Mouth Ulcers have announced their debut EP ‘Silent Pictures’, due 10th July via LAB Records, and shared new single ‘Closer To You’, out today.
Formed in 2025, the London four-piece have moved quickly. Vocalist and guitarist Zak Watson founded the group alongside Josephine Rose on guitar and vocals, Jamie-Lee Culver on bass, and David Zbirka on drums, and within a year they have sold out shows in the UK and the Netherlands, picked up plays from Lauren Laverne, Chris Hawkins and Steve Lamacq on BBC 6 Music, and drawn comparisons to Joy Division, The Cure and Bauhaus in roughly equal measure.
The speed of their ascent has not gone unnoticed: Louder Than War’s John Robb wrote that “most bands take years to get this good, and Mouth Ulcers have already arrived.”
‘Closer To You’ follows EP lead single ‘Prevail’ and sits comfortably within the sonic territory the band have been staking out: melodic basslines, wiry guitars and cavernous baritone vocals, built around an atmosphere that owes as much to early 80s post-punk as it does to anything currently coming out of London.
The band have described the track as being about “the inescapable pull toward someone, being completely surrendered to their beauty and the obsessive devotion you have towards them whilst also trying to navigate one’s self control.”
‘Silent Pictures’ arrives on 10th July. Before then, Mouth Ulcers have a run of festival dates including Dot To Dot and Get Together, followed by headline shows through the summer and autumn:
16 May – Get Together Festival, Sheffield
23 May – Dot To Dot Festival, Bristol
24 May – Dot To Dot Festival, Nottingham
3 Jul – The Warehouse, Leeds
29 Jul – Paper Dress Vintage, London
15 Aug – District, Liverpool
29 Aug – Hit The City, Eindhoven
7 Oct – Beyond The Music, Manchester
29 Nov – Post Punk Strikes Back Festival, Porto
Photo credit: Jake Schneider
