Buckfever in the Top Ten - Three Times

For Immediate Release - 03/10/2007

Two songs from 'SAVES', the latest release from The Buckfever Underground are listed in the top ten download on the Rhythm Records online store. The tracks - 'Die Woord' and 'Die Wortel Van Kwaad' occupy 8th and 9th space respectively.

Eight years after it's release, The Buckfever Underground song 'Die Volk (Is In Die Kak)' has leapt into a national top ten as the 7th most downloaded song on the Rhythm Records online music store.

This recent surge of interest comes on the back of 'Die Volk (Is In Die Kak) being nominated as one of the Top 100 Protest Songs of all time in a Dutch survey.

Die Volk (Is In Die Kak) is on The Buckfever Underground's debut EP – Jou Medemens Is Dood – and deals with the feeling of disillusionment of young Afrikaners towards their community in post apartheid South Africa.

Members of The Buckfever Underground were not available for comment although their press liaison officer called a press conference to clarify the issue.

"This" he said "is so rock and roll, it hurts. "

ends

The Buckfever Underground have just released a new album, entitled 'SAVES'

Die Beeld describes SAVES as "wide open and inimitably impressive as the Great Karoo itself..(and)...an album which will probably fruitlessly keep searching the local musical landscape in search of an equal".

The Weekender says that SAVES "is truly original, experimental art rock that gives Bok van Blerk stereotypes about Afrikaans music the snotklap it deserves." 

Links

Rhythm Records ; www.rhythmrecords.co.za

Rapport: www.news24.com/Rapport/Nuus/0,,752-795_2192883,00.html

Top 100 protest songs: www.rvu.nl/clubvan100/protestsongs/allesongs.php

Die Volk Is In Die Kak - free download: www.myspace.com/thebuckfeverunderground

For more information: info@bastardmedia.co.za / www.thebuckfeverunderground.com

The Buckfever Underground 'SAVES' - out now

The Buckfever Underground nominated for Top 100 Protest Songs

The Buckfever Underground song, 'Die Volk (Is In Die Kak)' from their debut EP, Jou Medemnes Is Dood, has been nominated as one of the top 100 protest songs of all time of all time in a Dutch survey.

Die Volk (Is In Die Kak) deals with the feeling of disillusionment of young Afrikaaners towards their community in post apartheid South Africa. The song was nominated by Stef Bos, the legendary Dutch musician who discovered The Buckfever undergound through his work with the late Johannes Kerkorrel and Tandie Klaasen.

Other nominated artists on the list include the likes of Bob Dylan. Joaz Beaz, Bob Marley, Bruce Springsteen, Eminem, John Lennon, Marvin Gaye, Neil Young, Patti Smith, Rage Against Th eMachine, System Of A down. The Clash and U2

Die Volk Is In Die Kak is available for free download at www.myspace.com/thebuckfeverunderground

The Buckfever Underground have just released a new album, entitled 'Saves' which has already been described in Die Beeld as "wide open and inimitably impressive as the Great Karoo itself..(and)...an album which will probably fruitlessly keep searching the local musical landscape in search of an equal"

For more information:

info@bastardmedia.co.za
www.thebuckfeverunderground.com

http://www.inrainbows.com/Store/index.html

 
so. There is a new radiohead album coming out called inrainbows. on 10 october. You can download it for, er, how ever much you feel like paying! Or for forty pounds, you can order the disc box which includes cd, double vinyl and hardcover lyrics book and more (which will get sent to you in December).

