More YouTube Orchestra action!

A quick message to inform interested parties that we have now edited and uploaded a second track from our Night At The Theatre Gig with the Richard P Horn Wind Orchestra of 16 April.This track is called September Sparrows and can be found here.

Thanks to Sean, Nick, Kieran, Dave, Sam and Phil once again for the parts they played in the recording.

More to follow soon soon soon 

Orchestra Footage now online!

The first piece of footage from our concert with The Richard P Horn is now online and can be viewed here. It is the first song we played on the night, called ‘Come On, You Young Philosophers!’. We would like to thank Sean Upton, Kieran Belkus and Nick Mousdale for the filming/editing and Dave Allen, Sam Woolway and Phil Vincent for the sound recording. Thank you for watching it.

Set List in full for 16 April: 

28.12.08

We have been locked in the studio for the last few days demo-ing new material. It sounds loud and quiet and we are all very excited about it. Happy New year to everyone and we’ll have more information soon.

19.12.08 TSDOLE is not dead, TSDOLE is a machine running through the night

TSDOLE is waiting for 2009 like Ralph Macchio in a crane-position on a pillar on the beach.

15.10.08 Southampton Joiners Wednesday 22.10.08

Come and watch us play next Wednesday at the Joiners where we will be joined by up and coming upstarts, Melodramas. We shall be playing armfuls of new songs which will wrap around you and pull you in close. Tickets can be gotten in advance by emailing us. Thank you.

21.09.08

We are all paranoid enough. Please can the lady who keeps knocking on my door wanting to collect information for the Office of National Statistics kindly stop. It took me two hours to come out from under the bed when the meter reader came. Kings College this Sunday, we’ll be playing lots of new stuff again.

20.08.08 - Discount Offset tickets and Riley listen again.

We are playing the Offset Festival in Hainault Forest the weekend of 30th August with some great bands including Wire, Gang of Four and er… Fightstar.

…And we have cheaper tickets for anyone reading this. *rejoice*. All you have to do is click on this link and enter the code STRANGE DEATH (and then enter your card details, and then make sure you have the right money in the bank etc etc)

THE LINK —> http://offsetfestival.co.uk/secret/

Thou shalt act swiftly however, as there are only 50 available.

Thank you to anybody who listened to our Marc Riley session on Tuesday. We played Angelou and two new tracks called A Statue of Broken Bottles and Come On You Young Philosophers! For two of the tracks we were joined by Paul from the Dawn Chorus on cornet. The session can be heard here if you missed it: http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/shows/marc_riley/ (select Tuesday from the right menu).

06.08.08 Back off the mic a bit…

Hello dear friends. Members of strange death are currently practising the art of contorting in order to fit into a small van once again surrounded by loud and quiet instruments and drive the long road to manchester for our second Marc Riley session. Our bent-double bodies will be live on air with the man on BBC 6 Music on 19 August.

05.08.08 Portsmouth and Southsea Festival

We have been added to a festival taking place in our home-town and are very excited that we shall be playing by the sea. We will be at the Portsmouth and Southsea festival on 11th October. Full line-up is soon to be announced, although it remains unclear as to whether Fightstar will be appearing on this bill.

04.07.08

We have just been added to play the Offset Festival this coming August. The line-up looks great and we shall be playing after our old friends Thomas Tantrum and Victorian English Gentleman’s Club. If that doesn’t suit you there is always Fightstar.

02.07.08 - Get Physical. More pre-order detail

It is only two weeks now until Angelou is released on 500 vinyl and if you haven’t reserved a copy yet you may like to do so as they are selling fast. Of course, you might not want one at all and are in fact disappointed that this email isn’t filled with spelling mistakes about how to enlarge certain body parts, or you may be reading over somebody’s shoulder and musing just how irrelevant this information is to your life, in which case you won’t want to order one of the vinyls - and thats fine. However, if you are still reading chances are you are quite interested and i am pleased to inform you therefore that said 45 can be ordered from:

http://www.recordstore.co.uk
http://www.actionrecords.co.uk/viewcart.asp?zoneid=&classid=
http://hmv.com/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=280;-1;-1;-1&sku=820024
http://www.normanrecords.com/records/100408
http://www.fantasticplasticrecords.com/shop/Fantastic_Plastic_Label.htm

25.06.08 Angelou now available on iTunes

Yes, yes, yes. Angelou is now available to be downloaded fropm iTunes and played on your virtual stereos whilst you dress yourself in tinfoil and pretend you have come from the future. The vinyl release, for those who would like to dress in a flatcap and slacks, smoke woodbine and travel only by penny-farthing is still out on 14 July.

