Media reviews of latest album The Buckfever Underground SAVES:

Sunday Times January 2008
By Steven van Hemert (rating: 3 stars)

With soundscapes as bleak as the Karoo farmstead frontman Toast Coetzer calls home, The Buckfever Underground release their first full-length album after almost a decade of sporadic live appearances and EPs. Musically, this is BU’s most refined effort, reminiscent of bands such as Arab Strap and early God Speed You Black Emperor. Toast’s spoken lyrics are cynical, drearily irreverent lamentations on living in South Africa, and for that alone this record is worth a listen.

24.com November 2007

Buckfever Underground - Saves
Label: Independent, 2007
We gave it: ***** (5 stars)

The appeal of Saves is not only the inspired, inventive, poetic and absurd lyricism of Toast Coetzer's words. They're underpinned by some absolutely apposite music, supplied by musicians playing what a more jargon-driven reviewer would probably call post-rock, but which is really just some fine and thoughtful instrumental music. Buckfever's musicians have all put in the hard bars on other projects, notably Righard Kapp, "the attention deficit-disorderd savant of the abstract guitar" as our Music editor describes him, and John Savage of Cassette.

For some reason, iTunes classifies Buckfever's music generically as Brazilian. Possibly because it nakedly exposes the crazy, smelly beauty that is South Africa, but more likely because there are some great thongs on the record.

"I want to die on a Tuesday afternoon" is one of the inspired rants of rock 'n roll, in the spirit of Shellac's "Prayer to God", with the same menacing sense of humour. "I want to die, I want to die," sings (or chants, I suppose) Toast Coetzer, "I want to die without a wife, or at least without one that didn't love me back, so I can be free of all the mourning, the bitterness and the black, all the tears & kak."

"I want to die without a wife, or at least without one that didn't love me back"It begins as standard melodrama, but the song devolves into a paean of absurdity, with the narrator becoming increasing worried about the timing of his suicide, preferring to die at a time of the year when he won't lose so much on his DSTV and Die Burger subscriptions, and without causing too much hassle to the people who have to clean up.

I could go on quoting Coetzer's lyrics, and that alone would sell Saves to you. "Prys die here god vir blowjobs, jubel sy naam vir email" ("Praise god for blowjobs, exalt his name for email") probably best gives a sense of the album. The mashup of old school religious mythology, perennial desire and the language of hypermodernity permeates the album, creating one of the finest, most coherent musical offerings of the year. - Chris Roper

Saves also made it into their Top 10 albums of 2007, at no 3 nogals, beating out, you know, Bjork, The Arcade Fire and Common. See the whole list here.

Woodstock Slim, also known as DJ MygarageissofullIcantevegetmycarin, also known as Clive E Smith, also writer, also DJ on Bush Radio, thinks this of Saves:

I've never not loved this band but I must admit my favorite person in the band is Stephen Timm. I believe it was him that attracted me to band in the first place. Timm plays the drums with an avante garde stylee, like a deranged Bonham. The rest of the band hit me two songs in.
...back to Saves. Saves has a few guest musicians on it this time and the trio seems to have broadened out a bit from the very stripped first album. It works great and their sound is not smothered or compromised at all. Toast keeps it going as usual with his beat poetry/spoken word in both languages and does them both justice. The tracks that will call great attention to this album will be the English track, "I want to die on a Tuesday afternoon" and the Afrikaans track, "Psalms en Gesange" between those two tracks you should find the message of Saves. It's all there. Punk, Reggae, psychedelic rock and Buckfever.
Toast continues to paint grand vistas of landscapes and often people, situations and origins of man, his soul, his truth and things you never knew could be within your grasp. Trying to predict his next line is damned near impossible. I will share no examples. You have to eat Toast by yourself and realise the power of his words ripping through you like a rabbit punch and in the very next line delivered directly to the lonely person so deep inside you it leaves you perplexed trying to figure how he spoke to you so deeply. While Gill colors the skies with the chalky vibrations from his infectious bass guitar. Gill Hockman shows a uniqueness and intent with his Bass I have not heard since I bought my 1st Quatermass album. John Gustafson lead the band through the 70's without a guitarist. I loved this. It is as powerful as all the albums of all the rock greats that was to follow their 1970 debut. Quatermass made my short list of best album of the 70's. It shows no transition between the 60's and the 70's and neither does The Buckfever Underground with Saves. It was made timeless and it could well fit into any of the last three decades. Easily! Anywhere.

