The Purple Fez 72 Club Social
More wry musings from the Britrock margins. Fixtures on the Bristol music scene since 1991, the
west Country's answer to Pavement recently returned from a long sabbatical with a reconstituted
line up and a more mellow sound. After years of being championed by the likes of The Flaming Lips,
Guided By Voices and Lambchop, these former Peel session regulars finally make the logical leap
into twangsome, husky-voiced pastiche Americana. These songs feel a little too laid back in places,
but Andrew Jarrett's droll lyrics repay close attention: "I've lived my life like a kitten in a sack, with
a brick". (Stephen Dalton / UNCUT MAGAZINE)
A lo-fi Americana swerve from the Beatniks, defiantly recorded without computers or studios. It
begins uncompromisingly with ‘Animal Crackers’ a seething condemnation of carnivores (“There
can never be peace with the likes of you”) that will put them straight to the top of Morrissey’s
Christmas card list. ‘Sweet Bird Of Sorrow’ features sitars and some rather cautious backwards
guitar. Singer Andrew Jarrett’s drowsy half-whispered voice begins to make perfect sense on the
sleepy Tropicana of ‘25 Miles, Long Road’ and the meticulous care taken over all the components
of this album slowly reveals itself. These are ‘home recordings’ of extraordinary quality. ‘Nurse My
Head’ is a magnificent take on Spiritualized’s narco-gospel, building to an epic finale of stadium
melancholia. Do not overlook the hidden track, a gloriously deadpan and dolorous cover of
‘Champion The Wonder Horse’. (Kid Pensioner / Venue Magazine))
I've
spoken before on this website about
introverted
nature. It's meant that over the years, sometimes to
stolen the limelight and been better noted for their musical exports than our own. One only has to
look
at the countless documentaries of
it's
a history lesson we've heard time and time again.
own rich musical history, has often held it's best kept secrets to itself. On the positive side though,
it's this pensive mindset that has kept our home grown talent brewing healthily at it's own pace
rather
than being governed by the speed and expectations of the giddy music press. It's
given
Bristol 's musical heritage a sense of genuine substance rather than the fickle minded
shortsightedness
of
their craft at their own pace are stalwarts of lo-fi indie Beatnik Filmstars. The band have been around in
one form or another since 1990. I remember attending their first ever gig, an intimate unveiling at the
cavern-esque cellar bar 'La Cav' in St. Nicholas Market. Their dynamic loud-quiet-loud formula of sonic
drone was a brave move at a time when most of the city was still in love with fey jangle pop. Since then,
the
band went on to become regular session guests for John Peel as well as going on
to tour
and
long running bands are anything to go by, you could be forgiven for expecting Beatnik Filmstars to just
safely rest on their laurels, regurgitate a 'greatest hits' set, vainly reminiscing of better days. Well, you'd
be mistaken to judge Beatnik Filmstars by other bands. Today, with a renewed line-up that now includes
fellow C86 veteran Tim Rippington, Beatnik Filmstars are producing some of their best music ever, and it's
music
that
These days, particularly in
seems to have become more important than pushing innovation. You can rest assured that Coldplay's
inevitable
tenth album will sound pretty much the same as all their others.
by contrast, refuse to safely tread water with well-thumbed formulas. Instead, their latest album 'The
Purple Fez 72 Club Social' challenges expectations by exploring a whole new direction, boldly veering
away
from their quirky lo-fi pop roots and travelling headlong towards mature
Clean tremolo twangs, simple and contagious melodies together with reflective,
sharp witted lyrics make
for a refreshing journey into alt-country, delivered from a British pop perspective. Check out 'Rats' with
it's cool, slow-paced whistled refrain. It's just so catchy. Likewise, 'You Never Hear A Good Song Coming
From A Car Window' brims with pop sensibility whilst 'Sweet Bird Of Sorrow' boasts a sitar style bed of
mellow psychedelia punctuated by backwards guitar loops. When you consider that the band record their
work
without the use of conventional studios or Pro-Tools trickery, the results are
astounding.