18.06.08 Instore at Brighton’s Resident Records

On Monday 14th July we shall be playing an instore session at Brighton’s Resident Records before our gig at the Freebutt that night. It’d be nice to see some of you there.

11.06.08 TSDOLE get further approval from auntie.

Dear all, Angelou is to be single of the weekend this weekend on BBC 6 Music, which means it will be played on most weekend shows this weekend as it is single of the weekend this weekend on BBC 6 Music.

04.06.08 Angelou = Artrocker single of the week. Us = Happy about this

Thank you Artrocker. That really was very nice of you. The article can be read here, thank you.

03.06.08 I woke up and half the year had gone by and I realised it was spring and I was in the prime of my life.

We’re tired, exhausted, haven’t slept for days… turn up the music, where’s my sombrero, I left an important part of my brain somewhere, somewhere in a car park in Barcelona. Pick yourself up boy, things move on its already half way through the year, you blinked, you missed it, its already spring. Wait until spring, bandini! It’s here now. Things are moving on.

Angelou, as previously communictaed in several briefs below, captain, is now out on 14 July. Apologies to anybody expecting it yesterday but I spilt my pimms and lovage on the records in a fit of spring awakening and they didn’t dry out so we had to order a new load. There will be 500 copies made, all hand-numbered by the band and available in wipe-clean plastic covers.

Our first release to be released since our last will be marked by a moment of contemplation across the country by 500 consumers and two performances by The Strange Death of Liberal England. The record can be preordered at recordstore.co.uk

Brighton Freebutt     14 July

London Water Rats   15 July 

02.06.08 Tour footage on YouTube

Thank you to those who have put footage from our tour up on YouTube. Click on links below to see tracks, both old and new, recorded at Primavera in Barcelona and The Cluny in Newcastle.

‘Lines’ in Barcelona

‘Oh Solitide’ in Barcelona

‘A Statue of Broken Bottles’/'Lines’ in Newcastle

‘Angelou’ in Newcastle

27.05.08 New Brighton Show, Pre-order Angelou.

Hello all. Thank you to all of those who have come to see us on our merry little tour so far. Tomorrow we continue in Liverpool and its gonna be epic as supports come from Wave Machines and Kyte. We have also arranged a one off show at Brighton Freebutt on 14th July to mark the release of Angelou. Early-birds and those looking for something to break nthe ennui can pre-order the single here.

16.05.08 Mother, I’m tired. Mother, I’m hungover. Mother, I’m happy.

Well The Stag and Dagger sure was a lot of fun. Thank you to all who came and clapped and cheered and sang. Its good playing live again. See you at the Great Escape.

07.05.08 Angelou video now available to be watched by the likes of you.

The video for Angelou is now complete and can be watched on our myspace site. Feel free to watch it and comment, either to your loved-ones, a stranger on the bus or electronically over the interweb as we believe the youth do nowadays. Once again we would like to thank Fleet Films and all involved. The single will be available on limited, hand-stamped and numbered vinyl from 23 June.

02.05.08 Tour Supports and Southsea show then its the after party then its the hotel lobby…

Most of the suport acts have been confirmed for our forthcoming tour this month. In Peterborough, Newcastle, Hull, Northampton, Cardiff and Liverpool we shall be joined by the amazing Wave Machines. At our home-town show at the Wedgewood Rooms we will be fighting over the backstage shower with Melodramas, Fresh Legs and The Dawn Chorus. There will then be an after-show party at the Edge of the Wedge where the video of Angelou will be shown and various DJs will be commanding you to shuffle from side-to-side armed with only a box of rhythm and a snidey side-way glance. Then we’ll head to castle fields and practice Tai-Chi until the sun rises. Maybe. 

15.04.08 Brighton Great Escape Venue Confirmed

Yep yep, an aptly aquatic venue for the sea-side fareing pirates of the good ship strange death. The 16th May we shall be playing at The Ocean Rooms with Magic Wands, Clocks and Olympian Fall.

09.04.08 Video for Angelou shot = Available soon = Pictures = now.

On Good Friday we celebrated new beginnings two days early as, with the help of some friends, we shot the video for Angelou which will be
available soon. Filmed in Southsea’s New Theatre Royal it promises to be as shiny and regal as the theatre’s nineteenth century golden interior. We would like to thank Fleet Films for all their hard work, the New Theatre Royal for not calling the police and our actors Joe Black and Maddie. Joe Black is a friend of ours with a twisted mind which can and should be explored here. A few photos of the whole debauched affair can be seen here.

