Chalk – How to Become a Recluse

Jon Doyle — Mon, 17 Nov 2014 19:49:00 +0000

Chalk is Brighton’s Steven Stride. He makes music that is somewhere between folk, indie rock and 90s emo. His music is also rooted in the UK, brimming with the decidedly British conundrum thinking ill of your hometown while also feeling a pride or something akin to it.

Let’s get things straight, How to Become a Recluse is a pretty morose album. The aforementioned pride is not allowed to dwell in broad daylight but is instead hidden in some gloomy corner of what is already a rather gloomy scene. But, this ‘resignation’ can’t be real resignation. Real resignation would be an acceptance of things just the way they are and writing an album bemoaning the situation does not really qualify as that. No, this ‘resignation’ is the opposite, this ‘resignation’ is a bitter and pessimistic and frankly pissed off brand of hope. A refusal to accept the situation while acknowledging it never will.

‘Our Town’ and ‘Slept with a Knife’ capture this sort of thing perfect. Bringing to mind the stripped-back offerings from the sadly missed Tubelord, the instrumentation here is strange and slightly off-kilter, the vocals clear and prominent and focused on the relationship between people and their hometowns, a weird sort of disappointed innocence or innocent disappointment.

“Retching up the ground
morons get the crowd
you’re not what you say you are,
your bulked up body won’t get you far.”

You can buy How To Become A Recluse now from Bandcamp.

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Tubelord – r o m a n c e

Jon Doyle — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 15:31:00 +0000

Tubelord have a new album on the way. r o m a n c e will be released on Pink Mist on 10/10/11. A video of the track ‘4T3’ can be seen here.

Tracklisting:

over in brooklyn
never washboard
4T3
charms
here is nothing
go old
my first castle
ignatz
waterworld
in greenland
tidy diggs

They also go on a UK tour in a few months:

Sept:

16 ≈ Leicester – Firebug

17 ≈ Leeds – Brudenell Social Club

18 ≈ Glasgow (tbc)

19 ≈ Newcastle (tbc)

21 ≈ Birmingham – The Rainbow

22 ≈ Bristol – (tbc)

Oct:

13 ≈ Kingston – The Works

14 ≈ Sheffield – The Bowery

15 ≈ Nottingham – Chameleon Arts Cafe

17 ≈ London – Upstairs at the Garage

19 ≈ Falmouth – Mango Tango

20 ≈ Cardiff – SWN Festival

21 ≈ Brighton – The Haunt

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Chalk – How to Become a Recluse

Tubelord – r o m a n c e