I like this band.

gil

Today was quietly momentous. For the second time in ten year, two memebers of The Buckfever Underground met with the express purpose of preparing marterial for the the band. The only other time that I can remember it happening was when me and Toast got together before our first ever perfromance in Grahamatown. The 'practice session' lasted about three minute and went something like this:

Me: I've got a couple idea, they sound something like this (I then proceed to stum a couple vague chord changes)

Toast: Sounds good to me

practice over

Ten years later, Rigard comes over to my flat so we can go through some ideas. The meain reason for this is that there is a general feeling between me, Righard and Stephen that we a pushed the unsructured approach as far as we can go and it is becoming less enjoyable. We are lsitening to each other less and less ad while there is definitely something unique in what we are doing, Lloyd Gedye's comment that wathcing Buckfever live is like 'watching a group of musucians at war with each other' was slowly starting to become a reality with the three of us getting increasingly frustrated and our inabiliy to stay on the same page as each other during perfromances. In particular, Stephen has been finding it very diffcult to figure out wher myself and rigahrd are heading during gigs - probably because niether of us are completely aware of where we are going until we get there.

For the most part we went over one idea that came out of the soundcheck in Durbanville. When me initially palyed it it really reminded me of Asmosphere by Joy Division. It still has that feeling but we have also managed to flesh it out so it climbs and falls. it will be interesting to see what happens when we asdd Stephen to the mix tomorrow when we jam. The jam tomorrow will also be interesting because Jon will be joining us for the first time in more that a year. Cassette have just got back from a Europea tour and Jon and Jane are in town to chill for a week and so we asked Jon to join us at the launch at The Armchair on Tuesday. It will be really good to have him back after so long. And the timing s really fitting because even though the music has moved in quite a different direction since he left, the keys and piano are such a big part of the album that it would eb a shame for him not to be involved in the its launch.
.
but thats all for now. hopefully the next couple days go really well. Outside of the launch therea re a couple other things on the cards for us, but i'll get onto that later.

gil

Mail and Guardian Interviwew - Lloyd Gedye

"Beer, freedom. In that order, please, and form a line while you're at it." That is the last message scrawled on the bottom of the liner notes on the new Buckfever Underground album. Sitting at a wooden table at Oppikoppi with half of the Buckfever Underground, while drunken revellers stagger around us, it seems like a perfect sentiment. I had just been handed a finished copy of The Buckfever Underground Saves (Lank), the band's third studio album. Rumours of this release had filtered along the grapevine for almost a year, but it remained an elusive beast. Fitting, then, that the first copies were distributed at Oppikoppi this year -- an event Gil Hockman, the band's bassist, refers to as the Buckfever Underground's annual general meeting. "It's not our usual style," says the band's vocalist, Toast Coetzer. "We recorded it in three days, which is more like our usual style, but then, because of various reasons, it took forever to bring it out." Hockman adds: "We were doing really well until we hit October last year and then it just seemed like [there were] never-ending delays." Says Coetzer: "We were in a state of denial; everyone in the band thought someone else would get the shit done. "We started pointing fingers, like, 'It's your fault, it's my fault'; at some point in time everybody was in charge of getting it done. He jokes: "Righard [Kapp] is the boss now, although he might be fired because he didn't make this interview."
 

The band's casual approach to getting their album out is indicative of their approach to music and gigging. A Buckfever Underground gig is a rare and treasured event. The band have been going through changes in the past few years, which could explain the lack of live shows. "We went from the period where we were post-students and had a lot of plans [and] we had a lot of things going on in our lives that were actually quite demanding," says Hockman. There have also been some line-up changes, with Buckfever's keyboardist, Jon Savage, moving to Johannesburg to form Cassette, which left the band in a quandary about their live shows. "I don't think Jon is going to be a big part of our live performances because he has another band," says Hockman. "But as far as recording goes, he brings a lot of structure; we don't want to let him out of that and he is part of the band."
 
Realising that they needed to add something new to their sonic palette, the band approached Cape Town's guitar virtuoso and noise terrorist Righard Kapp to join the fray. "We needed a new sound in the band because Jon moved to Jo'burg," says Coetzer. "We needed to flesh out our live sound and Righard had built up a name for himself and he was keen to give it a try. It was very interesting because Righard brings something very particular to the band. I don't think he would fit into any other band." When I catch up with Kapp later in the day he tells me it was difficult to integrate with the band at first. "Lots of fistfights, backchats and sheer incomprehension," are his description of the process. "We are finally sort of settling into this groove of sounding sort of Rye Cooder-ish, with the occasional blast of white noise." "It was difficult," admits Coetzer. "There are still creative struggles within the band, but it's made the live performances better because of that friction."
 
