Published: Trouser Press 4th edition
1990
Credit:
Altricia Gethers & Doug Brod
Source:
www.trouserpress.com
Press Kit/Biography
Credit:
DavidWhittemore
In ten years, the Jazz Butcher has undergone more transformations
than most bands do in several lifetimes. Led by the Jazz Butcher
(aka Butch; in truth,
Pat Fish
) himself, it is, regardless of
incarnation, his lyrical witticisms and humorous critiques around
which the group's music revolves.
The debut LP,
Bath Of Bacon
, is for all intents and purposes a one-man
show. Butch plays a startling array of instruments, from guitar to
xylophone, and employs a legion of session musicians to help
create an album that encompasses an awesome variety of styles.
Good ideas abound in songs like
Zombie Love
,
Sex Engine
and
Grey Flannelette
;
there's just some uncertainty as to where they're going.
A Scandal In Bohemia
, the second album, was recorded by a stable quartet that
included ex-
Bauhaus bassist
David J.
. Almost exclusively in a folky
pop-punk format, the songs are better developed and reach logical
conclusions. Amoung the gems are a hysterical anti-macho
anthem
Real Men
(`Some things never change / Notice how they
never sit together on buses?') and
Southern Mark Smith
.
The Gift of Music
is a collection of single sides, an excellent package that
affirms the band's folk-punk commitment. Of special note is the
early up-tempo version of
Southern Mark Smith
and the pop gospel
Rain
.
Sex And Travel
is the Jazz Butcher's crowning achievement. The eight
near-perfect tracks run the gamut from funk to folk to
country-western and punk. Butch's lyrics aim high; subject
matter, more than anything else, defines the style of each song.
President Reagan's Birthday Present
addresses the problems of America, Russia and nuclear
arms with a healthy chunk of dance funk.
Holiday
uses a
typewriter backing track and cabaret stylings to make light of the
staid British persona; the frantic adrenaline punk of
Red Pets
tackles
preconceptions about Russians (`Everyone says that they lift
weights/Except for me I think they're great'). All of this, plus two
great pop tunes:
Big Saturday
and
Only A Rumour
. (One CD joins
Sex And Travel
with
A Scandal In Bohemia
)
With a new bassist replacing
David J.
(off to rejoin his old bandmates
in
Love And Rockets), the rechristened Jazz Butcher and His Sikkorskis
from Hell issued the live
Hamburg
LP and an EP,
Hard
which
picks up where
Sex And Travel
left off, adding blues and merseybeat to the
seemingly bottomless bag of musical tricks.
Bloody Nonsense
is an
American collection that includes some of the above-mentioned
tracks.
Leaving the rest of the band by the wayside, Butch and guitarist
Max Eider
then released a four-song 12-inch,
Conspiracy
. The best
things on it are the title track, a clever play on rap music, and the
hilarious homage,
Peter Lorre
.
With Butch and Max as the nucleus, a newly formed Jazz Butcher
Conspiracy recorded
Distressed Gentlefolk
. A Jazz Butcher record by any other name, this album
reveals the usual diversity -- folk (
Still In The Kitchen
), funk (
Big Bad Thing
),
country-western (
Falling In Love
) and pop (
Angels
,
Nothing Special
) - as well as
Butch's ever-incisive wit, which is in rare form on the track
Domestic Animal
.
Shortly after
Distressed Gentlefolk
, Eider resigned his Butchership for a solo
career.
Best Kisser in the World is a beautifully romantic record
consisting of soft rock ballads and jazzy torch songs. Max's vocals
replicate Butch's almost exactly; only lyrical content provides a
decisive difference. If the Jazz Butcher has a sane and serious alter
ego, Max Eider is he.
In 1988, a two-person Jazz Butcher (Butch and
Kizzy O'Callaghan
)
released the fifth proper LP,
Fishcotheque
, proving the Butcher to be as resilient as he is prolific.
Reorganisation has had no effect whatsoever on Butch's abilities,
and this record rivals
Sex And Travel
in its brilliance.
Next Move Sideways
,
Living In A Village
and
Chickentown
are sterling.
Big Questions
is an assortment of tracks (including
Grooving In The Bus Lane
,
Rebecca Wants Her Bike Back
and
Olof Palme
) drawn from previous releases by the Jazz Butcher,
Sikkorskis from Hell,
Conspiracy
and the Jazz Butcher
Conspiracy. Limited quantities of the original pressing contained
a live 7-inch EP.
As Butch insists in his liner notes,
Spooky (EP)
"is not an LP; it is a
single and a radio session nailed together for your enjoyment". A
smoky cover of the titular Classics IV hit and an extended version
of
Fishcotheque
's silly chicken rap
The Best Way
highlight the new stuff and
the Montreal radio broadcast sounds quite all right.
Big Planet\, Scarey Planet
, Butch had acquired a fairly steady group of sidemen,
losing not a morsel of his keen wit or musical individuality. He
even reveals a renewed vitriolic vigor in
Bicycle Kid
(a hilarious tale of
working-class juvenile delinquency) and
Do The Bubonic Plague
(a lethal dance
craze). Sharply observant and masterfully executed, this is a
record from a band that has well earned its reputation for
eclecticism. Sheer entertainment.
Cult Of The Basement
opens with an instrumental that sounds like the Ventures
performing at a Greek wedding. A Mediterranean refrain wafts
through the rest of the LP, subtly linking the thirteen cuts into
what is as close to a ``concept'' album as the Jazz butcher is likely
to make. (What the concept might be, however, is anyone's guess.)
Nevertheless, on
The Onion Field
Butch manages to flawlessly replicate
Nick Cave's stripped-down gothic atmospherics. And faced with song
titles like
Daycare Nation
and
Turtle Bait
and a sweet lullaby called
Fertiliser
,
one can only smile and enjoy. If the wild psychadelic raveup of
Panic In Room 109
is totally incongruous, it's also perfectly in synch with the
rest of this wonderful collection.
Edward's Closet
is an unessential compilation containing
Spooky
and an
assortment of album tracks from 1987-'90.
Altricia Gethers / Doug Brod
Transcribed from the (by now out of date) fourth
edition of
The Trouser Press Record Guide by
Ed Carter.
Used with permission of the authors.
Visitor Feedback
-
SeX & TraVel
SElbY
- SCoTLanD
2Nov2000 1:46 PM
(22 years 338 days ago)
I lay on the PINK flannelette soaking in the music with my good ear.