The Refreshment’s 1996 Classic, Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy Gets Vinyl Treatment

Arizona rock band prefigures Americana sound on debut release, which includes hit alternative single, “Banditos”

Formed in early 1993 in Tempe, AZ, The Refreshments consisted of singer/songwriter/rhythm guitarist Roger Clyne, drummer Paul “P.H.” Naffah, lead guitarist Brian David Blush and bassist Art Edwards. Within a year, the foursome went from opening for the likes of the Gin Blossoms and Dead Hot Workshop to headlining their own gigs, releasing an album, Wheelie, on their own label in 1994. After submitting a tape to play to Austin’s SXSW Festival, the group’s performance before an impressed Mercury Records A&R rep led to their signing to the label, releasing their slyly comic debut album, Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy in February, 1996, which contained several re-recorded songs from Wheelie. The album’s hit single, “Banditos,” a tongue-in-cheek story song about a fantasy bank robbery and dash for the border, went #1 on Billboard Heatseekers, reaching #11 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock chart and #14 on the Modern Rock chart, going Top 20 on the Canadian singles chart and peaking at #13 on that country’s Alternative chart, thanks to its catchy refrain, “Everybody knows that the world is full of stupid people.” A second single, “Down Together,” hit #38 on the Billboard Modern Rock tally. The band is probably best known for “Yahoos and Triangles,” the theme song Roger wrote and the band recorded for Mike Judge’s long-running animated TV series, King of the Hill.

The Refreshments’ much adored cult classic debut album Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy, featuring the single, “Banditos,” is now being reissued in standard vinyl for the first time ever by Universal Music Enterprises (UMe) on November 13. The group’s rollicking roots-rock “Southwestern Sound” made them contemporaries of similar groups like Meat Puppets, Gin Blossoms, Dead Hot Workshop and The Sidewinders, and was a harbinger of the No Depression/Americana/alt-country sound which would be made popular by the likes of Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt and Wilco in subsequent years. The group’s humorous approach can be heard on such songs as “Girly,” “Suckerpunch,” “Carefree” and “Blue Collar Suicide.” The Refreshments toured the U.S. and Canada extensively for the first album, though an Australian tour was cut short when a change in management at the label prompted them home to begin work on a second album, The Bottle & Fresh Horses, which came out in 1997, shortly before the group experienced a lineup change and new name, ending the run of The Refreshments.

AllMusic Guide praised the band’s refreshing change-of-pace from the prevailing downer aesthetic of the time: “Listening to ‘Girly’ or ‘Banditos’… is like kicking back with a college bud and a brew: summery, smirky and somewhat yearning. The irreverence in [the] lyrics makes all the difference between them and other increasingly self-serious bands in the same vein. With clever lyrics, solidly melodic guitar work, and Roger Clyne’s marketable voice, The Refreshments kept fun alive on the alternative scene throughout the decade’s latter half.”

Roger Clyne and drummer Paul “P.H.” Naffah went on to form Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers in 1998, and still perform many of The Refreshments songs live in concert, releasing eight studio albums, two live albums and a live DVD of their annual music festival, Circus Mexicus, in Rocky Point, Mexico, along the way. They consistently tour in their own tour bus, dubbed “The Stallion.” Roger also penned the theme song, “The D-Back’s Swing,” for the home town Arizona Diamondbacks, performing several concerts with the Peacemakers for the baseball club after games or team events at Chase Field. Clyne, Naffah and guitarist Brian David Blush, now a member of The Toluenes, reunited The Refreshments for a well-received set before enthusiastic fans at Circus Mexicus in June 2013. Roger Clyne & The Peacemakers have also started their own award-winning private label of premium sipping tequila, Roger Clyne’s Mexican Moonshine Tequila, named after one of their songs. The band’s most recent release, The Independent, came out in 2014.

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