Battered (Fisherman Chronicles Postlude)

This month has been awesome, Ryan Adams in Oxford a couple of weeks ago, Evan Dando in Cardiff (down the road from home!) and Primus in London, I must have watched the (perfect) video for 'John The Fisherman' at least a dozen times over the last week and it is LODGED in my bonce. I think it's such a good feeling when you love artists so much that you genuinely don't care what they play when you see them live because you love it all! It's a victimless situation.

Aside from third-person (occasionally acoustic) rockage, let's go steaming into first-person blazing rock action. Well, maybe not blazing rock, but still…. Recluse (well, Tom and myself) played our first ever Recluse acoustic gig (ahem…..Reclustic) which went down well, so well in fact that we may record a vinyl only acoustic EP with reworked songs in the near future, below is the setlist we played in Globetrotters bar last weekend, the song titles are lyrics from the songs, so we could test Charchy on his Recluse knowledge….a test he FAILED getting only 2 out of 5, tut….tut. Kudos to you if you can name the songs from the cryptic setlist below!
3am
The Dirty Ground
The Devil's song
The Kindly Ones
Turpentine
Pretty Vulture Sees

With a short encore of Ryan Adams / Old Samuel Songs:
There's this girl I know
The Hardest Part
Jeanne
The Engine Running

This month is our three year anniversary as a band! Ah the days of old, recording in my old house in a room the size of a biscuit tin, with girly practise amps and an electronic drum kit that Charch battered into submission within weeks….costing me £250…yeeeessssssss. I have bought a secret gift for us all to celebrate our time together, pictures will be appearing in our next blog!

Also, I have come across a cache of pics and vids of us at various gigs on various cameras and phones flying around my flat so they will be uploaded soon.

Our backing DVD was a success at our last couple of gigs so that will be a mainstay for our shows from now on, so the crows don't have to stare at our ugly mugs for an hour.

'When I grow up I want to be
A harvester of the sea
Before all my days are done
I want to be…. a fisherman'
Primus - John The Fisherman

(Primus Rocks)

Happy July,
Britt (the moustachioed one)

Mechanically Reformed Habits

It's been a really busy time recently at camp Recluse, the album is being mixed and a title has been decided upon, artwork is being finalised and best of all, we have struck a deal with HabitFormed Records run by the extremely enthusiastic and Rockabilly-lovin' Chris Rogers! They are a label based in mid-Wales with a roster including a band that we gigged with a few weeks ago (and got extremely drunk with at an after-show party) called Synthetica who were awesome and are about to release their own debut album through HabitFormed Records (I smell a co-headlining tour...) which I for one will be buying!

Chris is a vinyl man after our own hearts and so we may be able to get an extremely limited run of the album on vinyl, which means I finally have an excuse to get a red leather Dansette so I can listen to my recently purchased Ryan Adams and the Cardinals - Class Mythology (God Bless SpaceWolf) and Split single of Ginger (Wildhearts) and Howling Willie…so depending on how many we get made, there will be a competition soon to get a copy for free!

This has all been a real treat and revitalised the direction of the band, they share the same ideals as us and the other label mates we now have are all awesome guys who know how rock, with the album release imminent, there will be announcements of gigs and brand new merchandise soon as well as our album launch party details!

Ladies and Gentlemen, things are heating up….

'I save up all my sunny days
Rival, bring me your love'
- Recluse: Temper


Keep on keeping on
Britt

Bikes, Beaches, Beer & the Back of Beyond

Hola!

An awesome weekend is upon us! With two vehicles full of action, Recluse hit the road  south to open the BMAD Festival in Devon (http://www.bmad.co.uk/festival.html) where we kick off the whole shebang at 7pm, then the plan is to enjoy the festivities until the early hours (or until we black out whichever happens first).

Then, BOOM! It's back in the van up to Llandridnod Wells (our first ever show in mid Wales) the next day (Saturday 30th April) where we are playing with Synthetica who are signed to HabitFormed Records. We are on stage there around 9 / 10 for an hour show and then some serious post-show drinking in the Hampshire Hotel until we turn into dust.

Join us on our Album pre-release mini-tour! Two countries in two days!

P.S. (The album is now in the mixing stages……..)

The Prophet & The Pisshead

Good afternoon Reclusites, I'm assuming that everyone has bought the J Mascis solo album 'Several shades of why' and Soundgarden's 'Live on I-5'?

After listening to bands like Soundgarden again (I haven't listened to them for quite a while because I'm trying to find 'new' bands to get into…which I'm finding really hard) you realise the weight that bands in the 90's had behind them, it's something we are trying to capture on our album, that awesome feeling of fullness that came from a few records and seems to be missing from a lot of newer bands.

Whilst we are the topic of our album, the drums, bass & guitars are now all finished, I'll put up a few studio photographs over the next few days, I've never had such fun in one room with another man (if you can call Campfire Beans' a man, more of a rock minotaur) and we actually managed to get music recorded instead of me spending a full day pleading for him to let the 'Snake' reunion happen (If you missed Snake the first time round you missed it ALL baby). I was surrounded by so many guitar effects I felt like The Edge from U2, except obviously I stepped on more than the reverb and delay pedals during the recording sessions. (Charch probably won't appreciate that one).

So it's the vocal sessions next week for a couple of days and then BOOM! Onto the finicky side of mixing etc where I truly do not shine 'un-shine' if you will, mixing schmixxing I say. We finally have settled on a title for the album which I'm keeping under wraps at the moment in case anyone steals it, we had some COOL names lined up which I am definitely using in the future!

We also had a rehearsal last night at Mike Chiplin's (of Lost Prophets fame) studio in Cilfynydd where I grew up, it really brought back memories when Charch and I were driving (well Charch was driving and I was smoking) to the studio and near my old family home there was a guy on the floor, screaming drunk in the middle of the day shouting at his phone….a phone which ladies and gentlemen…..was turned off.

Anyhoo, the rehearsal was awesome! We smashed through some newer songs which we will probably be playing live soon to see what the crowd reaction is like, but everyone in the band loved them! We have two shows this weekend which will be sporting the new songs so it's your chance to hear them first! There was a slight hiccup when I showed Al & Tom a song I wrote called 'Goodnight Boy' which has a touch of……..

*ahem*….*clears throat*……*mumbles to self*……*shuffles feet*

…..reggae to it. Let's just say the reaction was not dissimilar to when Pauly Shore releases a new film. It probably won't be used in Recluse anytime soon…..(cue Britt's reggae solo album)

In summary, the album is sounding AWESOME and I can't wait to unleash it, had a blast with our lovely photographer Daniel Matthews shooting some of the art for it, it's the most fun I've had sitting in my bath…you 'eard.

Being in a band is awesome, Being is Recluse is the best thing in my life.

Also, if you haven't already downloaded them, it's going to be your last chance to get: Baby Monster Anhedonia Tiny Revelations From www.recluse.bandcamp.com We will be discontinuing them very soon, some of the songs on those albums we will never play live again so it will be your last chance to hear them

'I don't know what he keeps inside,
But he's living like a lightning strike'

Recluse - Move me Big love, Britt