Having seen this latest line-up of the Buckfever Undergound live, I can vouch for Coetzer's summation -- their performance is incendiary; it's like watching a bunch of musicians at war with each other. "Generally the band simply plays and I just put words to it, which means there is no hope in hell that any two shows could be the same," says Coetzer. "It's a full-on democracy," says Hockman. "The unspoken rule is you can't tell anyone what to play, but in particular situations you are following someone else's lead." The band's improvisational nature makes them a perfect fit for a guitarist like Kapp, who loves to explore the unpredictable. "I am a firm believer in the idea that something accidental or improvised can be much more beautiful than anything that can be mapped out beforehand," he says. "Part of me wants us to be the biggest Afrikaans band on the planet, although I don't necessarily see that happening. I think we are still in a space of consolidating what we've got at the moment. "I do believe that in some sense, and this has got a lot to do with Toast's writing, that this band is making music that might be folk songs for future generations." I share Kapp's sentiments. If there were any justice in the South African music scene, the Buckfever Underground would be huge. Since 1998 they have consistently produced albums of stark originality that make the majority of their peers look like half-arsed chancers and The Buckfever Underground Saves is yet another impressive chapter in this band's career.
 

Lots of stuff going on with Buckfever at the moment - including this new Myspace page. Our new album, "Saves" has just come out so we are missioning to spread the word. We have already had three launched in the Western Cape - Stellensoch, Durbanville and at a festival in Matjiesfontein - and have one more on Tuesday 2 October at The Independent Armchair Theatre in Cape Town.

Matjiesfontein was a great little festival organised by the photographer Inge Prins. It was 'Show and Tell' affair which meant you could on come to the festival if you brought sometime to add to the weekend. So we played there on the Struday night. Was a really good gig in a lounge about this really old bar and we got a great reponse. During the festival we also had some great photo's take by creative types Greg Loma and Julia Merrit who had set up a self service photo studio in part of the hotel. You can check out some of the photo's in our pics section.

Thats all for now. Hope you see some of you on Tuesday at The Armchair. In the meantime will post some reviews for "Saves" that have already come out and and recent interview in The Mail and Guardian.

gil
 

Blunt Magazine – Craig McKune

Beat poetry? Musical impostors? I'm not sure. The drums and bass hold down a beat, overlaid with sad keys and guitars, and Toast's poetry, while monotonous and dreary, is beautiful and real. These are sounds for a dark place – smoke, whisky, beer, somewhere in South Africa.

SL Magazine  - Daniel Freedman

I was first introduced to The Buckfever Underground at Rhodes (University). The came across as some sort of alternative novelty band, with a chaotic collection of musicians dressed in campus workman's overalls providing backdrops for Toast Coetzer's reflective poetry. They have come a long way since then. The addition of guitar-magician Righard Kapp elevates the joyful noise they make to new plateaus. Buckfever seems more like a real band now. It's the (mainly Afrikaans) poetry delivered in Toast Coetzer's melancholy drone that makes them unique, but this time they've coupled it with a higher level of musical complexity. Score: 80%

The Buckfever het 'n plan

By Danie Marais

Sep 11 2007 – Die Beeld  

 

The Buckfever Underground se jongste album is soos 'n goeie Asterix-boek. As jy Asterix as tien-jarige ontdek, hou jy van die karakters en die kinkels in die verhaal en natuurlik om te sien hoe Obelix die Romeine pak gee. Wanneer jy ouer is en die boek weer lees, besef jy hoeveel satire en sosio-politiese kommentaar eintlik deel van die storie is.

 

Net só kan jy Saves op verskillende vlakke geniet. Gooi dit op saam met 'n paar tjops of 'n partytjie en jy het (met die uitsondering van die besete tierende I want to die on a Tuesday) 'n heerlik byderwetse jazz-rock-klankbaan vir vuur-kyk, whisky en samesyn – gesofistikeerde lounge-musiek vir Afrika se gawe, ontspanne kant.

