ART NOISE

The gig finishes with a note of despondent appreciation. ‘Thank you,’ says Ben Wallers, also known as The Rebel, one third of The Teasers and a son of St Albans who settled in Edinburgh for a few years way back when. ‘Thank you. That’s the end. Of the band’. Maybe he means it?

Probably not, in all honesty, upon hearing the giggle which enters his voice. Still, Wallers does like to be opposite. The Country Teasers are like The Fall turned up to 11. While a two part rhythm section await his cue to hammer away in the background, he – dressed in summer suit and fedora, and looking younger than his 37 years – bashes and honks and klangs away at guitar and keyboard, occasionally letting go some yelped non sequitur or other.

When the ambient racket converges into a demolishing riff and then an impudent lyrical call, though, it’s incredible. ‘Please ban music and drive it underground,’ he hollers during ‘Please Ban Music’, ‘They did it in Iraq and in Afghanistan’. If he gets his wish, he seems intent on avoiding the cull by disguising his art as something else entirely.

Stereo, Glasgow, Sun 8 Mar

www.therebel.co.uk/countryteasers.html