Reach for the Czars

Even before you hear them say that as vices go, they’ll take pizza over sex, then launch into a touring story about some ‘waitresses’ in a Parisian strip joint called Club Nookie, the Czars’ second UK album appears to thrive on inconsistency. Released on Bella Union and produced by Simon Raymonde (Cocteau Twins) and Giles Hall, The Ugly People Vs The Beautiful People is a curious cross-pollination of Simon and Garfunkel’s honeyed harmonies, Pet Sounds and The Cowboy Junkies’ pedal steel polish. In fact, these twelve carefully-crafted songs would most certainly coast off the plastic if it wasn’t for singer John Grant’s smoky baritone uniting them in the perfect soundtrack to a booze-fuelled bar-room breakdown. Guitarist Roger Green, who wrote three songs on The Ugly People Vs The Beautiful People, explains that this eclecticism was more selfish than self-conscious.

“Recording the album was pretty crazy,” admits the softly-spoken jazz enthusiast. “There was a lot of individualism going on to the point of blatant stubborness. Trying to get the band to work as a unit was a constant battle.”

Internal battles notwithstanding, the Czars are certainly crossing swords with the likes of Wilco and Smog for supremacy over the beautiful, brutal terrains of the alt-country outback. A lusher affair than its predecessor, The Ugly People Vs The Beautiful is like taking a peak into the psyche of someone in the grip of all sorts of unmentionable addictions. Possessed of a baritone that recalls Tim Buckley, singer and keyboardist John Grant effortlessly bellows a path through the downbeat melancholia of ‘Drug’ to the glorious country uber-ballad ‘Lullaby 6000’. If it makes for an unsettling listen, that’s because it’s supposed to. The Czars want it that way.

“It’s meant to put a burr under people’s saddles,” says Grant. “There’s a lot of black humour on the album and the title is meant to get people to say, ‘What is ugly and what is beautiful?’ It talks of the cliches as well, of the different types of physical beauty and different types of ugliness. How things aren’t always what they seem.”

Exposing an extra dimension to reality isn’t only a matter of lyrical interest for John Grant. It is part of the Czars’ new musical ethos, pioneered by guitarist of two years and master pedal-pusher Roger Green.

“This album is definitely lusher and thicker than last year’s (Before... but longer, the band’s debut UK album),” explains Grant. “Roger is new to the band for this album and he’s got tons of pedals that fill out the sound a lot. I played classical piano for ten years when I was younger and I’ve lost a lot of technique but I’m trying to rediscover that side of things. Roger’s in a jazz combo and you can definitely hear that influence on this album. I’d say we’re getting back to our roots.”

The bands ‘roots’ lie in the mid-American town of Denver, Colorado where they formed in 1994. Fresh back from studying in Germany, Grant bumped into bassist Chris Pearson at the Rock Island nightclub and the core of the Czars was established. Jeff Linsenmaier joined as the drummer after Grant took a liking to his car (“It had all these great music stickers all over it”) and after a rotating door of three guitarists Andy Monley joined in 1997. Roger Green was recruited as a second guitarist in 1999 and the existing Czars line-up was complete.

Having recently played with David Gray on his European tour, the band are used to playing to packed out venues every night. Unfortunately, The Ugly People Vs The Beautiful People hasn’t inspired the same level of adulation in Ireland just yet.

“We did a show in Derry and only one person turned up. He was very old, and stood by the bar all night, he hadn’t heard of the band. Actually, counting the staff there were seven people there in total. You could tell the barman had a date with his girlfriend or something ‘cos he was like ‘Oh fuck’ when we kept playing and he started putting the bar stools up immediately after the last note. And then there was the guy in Belfast who stood with his back to us for the whole show...”