Party Gator Purgatory

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Of the new challenges posed by his Temps era, he adds: “I’d never made an album from scratch that didn’t exist yet – recording it and writing it at the same time – and I’d never produced anything before, or mixed something as intensely as this one. There’s a lot of new things – if I had been doing it on my own, I don’t know how long I would have lasted.” I was doing bands when I was a teenager into my early 20s, and I was like, ‘This is gonna be my entire life, all I’m gonna do is music,’” Acaster remembers. “When the band split up I started doing stand-up as a placeholder, and then I fell in love with stand-up and got really obsessed with that.” The plan had been for the original Party Gator to feature in the music videos but, shortly after the drum sessions, it was donated to a local school who then unceremoniously dumped it in a skip (Acaster’s still not over this). So a replica mascot outfit was made to James’ proportions and a series of low budget videos were filmed (by the iconic Turtle Canyon), consisting of the character running through theme parks, dancing in row boats and trashing hotel rooms, while Acaster gave himself heatstroke and a brief bout of labyrinthitis. Paste: I’m truly fascinated by this project, because it’s not just “Oh, James Acaster the comedian is making music.” No, you’ve assembled this huge team of incredible musicians. Talk to me about how that came to be.

I think it really helped that Seb had put his drums down initially. I was asking people if they wanted to contribute, thinking in my head, Are they going to say no because it’s this stand-up comedian asking them? Forgetting that these amazing musicians were already on it who had done such an incredible job. Well, it’s so hard because, obviously, the heavyweights of that year are deeply personal albums to me. But now, [ PARTY GATOR PURGATORY] is a deeply personal album to me that will fit in a space that very few things do, beause it’s not only an album I was involved in; it’s an album where all of the things on it that are incredible to me are done by other people. I still dont’ know how it was made. I know what I did, but I don’t know how they wrote any of their parts. I can’t fathom it, so it still holds that magic to me of an album written by somebody else and made by somebody else. It’s such a unique experience, but I certainly wouldn’t be releasing it and putting it out into the world if I didn’t think it could go toe-to-toe with the heavyweights of 2016. Did you get to see any of their reactions when they realized that these really deep, meaningful songs that they had been making were also unintentionally about the party gator? Although many people might have first seen Acaster on either TV, on stage without instruments, or in a dark room in an Edinburgh Fringe theatre venue trying out comedy material, the 38-year-old actually cut his performing teeth playing in bands during his adolescence. Temps, then, is actually something of a creative homecoming for him.Consider Brian May and Cox: both began as ambitious physicists who went on to contribute to wildly successful bands (Queen and Dare, respectively). Or actors, for example; Game of Throne’s Iwan Rheon has an impressive musical catalogue – as does Harry Potter’s Tom Felton. However, despite his number of books that illustrate his lifelong love and involvement in music, from childhood bands to penning a novel detailing every good release of that year, I don’t think anyone quite expected renowned comedian James Acaster’s next move to be this. this is the most, and in all honesty, the only, experimental album i've listened to. i've never been too heavily into experimental, unless bjork counts, i suppose. even then i've only ever properly listened to her early work. but it was an eye opener in a way. it's a genre i probably would have never explored if it weren't for james acaster's involvement. and he is the man in my pfp, so who am i to not ensure my first review in two months is his? I was revisiting the “no,no” video, and someone had commented that 2016 is no longer the greatest year of all time for music. Where does PARTY GATOR PURGATORY rank among the heavyweight albums released in 2016 for you? Goods that are faulty or sent in error must be returned to Crash Records Limited, 35 The Headrow, Leeds, LS1 6PU within 7 working days of the item being received by the customer.

with this project,” states Acaster as he hand-draws the album’s artwork himself, using a trio of highlighter pens, “it was all I focussed on for two years and we ended up making my favourite thing ever. I hope people enjoy it.” Latitude is thrilled to announce that Tim Burgess will host his lauded ‘Listening Party’ live from the festival in celebration of Temp’s debut album PARTY GATOR PURGATORY. Temps, a 40-strong international music collective devised, curated and produced by celebrated comedian James Acaster will release their much-anticipated debut album on 19th May. You can’t talk about James Acaster’s involvement in Temps without talking about the Party Gator. Think of it like the animated members of Gorillaz – muse, artist and inspiration all at once, without which the music just can’t live. Party Gator’s life defines the album in three stages – Party Gator RIP, Purgatory and Resurrection. It all aligns with Acaster’s very first and now present-day ambition for Temps: “It was just the idea that a comedian would take stupid stuff really seriously.” No jokes here: Party Gator is forever.For the cameras, I was making up this narrative with the party gator because I’d had it, I had to give it away and now we’re reunited. The album was gonna be in three sections: It’s “partygatorR.I.P.,” “partygatorpurgatory” and “partygatorresurrection.” That reperesnets the three life stages of the party gator. I was just improvising and trying to sound dumb and silly—but then, when you find yourself actually making an album and it’s real, you go: “Well, let’s draw from the actual creative starting point that we already have here, which is this.” Alongside being a co-host for the mega-chart-topping podcast, Off Menu, Acaster, hosts the Perfect Sounds podcast, showcasing music from 2016, and played drums in the bands The Wow! Scenario and the Capri-Sun Quartet before finding fame as a stand-up.

