Country Teasers

London's Country Teasers play a harsh yet artful style of post-punk with nods to industrial and country music. Musical comparisons include "avant garage" bands like the Fall and Royal Trux, inept/genius musicianship a la the Shaggs or Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Pussy Galore's collision of roots and industrial music, and mischievous d.i.y. experimentalism in the vein of Butthole Surfers, Sun City Girls, the Residents, and Shimmy Disk era Ween. The group is known for singer Ben Waller's oddly urbane and humorous presentation of morally/politically repugnant attitudes. Although clearly a program of satirical impersonation in the vein of William Burroughs, Jonathan Swift and Lenny Bruce, the band's lyrics nevertheless confused and alienated dozens of listeners, especially during the politically correct 1990s. Pastoral - Not Rustic, their first album, was released in 1994. The album Satan Is Real Again was released the following year. After 1997's Anytime Cowboy EP, the Teasers moved to Fat Possum/Epitaph and released 1999's Destroy All Human Life. Science Hat Artistic Cube Moral Nosebleed Empire came in 2002 — a double LP released by In the Red Records, it compiled material dating back to the early '90s. The group's relationship with In the Red continued with the release of Full Moon Empty Sportsbag/Secret Weapon Revealed at Last in 2003, Live Album in 2005, and The Empire Strikes Back in 2006.