Proggy blues-punk outfit returns with fourth full-length album
“Do you want some? Come get some!”
Quartjar is back.
The legendary Knoxville-based purveyors of heavy psychedelic prog and punk-blues have been tearing it up on the local scene for a long time – “at the breakneck pace of four albums in 16 years,” as frontman Randall Brown jokes.
Over the course of releasing “Year of the Monkey” (2007), “42” (2011), “Squatch” (2017), EPs “Summer Groove Hits” (2018) and “The Money Shot” (2020) and the brand-new album “Life’s Not Pretty, the group has worked with great local studios like The Arbor before transitioning to self-recording.
“Want Some, Get Some,” the riff-rocker with the aforementioned lines that’s heavy on defiantly joyful attitude, is the first lyrical contribution to “Life’s Not Pretty” but is actually the second track on the album, which opens with an archival recording of a 1978 Knoxville Civic Coliseum crowd losing its biscuits before an act comes onstage. The effect makes the first real song blast out of the gates much like “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” does to truly kick off the eponymous concept album by The Beatles.
Quartjar is helmed by longtime Knoxville writer Brown (“Downtown Randall Brown” during his time at the News Sentinel, now the public-relations specialist for the University of Tennessee’s Tickle College of Engineering) and punctuated by the heavy-hitting, anarchic rhythms of sound engineer Torey Flenniken and deep bass frequencies from the depths of the underworld emanating from Malcolm Norman, a tall, long-haired force of nature.
“At this point, we’ve got a pretty solid vibe,” Brown says.
Brown says Flenniken and Norman already had an “invisible language” from their years of playing in local metal bands, and “they have kept that fandom up over the years,” liberally spreading the heaviness throughout Quartjar’s music. Brown says Flenniken is the most likely to rock Zappa-style riffs while Norman is a purveyor of prog and classic metal. Brown himself loves indie-punk like that of Butthole Surfers, although fused together, the trio’s music comes across as the freeform, psychedelic, prog-blues of an artist like Captain Beefheart, which is completely accidental, Brown says, as he’d not begun really listening to that project until several years into Quartjar’s time together.
While working at Disc Exchange, Brown played in various bands around town during the ‘90s. Eventually, he formed a band with an original lineup and an original idea that he was ready to present: the Randall Brown Quartet. But like with so many great moments in art and music history, an accidental typo of “Quartet” to “Quartjar” gave the group an evocative label under which to unite.
In 2007 the band released its debut record “Year of the Monkey,” and the current lineup congealed around 2010. The first run of Quartjar was its most prominent activity, as it graduated to playing esteemed venues like the Bijou Theatre in downtown Knoxville and The Shed in Maryville.
“We’ve maintained it for 13 years,” Brown says proudly of the ensemble. Members have even factored the band into their real-estate decisions, Brown says, so as to ensure that new living spaces are outfitted with proper basements where the ‘Jar may peaceably assemble.
Moving back to the new LP, “Beautiful Disaster” beckons “boys and girls” – or innocents, the unsuspecting or the uninitiated – to jump into the freakish, rattling circus ride called life with its heavy walls of cascading power chords and distorted minor riffs before a long, jaunty instrumental that feels like a wild ride at a carnival commences.
“Temporary Armageddon” (the first single, now in rotation on WUTK) features perhaps the funkiest, most fun riff in Quartjar history which is occasionally interrupted by Brown’s intentionally psychotic and cartoonish radio voice. The effect sounds like some apocalyptic Southern preacher manning the mic at a rural radio station as things get really weird and sirens ascend over hard breakdowns.
“Flew West” is a rare gentle, acoustic track for the group that contains beautiful fingerpicking and gentle layers which provide a nice aural valley before more wildness ensues. “End-Times Tango” is exactly what it sounds like and a heck of a lot of fun with Spanish guitar/tango rhythms blended into the prog-rock.
“Logic vs. Reality” has a very unique prog intro with counter riffs carrying on a conversation through pedals, each tuned to the maximum weirdness level. A consistent, persistent synth or guitar part, frenetically cycling, argues with meandering lead riffs seemingly having no destination, and it all sounds like what the title describes: an argument in a person’s brain between those two inputs.
“Once the Smoke Clears,” like the rest of the album so far, appears to be a comedown from the two previous tracks. Clean electric instrumental fingerpicking extends for a half-minute or so, serving as a sonic palette cleanser, and ending with some jokey in-studio dialogue between the members. The album’s title track features some nice tongue-in-cheek blues shuffling with a bit of Sex Pistols-style punk feel in the choruses, with Brown dropping breezy lyrics like “There ain’t no trouble/when you’re sipping on a double/up on the lido deck.”
Closer “Hotblack Rises From the Grave” is a strong classic-rock/epic/horror/sci-fi character-study tune that ends the album in style. Like the title of Quartjar’s second album “42,” it’s a reference to “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” the collective favorite novel of its members. In it, Brown says, he’s imagining a rock show at the end of the world, much like one at the restaurant detailed in one of the series’ sequels.
Front to back, “Life’s Not Pretty” is a quirky yet richly rewarding listen. Anyone who likes any form of fun rock ‘n’ roll should give it a listen. The album is available for streaming and download on most major platforms.