Vast in scope and scale, and fizzing with an experimental energy, the trippy PARTY GATOR PURGATORY manages to blend a host of ideas, guests and moods into an album that draws you into its own unique world. Vast in scope and scale, and fizzing with an experimental energy, the trippy PARTY GATOR PURGATORY manages to blend a host of ideas, guests and moods into an album that draws you into its own unique world. “I became completely obsessed I was surprised at how seriously the musicians took it. The last song on the album, “slowreturn,” with Shamir and Yoni Wolf, is pretty emotional. Then I was in a hardcore band—very short, hardcore punk songs; listening to a lot of Minor Threat and Nerve Agents. And we sounded very much like that gothic side of hardcore. Maybe then, a post-hardcore band. Obviously, that’s the next natural evolution. You discover time signatures and melody, so you start writing those kinds of songs, listening to At the Drive-In all time. There are unexpectedly moving moments of shared sentiment between different vocalists, particularly around narratives of mental health and vulnerability. Quelle Chris’ claim in ‘At(moves)’, “I just need a safe place to store my mind” chimes with the exhausted, uneasy tone of Yoni Wolf’s feature in ‘Slowreturn’: “I’m just one guy / Each day I try / If sometimes I’m fried / I don’t try.”Temps’ debut album ‘PARTY GATOR PURGATORY’, out on May 19, features an impressive list of collaborators, but there’s one artist at the heart of it who led by example. “Shamir was the first person I worked with on it who did say to me, ‘Tell me exactly what you want and I’ll do that,’” says Acaster. “Just going, ‘Do what you like’ is not always the most freeing thing for people. It gives people so many options.” By the end, the main thing it taught me was to approach my live shows — and this’ll sound like a negative, but it’s actually been very positive — as what they are, as my job. I’m going to work, and this is my job, so let’s go out there and work hard and do the job properly. Rather than how I used to be, which is, I would tell myself, This is going to be fun. That meant that I would then get blindsided if it was a bit of a quieter audience, or if it was a rowdy audience, or if it wasn’t exactly how I had in my head of what my idea of fun is. Letting the audience just do whatever they want and focusing on what I can control, which is me, has made it much easier. There’s probably still some more lessons to learn, I imagine. Calling on everyone from NNAMDÏ to Open Mike Eagle to Shamir to Joana Gomilla to Deerhoof’s John Dieterich, Acaster has formed a superteam of inquisitive wordsmiths and cosmic shredders. He’s become the coolest DJ in the world, and no song on the album arrives the same—which elevates the mythology around the project altogether. Many months have passed since Acaster completed PARTY GATOR PURGATORY, and he still doesn’t know how so many musicians he adores, respects and pulls influence from wound up on his own project—one that is set to propel him even further into his return to music, drumming and songwriting. Above all else though, Party Gator Purgatory is a tremendous amount of fun. Acaster’s production and curation contributes to a sprightly, playful character throughout, and it’s full of absurd humour. ‘Partygatorresurrection’ closes with a string of non-sequiturs from rapper and comedian Open Mike Eagle: “I’m rolling up like a Metroid ball! / I like to dance like I’m eight feet tall!… My new OS is installed!”

For me, I only want to put something out there if it has the potential to be someone’s favorite album. And I feel that way about this. When it connects with the right people, I think it’s really going to connect. And I’m excited about that. It’s nice to be able to say that with no real arrogance because, again, I don’t really know how it happened. I just know that the musicians on it are my favorite musicians in the world. They’re all my heroes, and I’m so grateful to them for giving their time and doing this. Let’s see if we can make this the best year for music of all-time. There’s already been some pretty brilliant albums. I’m personally really in love with the work that Shamir, NNAMDÏ, and Open Mike Eagle do. Especially NNAMDÏ. He’s one of my favorite working musicians. How did you discover these artists? Did you seek them out for the collective, or did you know them from your podcast? Talking about working with Acaster, Shamir said, “ Working with James Acaster on music was funny because the time signatures he had us singing on… I for one was challenged but it was so fun! An evil genius I fear!” I discovered James Acaster’s stand-up comedy many moons ago—sometime pre-pandemic—on Netflix, when he released the four-part serial Repertoire on the streaming titan. Two years later, his most-recent special Cold Lasagne Hate Myself 1999 cemented him as a household name. Around that time, he wound up on The Great British Bake Off and became a meme that still echoes across social media in 2023. But the truth is, Acaster is one of the world’s greatest comedians, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the industry’s very best—and often surpassing them. His delivery is gut-busting; his ability to create some of the cleverest punchlines is one-in-a-million. To celebrate the release of Temps debut album, Tim Burgess is bringing his famed Listening Party live to Latitude, where James Acaster will share stories and music from the new Temps album with the Latitude audience. James Acaster said, “ ‘After years of me listening to Tim’s music I’m jazzed about swapping roles and seeing what he makes of Temps”.Yeah, we’re talking about it. It would be so hard to organize a live show, but if there was a demand for it, then I would try and figure that out. I think it would have to be a residency somewhere. I have tentatively asked a few people who were on the album if they would be up for it. They have said yes, but they have had to say if their schedule permits, which, you’re looking at a lot of schedules.