Don't leave me my wretched memory, Don't leave me now.

October 6, 2021 6:26 PM

The Jazz Butcher, Pat Fish has died. Born Patrick Huntrods in 1957, Pat Fish put out records under variations of The Jazz Butcher name since the mid-’80s. As the Jazz Butcher Conspiracy, he collaborated with David J, members of The Woodentops, Spacemen 3’s Sonic Boom, and of course, Max Eider. He was known as quick wit, a generous soul, and a fantastic songwriter. Fans are sharing memories over at jazzbutcher.com. Never heard of him? Links to some classics are below the fold. (Previously)

Bath in Bacon: Girls Who Keep Goldfish, Partytime
Scandal in Bohemia: Southern Mark Smith, Betty Page
The Roadrunner single: Rain, Drink
Distressed Gentlefolk: Still in the Kitchen, Angels
Fishcotheque: Living in a Village
Big Planet, Scary Planet: The Good Ones
A recent cover of the Replacements the Regular

And to close out the set: Roadrunner

posted by Otherwise (32 comments total)

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posted by Wobbuffet at 6:43 PM on October 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

If you’re a fan, new or old, take a good luck around jazzbutcher.com. The quantity (and quality!) of content on the site is really impressive, in an very old-web fashion. I stumbled upon the band in early pandemic (I think Spotify suggested them after noticing I’d been listening to nothing but TV Personalities and the Monochrome Set for weeks), and I don’t think a day’s gone by since without listening to A Scandal In Bohemia at least once. Pat’s going to be missed.
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 6:54 PM on October 6, 2021 [5 favorites]

All but two of the links seem to point to the same video...
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:56 PM on October 6, 2021

While the links await clean up, I’m going to add this: Marnie (Muscovite mix)
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 6:59 PM on October 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

Cult of the Basement on cassette, cycling round and round on my shitty Aiwa walkman until the capstan pinched it and pulled out its viscera. Going to go put on Turtle Bait right now just because.

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posted by phooky at 7:12 PM on October 6, 2021

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posted by djseafood at 7:21 PM on October 6, 2021

Caroline Wheeler's Birthday Present is one of the great songs of the 80s.
posted by ericthegardener at 7:24 PM on October 6, 2021 [7 favorites]

It might be the musical equivalent of shitposting but The Devil is My Friend was my introduction to Jazz Butcher and I go back to it every couple years because it's fun and catchy and stupid in just the right ways.
posted by ardgedee at 7:35 PM on October 6, 2021 [4 favorites]

Apologies - not sure what happened with the links. Trying again:
Girls who keep Goldfish
Partytime
Southern Mark Smith
Just like Betty Page
Rain
Drink
Still in the Kitchen
Angels
Living in a Village
The Good Ones
Here Comes a Regular
Roadrunner
posted by Otherwise at 7:36 PM on October 6, 2021 [3 favorites]

And apologies for the random YouTube link, but here's the only version of The Devil Is My Friend that I could find online.
posted by phooky at 7:43 PM on October 6, 2021

Argh, curse my slow fingers! I blame the devil. (That was my first intro to Jazz Butcher as well, ardgedee.)
posted by phooky at 7:51 PM on October 6, 2021

With Alan Moore (yes, that one): Trampling Tokyo.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:51 PM on October 6, 2021

Well, fuck.
posted by Capt. Renault at 8:03 PM on October 6, 2021

Mod note: Fixed up the post with the links from Otherwise's followup comment.
posted by cortex (staff) at 8:09 PM on October 6, 2021

I've always been fond of his answer to Bauhaus' classic Bela Lugosi's Dead, Peter Lorre.