The band's founder member Andrew Jarrett is currently one of
Having previously fronted 80's era surf-pop favourites The Groove Farm, Andrew currently flexes his
alter-ego
with his other band (The) Nervous Rex, a studio project revisiting the sound of
garage and mod.
Beatnik Filmstars remain one of
Social'
is available now, released by Satisfaction Records. Whether the likes of
Manchester
and
south-west is up to them, but I sincerely hope they are. They don't know what they're missing.
(BRISTOL
ROCKS)
The lo-fi English Guided By Voices turn purveyors of Americana as they get more “mature”
(in this case that means older but not stinkier). They’ve reoriented themselves towards Lambchop
and Silver Jews; lyrics still have bite but the songs have a more measured pace, adding electronica
and atmospheric effects - though it’s too edgy ever to be dismissed as “laidback”. The tone of the
album is more reflective and melancholy: ‘Sweet Bird of Sorrow’ has a Kurt Wagner miserabilism
and ‘Grim Cosmic Joke’ matches a honeyed rhythm to bitter lyrics: “I’ve lived my life like a kitten
in a sack with a brick”. ‘Smoking Again?’ mixes twangy guitars and spooky piano Bad Seeds-style
while ‘25 Miles, Long Road’ is a drowsy haze of wind blasted Americana. The hidden track – a
slo-core version of Champion the Wonder Horse’ – is a hoot but the animal rights opener ‘Animal
Cracker’ has a bit too much Morrissey-like sanctimony, though leavened with a bit of humour
(unlike Morrissey…). The Beatnik Filmstars have always been slightly cranky outsiders in a Britpop
world and it’s good to see they’re growing up disgracefully – having earned their spurs with
experimental guitar rock, this time they’re wearing them. (SOUNDS XP)
"C'MON PEOPLE, wake up! I've actually heard this CD, and its stunning. Which is to
be expected. Its a little different but maybe A.J has over played this point, because
it is awesome too, and you owe it to your ears to buy this CD and help the 'Niks break
even. Or (gasp) there may not be anymore 'Niks and we dont want that do we?
Honestly, Andrew Jarrett is the Ray Davies of modern independent music".
(Stewart Anderson / Boyracer. Myspace blog comment)
They’ve
only gone and recorded a lo-fi Americana album
Beatnik Filmstars have been around since the early 90s. For the most part they
have been
peddling lo-fi indie rock that has served them well over several albums and five (count ‘em)
Peel sessions. Perhaps it is the fact that they are getting a bit old and grizzled, or perhaps it
is because they just got bored, but the Beatniks have gone all Americana on our asses on
this,
their new release.
Recorded without using studios or computers, "The Purple Fez 72 Club
Social" is an interesting
album full to bursting with well written songs and lyrical quirks. Opener, "Animal Crackers"
opens with the line ‘...There are racists in the USA who brand swastikas on their cattle...’
setting the lyrical bar high from the off. From here on the band effortlessly take us through
indie-Americana ("Scrabbling") and dusty tex-mex landscapes ("25 miles, Long Road") without
even
breaking into a sweat.
"The Purple Fez….." is the sound of a band breaking free of their
shackles, and playing music for
the sheer joy of it, making the album a pleasure to listen to. It is probable that the band are too
lo-fi, British and interesting to make huge strides into the Americana scene but for those that
pick
up on them, they will remain a hidden treasure to savour. (AMERICANA UK)
My love affair with Beatnik Filmstars started in 1992 when I saw them supporting Moose at,
I think, the Mauretania in Bristol at one of a series of gigs promoted by the band under the
name
"heaven up here".
