This is the third in a series of events - 'HIT & RUN' - curated by Israeli pianist Maya Dunietz for Café Oto throughout April and early May. 'Hit & Run' will feature musicians that she respects and admires covering a range of experimental and underground music.

This is the first in what we hope to be an ongoing series of events curated by international musicians.

THE REBEL

The Rebel is Ben Wallers. As a core component of The Country Teasers, Wallers has been releasing albums for more than a decade now, producing at a prolific pace, releasing records on a list of the three best record labels of the 90's, Crypt, Fat Possum, and In The Red.

Wallers's music is filled with complex contradictions that form a miraculous, seamless whole. Modernistic sounds peacefully share sonic space with rootsy Americana. By turns both approaching avante garde (without any of the pretention that implies) and openly accessible, Wallers's music can aurally mesh the most bombastic and overtly aggressive alongside nakedly sentimental, beautiful ballads. Lyrically it can go from offensive parodies of the worst quality of American white male to sincere sentiment, in the space of a few notes. It's quintessentially American, as interpreted by a native English child prodigy who can speak six languages.

Nowhere are the disparate elements more apparent than Ben's solo project, very aptly named The Rebel. The Country Teaser's swagger is toned down, into something quieter and far more unsettling. It's personal, unique, and idiosyncratic. It's mysterious in a way music rarely is.

"[THE REBEL]...comes from the Tony Hancock film of the same name wherein a pathetic miser goes to Paris and ends up inheriting his flatmate's paintings, which he passes off as his own work, becoming the darling of the Paris scene. Finally he runs out of these inherited works and has to produce his own, with hilarious results. The Paris scene of course love these monstrosities equally. (Subtext : they look to the layman like Cubistic Picassos). This is my approach to making art, and indeed being alive in general. I don't want people to get the idea i'm Without A Cause or rebelling against Whatever You've Got." --"THE REBEL"

“ I still think the Country Teasers are the greatest band in the world. No-ones touched them… They're fantastic, Ben's never written a bad song in his life. He's never written anything less than an absolutely amazing song. I think they're like the biggest secret in the world. They should be absolutely gigantic… I'd say that they should've changed music, but didn't cause not enough people heard them.” - John McKeown, The Yummy Fur, October 5 th , 2002.

"Ask Blur. Ask Pavement. Ask The A-Frames. Ask Franz Ferdinand. Ask Greg Cartwright. Ask Mick Collins. Trust the words of John McKeown, they will all tell you: Ben Wallers is a true original, and The Rebel is Ben's music at its most pure." - Monty Buckles, The Lamps

PERPETUUM DISCO


massive psycho disco fever
heart beat eastern winds
all the kids are dancing
watch out the floor
its's all on fire
come and feel the heat.

Perpetuumdisco.com

Photo: Yaki Dunietz