Check out his website for other fun things: http://woodstockslim.googlepages.com/

Empire November 2007

PRYS DIE HERE GOD VIR BLOWJOBS!
The Buckfever Underground Saves
By Fred de Vries

It took The Buckfever Underground nine years to come up with a classic album. With Saves they can now join the canon of great idiosyncratic South African music that stretches from Koos Kombuis’s Niemandsland via Lesego Rampolokeng, Kalahari Surfers and Felix Laband to Benguela.
Dominated by bleak soundscapes, desolate piano and largely spoken English and Afrikaans lyrics, Saves has an uncomfortable edge to it; fragile and exquisite, like a William Kentridge painting or a Diane Arbus photograph. But there’s enough humour, blasphemy and wordplay to keep the razorblades in the drawer.
Take Psalms en Gesange with its highly unusual chorus of “prys die here god vir blowjobs, jubel sy naam vir email”. The song kicks off with doomy bass tones. But the impending dread is cleverly negated by cheesy keyboards and off-beat drums, which push the song towards awkward reggae. Then vocalist Toast Coetzer grabs the mike, and like a gothic dominee from Heilbron neatly sums up all the things we have to be grateful for: “lugpos, padkos, manna in die honger, ’n lig in die chaos, nes Mohamed, Buddha, Mao, Mandela, Rudi Koertzen”. And that’s only the first verse, still many subjects to go until we reach that moment of detached release.
There are references to the white laagers, broken promises and our friends who’ve chosen to live overseas. “Die son verdwyn en ons braai oor ’n droom/ Uit die huis speel die tunes van ’n CD-ROM/ en ons dink aan ons vriende in die strate van London, Toronto, Seoul, Sydney.”
If ever an album managed to reflect these uncertain times, it’s Saves. Or more appropriate: this is a continuation of J.M. Coetzee’s Life and Times of Michael K and Karel Schoeman’s The Promised Land; a journey through a world under siege, where people roam around in convoys after towns and villages have been deserted.
This is a very South African album. Its Southafricaness is hidden in words and phrases like skollies, laager, tannies, bergies, stronk, kak. It’s in the melancholic sounds that conjure up images of an icy sea, dusty towns, sad liquor stores and endless drives through the highveld past veldfires and squatter camps. There’s a touch of kitsch that refers to the faux Tuscan gated communities. It’s imbedded in the subconscious use of kinderliedjies, nature books and political speeches.
Save is the product of an autonomous band that cares very little about fame or airplay. The songs only vaguely resemble pop tunes. There are riffs and chords and rhythms - even the occasional violin, French horn and vocal harmony. But lacking production gloss, the pieces have a visceral quality, as if you can grab, squeeze and twist their various components as if the were muscles or strands of hair.
And towering above this abstract architecture of sound is Toast Coetzer. Toast the cynic, Toast the melancholic, Toast the preacher, Toast the observer, Toast the brave, Toast the traveller, Toast the coward, Toast the lover, Toast the poet.
The eleven songs take less than fifty minutes, which is exactly right for a ‘pop’ cd. There’s no time for boredom, there are no fillers. The Buckfevers understand issues like sequence. As a whole, the album has an immaculate narrative, maintaining the suspense from the first roll of the snare to the fading guitar chords.
If all the songs were just soundscapes and parlando (like the previous two albums) it wouldn’t have worked. But this time the Buckfevers give us the much needed relief. We have Psalms & Gesange with its blowjob chorus. Lewenslied starts with some gentle harmonies and has Toast actually singing, in a shaky Bonny Prince Billy kinda way.
And then there is the third trump card. I Want To Do Die On A Tuesday Afternoon features a screaming Toast, begging for some kind of release, lost between cynicism and despair, as if God has withheld him his blowjob for too long. Guitars drown in feedback, the bass rumbles in two chord punk rock fashion, and Toast yells that he wants to die. Preferably on a Tuesday afternoon, without a wife – “or at least without one that doesn’t love me.”
And eventually the chilling joke is on us. “i want to die wearing these same shoes/ & my favourite t-shirt too/ i don’t wanna kill myself/ i’d rather let someone else/ 20,000 people can’t be wrong.”