 

Maar gaan luister aandagtig op jou eie langs die langpad en jy ontdek 'n welige wêreld van klank en aangrypende, geheimsinnige en eg inheemse poësie. Toast Coetzer se uitstekende lirieke is 'n fassinerende botsing met 'n visueel oorweldigende, volkome verwarrende land. Hy het nie antwoorde nie, maar hy laat jou die chaos, dramatiese ironie en ook tergende skoonheid deeglik voel.

 

Sedert die Buckfever se debuut-EP, Jou Medemens is Dood (1998), het die groep met trip-hoppy gesing-gesêde nommers soos "Die volk (is in die k*k)" hul vingers sekuur op die pols van sommige jong Afrikaners se misnoeë gehad. Maar 'n Buckfever-album ontaard nooit in 'n doemprofetiese en vermoeiende gewroeg nie. Gaan kyk gerus op die groep se vermaaklike webwerf (www.thebuckfeverunderground.com). Hier kry jy nie net Toast se lirieke mahala nie, maar ook 'n goeie idee van die groep se Bier & Vryheid-houding. As jy op Die Plan klik, sien jy vier manne om 'n hoë vuur met die onderskrif: "Die Plan is om dinge te vat soos dit kom."

 

Maar ten spyte van die Die (gelate) Plan stel Saves 'n groep ten toon wat speel-speel musikaal van krag tot krag gaan, en 'n liriekskrywer wat terloops 'n klomp juwele neergepen het. Snitte soos Die Woord en This is the photograph I was meaning to take is so wyd, oop en onnabootsbaar indrukwekkend soos die Groot-Karoo. Saves is 'n album wat waarskynlik nog lank tevergeefs in die plaaslike musieklandskap na geselskap gaan soek.

 

The Buckfever's got a plan
By Danie Marais

Sep 11 2007 – Die Beeld  

 

The Buckfever Underground's latest album, The Buckfever Underground SAVES, is like a good Asterix-book. If you discovered Asterix as a ten year old, you will love the characters and the twists in the narrative and of course love to see Obelix smack the Romans every now and then. When you re-read it later, you realise how much satire underpins the stories and that socio-political commentary is part and parcel of the narratives.

In the same way, SAVES can be enjoyed on different levels. Turn it up while the tjops are on the braai at a party and you've got (with the exception of the raging, seething 'I Want To Die On A Tuesday Afternoon') a wonderfully up to date jazz-rock soundtrack for fire-gazing, whiskey and hanging out with friends – sophisticated lounge music for Africa's pleasant, relaxed side.

But once you start paying attention, maybe solo on the highway somewhere, you will discover a lush world of sound and gripping, mysterious and truly home-grown poetics. Toast Coetzer's brilliant lyrics are a fascinating clash with a visually overpowering and totally chaotic country. He offers no answers, but leaves you feeling the chaos, dramatic irony and tantalizing beauty.

Since their debut-EP, Jou Medemens is Dood (1998), this group had their fingers securely on the pulse of the discontent felt by some young Afrikaners with trip-hoppy songs like 'Die Volk (Is In Die Kak)', sung in a type of bad rap style. But a Buckfever album never degenerates into doomsaying or overwrought contrition. One look at the group's entertaining website (www.thebuckfeverunderground.com) will confirm this. Not only do you get Toast's lyrics here for mahala, but you also get a glimpse of their Beer & Freedom-philosophy. When clicking on 'The Plan', you find four people sitting around a massive fire with the subtitle: "The Plan is to take things as they come."

But despite this relaxed Plan, SAVES showcases a band who are seemingly effortlessly going from strength to strength, and a lyricist who almost accidentally seems to have penned down a few pearls. Tracks like 'Die Woord' and 'This Is The Photograph I Was Meaning To Take' are so wide open and inimitably impressive as the Great Karoo itself. SAVES is an album which will probably fruitlessly keep searching the local musical landscape in search of an equal.