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posted by Catblack at 8:39 PM on October 6, 2021 [4 favorites]

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posted by sammyo at 8:40 PM on October 6, 2021

This is terribly sad--the few quarantine livestreams I managed to catch (including one on New Years Eve) were lovely, and his voice and playing were in fine form, so this is a bit shocking. I just discovered that he has a 4-cd retrospective collection coming out in November, which can be preordered on Bandcamp.
posted by carrienation at 8:53 PM on October 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

Olof Palme
Human Jungle (live 1985)
Big Saturday
Groovin' In The Bus Lane
Drink
Sweet Jane (There's a version of Goldfish that leads this in, but I can't find it.)
Love Kittens
posted by Catblack at 10:19 PM on October 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

🐟
posted by lapolla at 10:36 PM on October 6, 2021 [2 favorites]

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posted by xil at 10:40 PM on October 6, 2021

oh, fuck.

Just legendary.

Here’s a silly ditty to play him out with: La Mer.
posted by progosk at 11:14 PM on October 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

"Human Jungle" is a personal favorite - I played many of his songs back in my DJ days and I'm very sad to learn he's gone.
posted by Joey Michaels at 11:32 PM on October 6, 2021

Don’t even know where to start - so many great songs that got stuck in my head 20 years ago and will never leave. There are a lot of us carrying little ripples of the man in our synapses, and I think he’d find this observation hilarious.

Susie somehow fits the best for me tonight. You can play those records again and again.
posted by xil at 1:09 AM on October 7, 2021

Been listening all day. My brother found the Jazz Butcher in the 80s ... since we are in canada it was likely via Brave New Waves or some such.
The quirky lyrics and jazzy mellow humourpus vibe have been part of my personal sound track ever since.
He will be missed.
posted by chapps at 1:29 AM on October 7, 2021

I bought Illuminate on impulse, in Japan, in the late '90s. I had no idea what I was buying. And yet that album has thoroughly wormed its way into my brain, and I've never been quite the same person since.

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posted by Faint of Butt at 3:57 AM on October 7, 2021

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posted by SonInLawOfSam at 8:38 AM on October 7, 2021

I first heard the Jazz Butcher as an early teen when a friend shoplifted a cassette of Bloody Nonsense from the mall record store. Apologies to Mr. Fish for that, but I do think our friend group more than made up for it over the years with buying later albums, concert tickets, and merch.

I was lucky enough to see him live a couple of times. The first was a week before my 18th birthday, and after the show one of my friends persuaded the drummer to trade t-shirts with him, my friend's "when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro" shirt for the drummer's not-available-on-the-merch-table tour shirt. A week later (after washing it) my friend gave the shirt to me as a birthday present. The next time was in 1999 at the Great American Music Hall in SF, after he and Max had reconciled. It was an amazing show.

Somewhere around here I have an autographed cassette tape on which he wrote "[Lex]: Does it, though? –Pat Fish" I wish I remembered what we had been chatting about to prompt him to write that.
posted by Lexica at 1:10 PM on October 7, 2021

The single version of Southern Mark Smith is the version to which we bounced around and sung along.
posted by whuppy at 4:36 PM on October 7, 2021

Fuck, I heard this by text yesterday and am just finding time to process it. I feel very lucky to have been exposed to Pat Fish when I needed him most. Alas.
posted by aspersioncast at 7:30 PM on October 7, 2021

This really stung—my wife introduced me to The Jazz Butcher when we were in an LDR and trading tapes through the mail. “Caroline Wheeler’s Birthday Present” is a favorite of ours. (Not sure WHAT it is, but it is big.)

While looking for an example to post yesterday, found this live performance of Party Time that made me regret never seeing him live. Just lovely.
posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 8:28 PM on October 7, 2021

Since we seem to have plenty of his old songs covered, I have to point out how good his new stuff is, and to post a few examples:

Here's one song off the last album he recorded, which is yet to be released; the opening lines ("My hair’s all wrong. My time ain’t long./Fishy go to heaven, get along, get along.") are a bit painful to hear now, but the song is top-notch.

Here's a video of a new song that was one of my favorite from his livestreams--really lovely, a yearning ballad unlike most of what he's known for.

Speaking of which, here's one of his full livestreams (Facebook link, sorry), if you missed out and are curious.
posted by carrienation at 9:29 PM on October 7, 2021 [1 favorite]

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posted by halliburtron at 11:21 AM on October 8, 2021