Fred also put us at no. 9 in his Top 10 albums of 2007:

9) BUCKFEVER UNDERGROUND – SAVES
Fave Track: Psalme en Gesange.
By far the best South African album of the year. Great poetic lyrics, controlled playing, idiosyncratic. Excellent, but for the crappy arty cover.

Visit http://freddevries.co.za for more of Fred's writing.

levi.co.za November 2007

The Buckfever Underground - Saves
Jon Monsoon - 12 Oct 2007, 02:18
Editor rating: Seven

When it comes to best kept secrets in local music - The Buckfever Underground is perhaps Cape Town’s…er…best kept secret! Two years and some after actually completing this – their first full length album – it sees the light of day, and we are all so happy that we all shout yay! Y’see TBFU is the type of band that one just doesn’t get to hear all that often. They inhabit this mythical position of a great South African band, that only select few people will ever have seen live. To get them you would have to own or at least track down (good luck!) one of their two other previous releases (Survival Is Personal and the live album Trying To Do Something About This Goddamn Terrible Bleak Winter.) Saves then brings us eleven bits of underground spoken word and twisted musicality from the band comprising renowned poet, scribe and photo guy Toast Coetzer, Gilad Hockman, Jon Savage, Stephen Timm and Righard Kapp – all accomplished musos in their own rights but all of whom somehow feel most at home (we believe) in Buckfever. And right at home is where this album certainly belongs, glued to the inside of your hi-fi where it will be subject to repeat listening because that is the only way to capture the magic of this truly inspiring South African album that stands alone in its sheer inventiveness and scope. As a South African it is your duty to ensure that your music collection has this album in it. It is that good!

The Weekender 29 September 2007

Toast Coezter is one of our country’s finest travel writers. In his band Buckfever Underground, he has one of the best vehicles to mumble Breyten-Breytenbach-like sound-poems, half in Afrikaans, half in English, accompanied on BU’s first full-length album, Saves (self-released), by a bassist who sounds like Peter Hook circa Joy Division, a guitarist reminding me of Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, a meandering organ like Jerry Harrison’s in the Modern Lovers and a drummer reminiscent of Velvet Underground’s Moe Tucker. This is truly original, experimental art rock that gives Bok van Blerk stereotypes about Afrikaans music the snotklap it deserves. – Charles Leonard.

We made Charles's enormous Top 100 list for the year 2007 - here it is.

jhblive.com October 2007

Artist: The Buckfever Underground
Album: Saves
The long awaited first full album from Cape Town's secret masters of no genre is finally here! I say finally only because 'Saves' was officially ready for release back in October 2005. Has it been worth the wait? Is Michael Jackson (who?) weird? Is Celine Dion the Anti-Christ? Hell yes! And whilst the music on Saves thankfully comes close to neither, it does approach serious cult status; another giant leap forward in the group's timely development. Over all 11 tracks, legend poet/lyricist Toast Coetzer's ponderous, melancholy, humorous and by turns dark lyrics cut deeply observant of our times and drip unholy truths that only repeated listens will reveal. And that seems to be the secret to 'getting' this album: repeated listens, as there is far too much going on beneath each track to absorb immediately; remember: this is anti-pop music, this is music to ride thunderstorms to, music to stitch wounds to, music as expansive as the Karroo and as limited as your ability to listen or to dream. If you are out there feeling lost, remember: The Buckfever Underground Saves! "sprei my oop met jou skerp mes." File under: Important South African release. - Jon Monsoon.

SL Magazine October 2007

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% - Daniel Freedman.

Blunt Magazine October 2007

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. – Craig McKune.

Beeld 11 September 2007 - The Buckfever het ’n plan, deur Danie Marais

(4 star rating)

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.

Ek het vir Toast Coetzer, die bekende reisjoernalis, fotograaf en sanger-sêer-liriekskrywer van die groep ‘n paar vrae oor die Buckfever gestel.

Is dit waar dat hierdie album al eintlik twee jaar gelede opgeneem is en indien ja, hoekom het dit so lank gevat om klaar te maak?

Dis waar, die album is in Julie 2005 opgeneem binne bestek van 3 dae (die langste van enige van ons recording sessions tot dusver). Die res het 2 jaar gevat omdat ons almal besig was met ander dinge, omdat ons slapgat is, omdat niemand werklik in charge is nie, omdat ons gedink het dit sal sommer net gebeur en toe het dit nie en weens verskeie miskommunikasies. Die recording was effortless, maar daarna het eers Gil en Stephen, toe Paul Ressel en toe nog iemand in Joburg daarmee getorring – mixing en goed. En die CD het lank by almal gelê. Daar was missing tracks en lost mixes en baie sad weke waarin bloot niks gebeur het nie want daar was Cricket World Cup op die TV.

