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From 1999 - 2004, Croydon brothers Ben and Adam Parker made music as Tempertwig, with bassist Daniel Denbono. The duo would eventually go on to start another short-lived project known as Nosferatu D2 a few years later, and then The Superman Revenge Squad Band.
But, unlike Nosferatu D2’s only release, which was well received and garnered a cult-like following, Tempertwig didn’t have any official releases. During their brief and relatively quiet stint, the group ended up with a collection unreleased recordings. The band has amassed a small following during their active years, and even being praised by BBC radio host, Steve Lamacq as “Jarvis Cocker fronting Dinosaur Jr.”. These recordings have formed the band’s only release, a compilation titled: Fake Nostalgia: An Anthology of Broken Stuff. Fake Nostalgia’s release is a tag-team effort by both Audio Antihero and newly formed label, Randy Sadage. With remastering done by musician Benjamin Shaw, 11 songs have been dusted off and polished for the compilation.
Tempertwig @ The Garage 2001 via Rattail.net
With these songs, Tempertwig easily make their case for lost cult heroes that never gotten their due. No doubt these songs may sound familiar, maybe even a blueprint for bands like Life Without Buildings and Los Campesinos!, whom the Parkers have opened for as Nosferatu D2. Tracks like “This Means Everything, This Don’t Mean A Thing” and “Films Without Plotlines” exude melancholic angst that hasn’t been reproduced with the same bite and authenticity. Angled hooks, mathematical elasticity, and unbridled ferocity, the Parker brothers are the lost pioneers of the indie-emo scene. Twinkling pensive guitars with steady rhythms on tracks like “Everything Can Be Derail” feel reassuring until everything falls apart and the singing Parker goes berserk with his doubled down mantras.
Unspoiled by any sort of “high end” recording equipment, these songs are raw but immediate. Yet, they’re laced with the nuanced complexities of makes bands like Mogwai. On “Bratpack Film Philosophy” Parker’s baritone glides with ease over the unpaved tempo and stormy instrumentation. Veering into art-rock, the track is riddled with frequent tempo changes and dissonant harmonics. The trio is at their most aggressive on tracks like “Kitchen Stereo”, and “Apricot” with noted lines like “get your face off the radio you’re no Marvin Gaye she said”.
Tempertwig @ The Garage 2001 via Rattail.net
Parker himself exudes a magnetism with his jagged baritone, resembling a figure that’d be one part Nick Cave and one part Mark E. Smith but with the talk-sung singing style of Sue Tompkins (Life Without Buildings). Lyrically, Parker douses these tracks with intimate detail and heavy reflection. On tracks like “Supersad”, Parker recalls an end to a relationship and some internal wrestling:
The voice inside my head
Could just be static one day stuck on a dictaphone
I’ve got a British museum
I’ve got futuristic tourists laughing at my accent
If they pressed the fast forward am I sounding like I’m happy?
While Parker delivers intense narratives, he still manages to slip in pop culture references such as U2 (“this isn’t U2 and a song about you and your girlfriend getting back together this isn’t the Joshua Tree”), Joy Division (“why is the bedroom so cold tonight, etc, etc”) and Bon Jovi.
Tempertwig wasn’t where the Parker brothers ended, but where they started. Fake Nostalgia is a record of what was and wasn’t known. Without the added context of Tempertwig’s reach back in the early aughts, it wouldn’t be wrong to assume that the band had a larger fingerprint on current day guitar-oriented music. These 11 songs don’t feel like rediscovered relics, but more material that’s been with us all along.
Fake Nostalgia: An Anthology of Broken Stuff is out on March 29 in various formats from Audio Antihero and Randy Sadage.
Cereal Pairing: Corn Flakes