Liverpool punk trio Yee Loi announce their debut album Flicks, licks, party tricks, set for release on 15th January 2027 via Modern Sky UK, following a high-octane London performance celebrating the forthcoming record.
The teenage sibling trio — Rose on guitar and backing vocals, Matilda on drums and vocals, and Don Don on bass — unveiled the album with an exclusive performance in the basement of Yungblud’s Denmark Street store on Tuesday 29th September. Packed to capacity, the show provided a snapshot of a young band drawing heavily on punk’s history while putting its own raw, melodic energy firmly in the present.
Yee Loi @ B.R.A.T. Denmark Street
The set moves between the full-throttle melody of Social Suicide and the darker storytelling of Down In The Bunker, alongside breakout songs including Why Ask Why and Mystery Train. The band also previewed previously unheard material from the forthcoming album, including Miraclist and Picture Perfect.
With a sound built around real instrumentation, direct songwriting and an unmistakable DIY attitude, Yee Loi are developing a style that draws on classic punk while refusing to simply reproduce it. Their music is fast, melodic and deliberately unpolished, reflecting the band’s belief that the energy of a live performance should remain central to what they do.
That approach is particularly evident in Social Suicide, which takes aim at the pressures facing emerging musicians in an increasingly social-media-driven industry. The song captures the trio’s frustration with a culture in which creativity can appear secondary to views, likes and online visibility. “We don’t really care what people think. It’s the way that we were raised,” says Rose.
She expands on the thinking behind Social Suicide, explaining that the further the band has become involved in music, the more they have encountered an expectation for artists to maintain an extensive social-media presence alongside making music.
The trio’s response is straightforward: make punk rock songs that connect with people rather than tailoring their creativity to digital metrics. That ethos runs throughout Flicks, licks, party tricks, which combines the band’s affection for classic punk — including the influence of The Ramones — with their own melodic, DIY identity. The album is also an opportunity for the teenage musicians to move beyond the covers that helped shape their early musical development and put their own material front and centre.
For Matilda, that creative freedom is a major part of what makes the record significant. “The album title is about the joy that comes from playing this high energy type of music. It makes you wanna go crazy on stage and try to make everyone join in the fun,” she says. “It was important for me to finally put out my own lyrics and melodies and not have to rely on covers. I have quite a lot to say and maybe somebody will be interested!”
Rose’s guitar work is similarly central to the album’s identity. She describes the playing as entirely her own while acknowledging the influences that have shaped her approach, combining high-energy guitar rock with the confidence of a young musician developing her own voice.
Yee Loi @ B.R.A.T. Denmark Street
The record also gives the band a platform to challenge assumptions about who can occupy the centre of high-intensity guitar music. Rose says the songs demonstrate that young girls can play high-intensity guitar rock “as good as anybody if not better”.
Bassist Don Don, usually the quietest member of the trio, offers a more blunt assessment of the record, saying: “I love this album and I’m fed up of listening to the lightweight, backing-tracked songs that pass for so-called punk rock today.”
That emphasis on live musicianship is reflected in the band’s own description of their sound: real drums, real singing and real heart. The result is an album designed to translate the immediacy and physicality of their performances into recorded form.
Flicks, licks, party tricks contains 13 tracks, moving from the darker opening territory of Down In The Bunker through Performer, Why Ask Why, Stalker, Move On and Gatekeeper, before the second side brings together Picture Perfect, Miraclist, Social Suicide, 5000 Days, White Hat and Count Me Out.
Before the album arrives, Yee Loi will take their music to venues across the UK as special guests of Transvision Vamp. The tour marks the legendary pop-punk band’s first full UK tour since 1991, with frontwoman Wendy James personally selecting Yee Loi to join the run.
For a young band whose music is rooted in the communal energy of punk, the tour provides an opportunity to introduce their songs to audiences across the country while sharing stages with one of the acts that helped define the era from which their influences emerged.
Yee Loi @ B.R.A.T. Denmark Street
The tour begins in Newcastle on 6th October and takes in Glasgow, Leeds, Cambridge, Leicester, Liverpool, Oxford, Cardiff, Manchester, Bournemouth, London, Norwich, Brighton, Birmingham and Bristol before concluding on 30th October.
Flicks, licks, party tricks goes on presale on 5th October via Townsend, ahead of its release on 15th January 2027.
Upcoming UK & Ireland Tour Dates with Transvision Vamp:
OCTOBER
6th – Newcastle, O2 City Hall
9th – Glasgow, O2 Academy
10th – Leeds, O2 Academy
14th – Cambridge, Junction
15th – Leicester, O2 Academy
16th – Liverpool, O2 Academy
17th – Oxford, O2 Academy
18th – Cardiff, Tramshed
20th – Manchester, O2 Ritz
21st – Bournemouth, O2 Academy
22nd – London, O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire
24th – Norwich, Epic
28th – Brighton, Chalk
29th – Birmingham, O2 Institute
30th – Bristol, O2 Academy
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