Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Country Teasers - Against
Country Teasers Against 7" (Guided Missile, 1996)
Speaking of 'slow builds' alluded to in the V-3 post below, here we have the UK's Country Teasers flogging a thoroughly Soviet-style Ten Year Plan towards achieving their own AAA champeenship in indie punk. The Teasers have been all over the map stylistically through their many lineups, but listening to this mid-90s waxing sets the tone for most every other record they've put out: harsh lyrics with a real comic aftertaste that sticks to your craw, set amidst a shambling sonic stumble that veers from powerful to plain idiotic seemingly on whim. Bluntly, this band sounds like they were drunk or high during the recording on almost any track you can name in their lengthening catalog; even their choice of covers seems to be the sort of randomly inspired genius that only nerveless drunks can truly nail. It is your call as to whether they are merely swamping their talent or laughingly floating away from the wreck of the world on any given song. When people compare them to the Fall, this is what I think they are trying to reference, it's not the chord structures or the Northern (UK) accent, it's the feel they create akin to the early Fall records that a truly creative brain is battering against resistance (self or other) to create something meaningful to itself. If you get something from it as well... Art! Put on a CT record and read the 'Maakies' comics, it's better than bread and chocolate.
The Country Teasers catalog is largely still in print on the Crypt and In The Red labels, you can find their stuff down the street at your neighborhood record store, the one right around the corner from where you live, ya know? -Ryan W.
// posted by W/S @ 8:11 PM 