08.04.08 - Things to do with TSDOLE instrumental tracks no. 47

We don’t know much about this, but it is fantastic. As far as we tell it is footage of Icelandic Film Noi Albinoi edited to Summer Gave us Sweets. It is beautiful and has found its way onto YouTube. If somebody has any information on where this has come from or who made it then please let us know as we would like to say thank you.

19.03.08 And onwards..and onwards… and onwards still. TSDOLE Release Details.

In 1857 Millet stepped back from his easel and admired his painting and decided it was finished. He named it The Angelus and put it up on the wall. A fairly non-descript image typical of his output of the land’s peasantry it must have stared back at him like an old portrait of a twisted, tormented relative - hidden in the corner to everybody else but whose eyes pierced the heart of Millet. Like the secrets masked by Dorian Gray Millet knew that his painting wasn’t so parochial as many would believe. Only Millet knew the secret of the peasants and the bread basket.

Years later when the technology had become available The Angelus was x-rayed to reveal the layers of paint below the surface and the secret revealed: lurking somewhere beneath, invisible to eye and existing only in another time a childs grave was discovered in place of the basket of bread. Suddenly the painting took on new meaning, the peasants renewed suffering and the painting a sinister twist. Millet, why did you hide away from death? Millet, why did you deny this child a proper burial? Was it all too much too bear? Were you crushed by the sorrow brought about by the death of the innocent?

This theme has since been echoed by Dali in many of his paintings. Dali, an artist who felt he always lived in the shadow of the first Salvador Dali - his namesake brother who died before the artist’s birth and whose grave bearing that very name our Dali recalls as his first memory. Forgotten child, don’t forget us, we’ll find you yet.

The Strange Death of Liberal England were so moved by this they decided to write a song about it.

Angelou will be released on May 26th on Fantastic Plastic backed by Scared to Death, a song about a writer who blasphemed God everyday in an effort to prove he didn’t exist, but that is another story for another day.

P.S. Welcome to our new website and thank you to speedofdark for sitting down with books of codes whilst we played in the unusual February sunshine.

18.03.08 And onwards, then, dear friends. UK Tour dates.

15 May London Shoreditch Crawl 
16 May Brighton Great Escape
17 May Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms
18 May Peterborugh Met Lounge
19 May Newcastle Cluny
20 May Hull Lamp
21 May York  The Crescent 
22 May Northampton Soundhaus
23 May Cardiff The Venue With No Name 
24 May London Barfly Kill em all
28 May Liverpool Sound City  
29 May Kingston The Works 
30 May Barcelona Primavera Festival

Ticket and venue information is available from the live section.

Thank you x

18.02.08 Too much good music makes for a sinister mind…

I can takes it no more…must exercise socialist principles and share knowledge for a better musical world…Here are five bands that we have been lucky enough to play with/discover recently. Listen to them at your leisure, please. Thank you. Revolution!

The Love Bandits - beat-era reminiscing and harmonica heroics
Wave Machines - Keep your punk spirit in your back pocket next to your rusty razorblades, masks and evil laugh.
Animal 5 - Very Swedish.
Louis Lament - Old touring partners of ours, big rawk action and dirty secrets.
Cvantez - Beautiful French band with very delicate songs about jungle beasts and obsessive compilation-tape-senders. Album out soon

13.02.08

Thank you to all those who came and watched in Germany. Now safe and back and after having spent thirteen hungover hours in Dortmund Airport we realise how great it was to have met all the people we did. If you were one of them: thank you etc. For those of you not lucky enough to be at any of the shows have a listen to the Animal 5 - it’ll be a little less messy in the comfort of your own home. London London London tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow. 

08.02.08

Well we’re having a lot of fun. Köln last night was rammed and the best show yet. Thank you to all who came and left whilst we had to wait six hours for our bus to start (!). Our set for the shows so far including new tracks with working titles is as follows:

1. Lines
2. Burn My House Down
3. A Day Another Day
4. Statue of Broken Bottles
5. Angelou
6. Modern Folk Song
7. Yellow Flowers
8. Total Eclipse of the Heart and the Forever Omnipresnent Thunder Drum

I should warn you that anyone coming tonight to Munich will be expected to help push our bus when it doesn’t start. That is all, thank you.