October 2002 • Rockbites Alternative Daily
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The Black Watch’s 7th album features The Jazz Butcher 7 October 2002
Los Angeles doc-rockers The Black Watch—front man/songwriter/mainstay John Andrew Fredrick started the band after receiving his PhD in English from UC Santa Barbara—are a cult act with other musicians making up a disproportionately large number of their fans. They release their seventh full-length album next week for the US, although it first appeared a month ago with limited availability. The new 13-song set, whimsically titled Jiggery Pokery, features guest appearances by, among others, Ireland-born Tim Boland (engineer for Soul Coughing and The Commitments soundtrack) and Nothampton, UK’s The Jazz Butcher, aka Pat Fish, born Patrick Huntrods. Fish sings lead on album track What Is The Color Of Happiness, which, with its jangly guitars, romantically-feverish melodic line, and literary lyrical approach could for all the world be a lost Lloyd Cole song... with a denoument straight from Robyn Hitchcock And The Egyptians. Speaking of references, Jiggery Pokery is a virtual catalog of them. Lovestruck reminds me of The Church, Come Tomorrow could well be Pale Saints, the vocals on Westminster evoke John Cale (ex Velvet Underground), and Dear Abby’s instrumentation sounds a whole lot like Neil Young’s Down By The River. No doubt these connections are by design. The core of The Black Watch for the past 14 years has been Fredrick along with vocalist/multi-instrumentalist J’Anna Jacoby, who he met by chance when she was a lodger at the band’s practice house in LA’s Koreatown. On the new album Jacoby sings lovely harmony vocals (just enough to make me wish for a lot more) and plays violin, viola, percussion, and acoustic and electric guitars. The new set appears on tiny LA indie Stonegarden Records, and has been available for a month directly from the label and from a couple of other online outlets. Amazon starts selling it next week. And if you are a fan, the new LP is the only way you’ll get to hear The Black Watch for a while, as they recently cancelled their planned US fall tour. Courtly, rather cerebral, and by turns sedate and energetic, the new Black Watch album took a long time to grow on me. Fredrick’s baritone vocals can be, on first blush, a bit ponderous, and his words can occasionally come off as a bit stilted. But more often Fredrick’s lyrics are clever and thought-provoking; and the gorgeous melodies, heartfelt playing, and deep arrangements can overcome any obstacles to connecting with these songs. Sometimes, as on album track Bathyscope To Astronaut, this music can give you chills. If you were a fan of It’s A Beautiful Day, Stackridge, or The Big Dish, you’ll probably find your way into this album and your life will be brighter for it. Three bites out of five. Rockbites ratings 5: life changing, 4: stunning, 3: captivating, 2: amusing, 1: annoying. | The Black Watch | | The Black Watch on Stonegarden Records | | J'Anna Jacoby | | CD from Amazon US | | top of page | |
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