Country Teasers Explained

Country Teasers were an art punk band formed in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1993.

Frontman Ben Wallers also performs solo as The Rebel. He plays live shows with a Gameboy backing-track or accompanied by Country Teasers bassist Sophie Politowicz on drums.

Long-time members of Country Teasers include songwriter B.R. Wallers (vocals, guitar), Leighton Crook (drums), Robert McNeill (guitar, synth), Alastair MacKinven (guitar), Sophie Politowicz (bass guitar, drums). Original members of the band include playwright Simon Stephens (bass guitar), Alan Crichton (guitar), Eck King (drums), Lawrence Worthington (drums).Richard Greenan (guitar) occasionally plays with the band.

Background

Early Country Teasers albums were characterised by literate, scathingly satirical lyrics and discordant, repetitive sound – like William S. Burroughs leading Joy Division or The Fall through a setlist of art-damaged country and western songs.[1]

Later Teasers releases branched out to "abuse not only country and western but every other genre they can get their hands on, including rap, goth, punk, folk, disco, electronic, and noise,"[2] leading to comparisons with other home-recording deconstructionists like Royal Trux, Butthole Surfers and Ween.[3]

Frontman and songwriter Ben Wallers's lyrics have elicited comparisons to Jonathan Swift, Bill Hicks and Chris Morris,[4] provoking the audience with unorthodox standpoints and purposefully offensive vocabulary in order to force them to question their own opinions. In the words of a writer on the Drowned in Sound website, ""Evil country outfit" Country Teasers are led by the enigmatic singer/guitarist BR Wallers. Their discordant aural assault is filled out with bitingly ironic lyrics, poking fun at racism and sexism by inhabiting the minds of the losers that purvey these attitudes."[5] "Like moralistic ’80s punks Crass, the Country Teasers make their statement, but they use humor to do it, as opposed to histrionic art-house punk screech… They find your comfort zone and blissfully stomp all over it."[6]

The Teasers' live shows are infamously unpredictable fusions of alcohol-or-whatever-fueled unprofessionalism and high-concept performance art, or in the words of the New York Press: "Country Teasers does art better than Sonic Youth and drunkenness better than The Pogues—and doesn’t need art or liquor to be confrontational bastards."[7]

Country Teasers are often compared to The Fall, although as Static Party's Ryan W points out, "it's not in the chord structures or the Northern (UK) accent, it's in 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."[8]

Discography

Albums

Singles

Videos

Appearances

Notes and References

  1. Maerz, Jennifer. "The Easy Surrealists", The Stranger (8 January 2004). Accessed 12 March 2007.
  2. "Country Teasers Live ", Universal Buzz (31 July 1999). Accessed 12 March 2007.
  3. Brissey, Grant. "Grate Scots", The Stranger (16 May 2006). Accessed 12 March 2007.
  4. Mellors, Nathaniel. "The Empire Strikes Back", Frieze Magazine (2006). Accessed 12 March 2007.
  5. "Country Teasers ", Drowned in Sound (5 October 2006). Accessed 12 March 2007.
  6. Davidson, Duncan Scott. "Schlock Tease: Country Teasers jab at the darker crannies of whiteness", San Francisco Bay Guardian. Accessed 21 January 2007.
  7. "Preview - Country Teasers live at Tonic ", New York Press (15 June 2006). Accessed 21 January 2007.
  8. "Country Teasers - Against", Static Party (29 August 2006). Accessed 12 March 2007.

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