Hawaiian themed beach party with its inflatables, shirts and flower necklaces happen every year. So do yourself a favour. Grab a ticket (here) for you and yours because not only will you not regret it but you might actually make someone else’s day… which is brownie points towards Santa’s nice list!

Here’s the line up in full:

Hidden Mothers
Masquerader
Black Skull Ritual
Buds.
Tape It Shut
Turning Point
Skin Reaper
Mercury’s Well
Gutlocker
Remnant
Killswitch Enchambers (Killswitch Engage Tribute featuring former members of Kill Chambers)

Now we’ve casually reminded you about Summer Bash, it’s time for the main event.

The premise is simple: “Back in ancient Egypt they believed that the items their Kings were buried with would travel with them into the afterlife and so part of the burial ritual would see the mummified bodies surrounded by chariots, gold and more. Fast forward to now. If there were five albums that you’d want buried in the coffin with you to take to the afterlife, what would you choose?”

After letting Hidden Mothers, Remnant and Mercury’s Well tell you their feelings, for the fourth of edition of this new feature, we spoke to Dan from Buds. Their year year has already seen them play Manchester Punk Fest, Trumpet Tom Fest and Nasty Cut Festival with 2000 Trees Festival, Summer Bash and Burn it Down Festival still to go…

1 – “The Reminder” by Fiest

“I first discovered Fiest from her awesome song “1,2,3,4” back in the 00s however I heard the song and then didn’t really think about it for a few years. Then one summer week day when I had no temp work whilst on break at uni I turned on Sky Arts and they were playing a show called From the Basement (which recently returned now as a YouTube series) which is a series of live performances that are recorded in I think the same studio space each time. In this episode Fiest was on. I don’t know what kept me watching it but have you ever had one of those moments when you decide to check something out and in the process of doing so you go from curious to discovering you have a new obsession? Well that essentially happened watching this live session. Funny enough that live session was promoting songs from her album Metals which was a close contender to be the album from Fiest I was going to put in this list but I think the album I go back to most of the time if I put on Fiest is The Reminder. It features her song “1,2,3,4” as well as what I believe is the original version of “Limit to your Love” probably made more popular by the James Blake version. But overall the album is this great eclectic mix of songs that are fun, whimsical, sad, spooky throughout. I also very much recommend the video for 1,2,3,4 because it’s a very very cool one shot with some great choreography.”

2 – “Worry” by Jeff Rosenstock

“I discovered Jeff Rosenstock in my getting into “Anthony Fantano (The Needle Drop) phase. I believe this album made it into the top 10 of his albums of the year list. I think around this time I felt like I was very alienated from punk adjacent modern bands and Fantano seemed to share my opinions of a lot of the bands that were doing bits in the genre around that time. Which is why I think I decided to check it out because I thought “well I wanna know what kind of album from this genre Fantano is backing” and I think I found this album at the exact perfect time. It’s an album about being an aging punk and watching the world and your friends change around you and trying to come to terms with it which was something very relatable at the time and continues to be throughout. I think sonically what sets this apart from similar bands around the time was what felt like it was trying to appeal to a demographic more around my age at the time instead of something that would be more appealing to teens (saying that, I think he is popular with young people as well). The songs on it again have this great mix of fun, hookiness and melancholy. There’s a real unhinged feal Jeff Rosenstock has in his song writing and performances where it almost sounds like he’s on the verge of a breakdown throughout the album. It also gets bonus points from me from the last few tracks all come together to make one really long song ending on a section where the hook is “Perfect only takes so long because it don’t exist” and I just love me a mantra to conclude a record, don’t know if you’ve noticed… Needless to say, Jeff Rosenstock has gone on to be one of Buds.’s biggest influences.”

3 – “To Pimp a Butterfly” by Kendrick Lamar

“This album is the first Kendrick Lamar album I listened to and is another case where throughout it’s duration I went from curious to absolutely obsessed. I’d obviously heard the name going around a few years since then and for some reason just never really got round to checking him out until I ran into my friend Ed and he just happened to ask me if I’d listened to his latest album at the time. When I said he hadn’t he told me it was like listening to a prog rap album and that was the exact tagline I needed to hear to get me to check it out. This is the biggest artist on this list so I probably don’t need to tell people why they should listen to Kendrick Lamar. Youre either into him by now or you just don’t care but for me, this is still the best thing he’s released. Maybe Mr Morale is better but I guess I cant separate this album from the feeling I had when I realised I had become a Kendrick Lamar fan. There’s so many creative choices he takes throughout that are just so inspired and so technically impressive. I think there’s a real case to rate it 10/10, I love albums most when they are intentionally sequenced so that a whole run through is an experience in itself and he’s a real master of doing that across his discography. I imagine if I was taking this one to the afterlife there’s probably a big heavenly warehouse just full of copies of this album.”

4 – “Crisis” by Alexisonfire

“I think this is the album I’d want to take with me that would be the best album to remind me of my youth. Every time I put this album on it fills me with so much joy. Not a single skippable track on the whole thing. I feel like this band has an awful lot to answer for by inspiring a load of bands that I really don’t like but still, I cant knock bands that wanted to rip this formula off. This band and album is another case of talent and creativity intersecting in such a great way. Hooks, riffs, arrangements, all a chef’s kiss. When they got back together I was worried they were going to go the same way of all the nostalgia bands but the last time I saw them people were singing along to all the new stuff as well as the classics which I think was really awesome to see in a room full of 30+ emos. I’m so very excited to see them at 2000 Trees this year and having a boozed up sing along with all my fellow 30+ music enjoyers. But Crisis will always be the best one for me. I’m excited to see if they ever release new music again, maybe we will see this summer.”

5 – “Imaginal Disk” by Magdelana Bay

“So I’m making this list as a list of albums to be buried with if I died tomorrow. In that case I want to take this album with me because it’s what I think was like the best thing I’d recently discovered from Pop music. Magdalena Bay I think has played on some of the US chat shows on the promotion of this album but I’m not really sure how big they are in the mainstream consciousness. This album however is amazing! The way I pitch it is a trip down memory lane of the 90s and 00s pop music but the music has been created by Radiohead following that brief and fronted by a Kylie Minogue tribute singer. I think it’s a concept album, considering how much I want to sing it’s praises, I’ve not really read that much into it but I play it pretty often since first hearing it. It’s like a cerebral synth pop odyssey and hopefully that motivates some people to listen to it. So yeah, I think between this act and Remi Wolf (who was the other contender for this entry) I hope that people give them more love and attention as their careers progress because I think they both have a lot that they could offer mainstream culture and it would be sick if in 10 years time, they were influencing future artists’ music.”

We’re proud confirm that Metal Noise dot Net is returning for a third consecutive year as the Media Partner for Summer Bash! Mercury’s Well will be hosting the seventh incarnation of their annual Hawaiian beach party themed event on 26th July 2025 at The Facebar in Reading.

Get your tickets -> here