Album Review

Tellison/Tubelord – Wasps Nest/ Night Of The Pencils

• 30th Jul 2008

Can you use the phrase Emo positively anymore, without conjouring images of acned youths shuffling through town centres, hiding from the sun in the shadows (weren’t they called goths? Aren’t they meant to be fat?) Well, Tellison reminds me of early Naughties emo stuff, like Jimmy Eat World, but there’s a lovely thread of britishness sewn into it. They certainly bang out tunes with twee little vocal harmonies that you can imagine speccy mid 20somethings giving the air a decent punching to. A shade dated? Maybe, but then again, so am I.

Tubelord are a little bit bonkers…or maybe it’s just interesting. I’m not sure. They’re surfing between being a full on bananas shouty band and, well, Tellison actually. It’s pretty good, but don’t ask me to sing any bits back to you. The reasons for that are twofold.

Eitherway, you should buy it, because it’s out on Banquet Records, and it’s a new label run by the same guys who own the shop and run the club night New Slang in Kingston, so you’re duty-bound to support your local record shop. And it’s far more satisfying having an independent record shop sticker on the front of your CD than a big, red HMV one that covers up half the front, am I right? Of course I am!