Ek neem aan ’n Buckfever-snit begin met jou lirieke wat daarna geïnterpreteer word deur die groep. Is dit so, of sit ek die pot heeltemal mis?

Jy sit die pot mis. Die band couldn’t give a dam about the lyrics, aan die begin. Die band speel wat hulle wil en ek besluit dan watter stel lirieke moontlik daarby sal pas. Die proses werk rofweg dieselfde in die studio en in die live-opset. Ek het geen sê in die musiek nie, want ek verstaan nie hoe dit werk nie. Ek is onmusikaal.

“Lewenslied” het ’n baie mooi melodie, maar dit klink of jou voordrag/praatsang doelbewus daarteen indruis. Hoekom het julle op hierdie effek besluiit?

I’m afraid it’s my best attempt at singing … Die melodie was mooi, en ek het mooi probeer sing. Ons noem dit ons Coldplay-nommertjie en hoop en glo dit sal nommer een op Jakaranda bereik. Die effek is dus per abuis.

Die Buckfever Underground se musiek pas nie rêrig in enige genre nie en die album sal waarskynlik nie veel op die radio gespeel word nie. Pla dit jou of is die Buckfever Underground gewoon nie ’n groep met enige kommersiële ambisies nie?

Dit pla ons min dat ons nie 100 000 copies gaan verkoop nie. Ons het ons supporters in radio ook – SAFM (Richard Haslop), RSG (Johan Botha), Radio 2000 en Tuks FM is nie skaam om ons musiek te speel nie. Enkele van ons videos draai ook op MK89, wat ons baie goeie blootstelling gee. Ek dink ons het ambisie: Ons wil nog vir lank musiek maak wat ons boei sowel as die sowat 1000 mense wat oor die bestek van 5 jaar eventually ons albums almal opkoop. Dit sal gaaf wees om eendag byvoorbeeld oorsee te gaan speel by die odd festival of wat. Ons is ‘n novelty band, maar ek dink hoe groter en dieper jou recorded record word, hoe dieper spore trap jy eventually. Eventually.

As jy vir iemand in een sin moes verduidelik wat die Buckfever Underground se visie en missie is, wat sou jy sê?

Mmm. Ons het altyd goed gesê soos: Om teen vieruur vanmiddag met ‘n koue bier in die hand te sit. Dit sê ons nog steeds. Die lewe is kort. Ons missie is moontlik om vir lank te bestaan as ‘n band/ konsep, en om so veel as moontlik musiek/ projekte die lig te laat sien, want ons geniet dit en ons weet daar’s ‘n paar mense wat dit saam met ons geniet. Ons missie is om musiek/ dinge te skep wat oor vyftig jaar nog genot kan verskaf, om soveel as moontlik van die huidige tydstroom te dokumenteer op maniere wat dalk deur ander onderbenut word

Beplan jy om jou Buckfever-lirieke te bundel?

Ja, dis een van die projekte in ons planne vir die volgende paar jaar. Ons sal dit onder Paul Wessels se Substance Books uitbring. Die band is volgende jaar 10 jaar oud, so ‘n decade retrospective klink in orde, want daar is honderde bladsye lirieke, goed wat dalk nooit ‘n album sal haal nie, maar wel deel is of was van ons live repertoire. ‘n Song soos ‘Vuyani Bungu Rocks’ byvoorbeeld sal nooit opgeneem word nie, maar drie ouens onthou dit dalk sedert ons dae as studente in Grahamstad.

Is daar vir jou enige noemenswaardige verskille tussen poësie en lirieke?

Ek beskou die terms ‘digter’ en ‘poësie’ as komplimente. Ek skryf. Dit is skryfwerk. Dit is vir die persoon wat dit lees om te besluit of dit poësie is of nie, en of die skrywer daarvan die titel ‘digter’ waardig is. Dit word lirieke wanneer daar musiek by is. Ek skryf selde iets wat in my kop klink na ‘n liedjie – dit het ritme wel, ja, dit kan ek hoor – maar ek val net weg. Dit word wat dit word, en die wat dit beskou of aanhoor kan dit noem wat hulle wil. Dit is dus woorde.