Tusk - We Found Gold

Well, here I am again and it's with a really heavy heart that I make this post. Earlier this year my favourite wee record label Tiny Lights ceased to be - that was bad enough, because it followed on from the demise of one of my best kept little secrets Blank Maps. I'm still really really sore about it. I think my friends are getting a bit fed up of me going on and on. At the time they consoled me and said "Never mind, you've still got Tusk. It'll all be OK, you've still got Tusk". But after a while they got bored and went back to talking about nail varnish and Ryvita and stuff.

Gentle reader, I believed them. I carried that Tusk reassurance with me. It was the one flicker that kept me going.

A few weeks ago they announced that their lovely lead singer Tom (lovely lovely Tom) was leaving - but that they'd carry on as a three piece and some new material would be out soon.

So I was thrilled to bits to find out on Monday that it was finally released - in fact here's the link to their bandcamp page:

wearetusk.bandcamp.com/

But hark. Read on. What is THIS? OH GOD NO. It cannot BE. NO. SAY IT ISN'T TRUE.

It is.

Tusk are no more. "We Found Gold" is their final recording and they are no more. I'm afraid this was too much for me. I've been in bed with a fit of the vapours ever since.

OK, to be serious for a moment - I genuinely am very sad. These lads have been a big part of my musical life the last two and a bit years. I've truly loved their songs, their music and their sparky brilliance - not to mention their dry wit and urbane lyrics. Aside from that, they're a really lovely group, proper nice blokes - and I've felt really chuffed to have made their acquaintance and seen them develop.

It kind of feels a bit weird to be making my first full length review of their stuff, just as they're splitting - but at the time they had their last EP out, this blog was on hiatus and I wasn't writing. Now I'm back and in the groove, they're saying goodbye! Something's not right there somewhere!

"We Found Gold" is a really lovely way to bow out. I can't really say much more than that. It's two songs of chippy, chirpy, dubby aceness. Even if this is the first time you've heard of them, right now, this minute, you can't really have a better place to start - once you've listened, get their back catalogue. That's an order.

Whether they're just being bloody funny (you can't not love a band that has a song called "Chief Kegwin") or whether they're paying cheeky nods to their favourite dark comedies (see their last EP "Interrobang" and the Snuffbox song "Don't Wake Quickfinch") they always offered something that bit different. I think that was why I loved them so much. They didn't really bear comparison with anyone else - they mixed up their styles and it always worked. A little oasis of aceness in a big ocean of bland.

I hope that this isn't the end and that in some way, shape or form we'll see Tom, Jonathan, Andy and Sam carry on in music - but for now it just remains for me to thank them for some beautiful tunes and good laughs. Love and good vibes to you all. It's been ace getting to know you.