The Beatniks arose from much-loved indie pop types the Groove Farm, an
association they
initially did their best to distance themselves from. this being 1992, the band were heavily
into their effects pedals, as evidenced by the ep they released shortly after, "Themes from
Foreverdrone". this was followed up by the consistently excellent "Laid Back & English" album.
There then followed a shedload of 7" eps and albums, their sound evolving from rough-edged
shoegazing
to even rougher edged fall/pavement/guided by voices indie rock.
Then they stopped. a couple of them did the quiet slo-core kyoko and a few other
things.
and
then they came back.
And this year they've released their best album yet. for some time I've felt
Beatnik Filmstars' songs
were hampered by those rough edges and by their sheer volume - the sheer number of songs
sometimes getting a bit wearying, the lack of editing turning great albums into merely good. but
finally they've shed both, somewhat. 'Purple Fez' is slowed down, quieter, more pop sensible, more
subtle, more sophisticated and, i'm very happy to say, more moose! (the band not the animal.) it's
full of hummable tunes and delicate guitar moments, the fewer exploding energetic frenzied
bursts now having a much greater impact as a result. (THE BLACKENED AIR))
Now. According to no less an authority on these matters than Stewart Anderson, the "greatest UK
writer of pop songs" is Andrew Jarrett, of biiiig Peel favourites, Beatnik Filmstars. And the trusted
indie-powerpop axis of old is really spoiling us in 2008, because "Fez '72", as we'll call it for now, is
an exquisite album that proves it.
A distant cry from the fractured
lo-fi brilliance of reams of the Filmstars' output right up to last yr's
sporadically marvellous "Shenaniganism" set, not only is it Jarrett's most measured, shimmering work
since The Bluebear's "Food Fight At the Last Chance Saloon", but for the wider populace it displays
those pop song writing skills more vividly than ever before. "Fez '72" is a fifteen-song weave of twang,
Americana, indie-guitar and alt-country, a melange of lyrical sadness and inherited loss, a mingling of
mournful guitars and aching keyboards. From the moment that thoughtful opener "Animal Crackers"
ambles louchely from the speakers, it's clear there's a real warmth to proceedings: the arrangements
and instrumentation are understated, rather than lush, but seem so well suited to the album's
reflective style. So the occasional backing vocals work, the harmonica works (we don't often say that),
hell, even the whistling works. And while it's certainly a very different record from most preceding
albums - a sea-change akin to Sportique's jump from "Black Is A Popular Colour" to "Modern
Museums", except maybe this time the leap is in the opposite direction - there are still echoes, for
example in the jets of skyrocketing guitar interspersed through "Scrabbling", of the powered-up glories
of past work like "Laid Back And English".
Jarrett describes himself on this record as both "cynical pioneer" and "pessimistic optimist", and each
phrase rings true: he can always temper the downbeat turns of phrase with a swoon some tune or hook,
which makes for a winning combination. There are very few writers in circulation who could pen songs as
strong as "Grim Cosmic Joke", "Kittens and Cats" or the stunning "Hospital Ward", but the Filmstars even
manage to tailor an epic album centrepiece, pulsing with yearning, from the distinctly unpromising title
"Nurse My Head (As The Actress Said To The Bishop)". They bring the curtain down in style too with "Home",
a ballad that carries echoes of some of Kyoko's smartest moments. The only possible mis-step is "You
Never Hear A Good Song Coming From A Car Window", which takes us little further than its title (the
premise of which is incorrect anyway, not least because when we used to roll in our 1.6, we forced the
British pedestrian within earshot to listen to "New Boyfriend And Black Suit" and "Bigot Sponger Haircut
Policy" at maximum blast).
As you can tell, we've replayed and enjoyed pretty much every Beatniks outing to date, and lapped up every
last dollop of their rickety, fuzzing short-burst lo-fi brilliance over the years (culminating with last year's
careering 'Curious Role Model' single). But, of all their albums, it's quite possible that "Fez 72" will turn out
to be the most complete. (IN LOVE WITH THESE TIMES)