So during the previous republican presidency, in a distant era when marketing departments weren't full of beards, there emerged this peculiar and well-baked scene of hippies, boozy jam bands, woodsy drum circle types, bookshop banjo players and other longhairs. I'm taking the 2003 Brattleboro Folk Festival as a sort of ground zero, a central point where the sound seemed to coalesce and at least one or two critics started to get v excited, but parts of it stretch back into the 90s and before as well as over the Atlantic to lands unamerican. It was all fading by 2010 but for a few years there was this oddly coherent mix of improv, psych rock, mountain banjo, drone, Takoma-ish fingerpicking, free jazz skronking, and so, so much hand percussion. I'm leaving out a lot of the more singer-songwritery 'freak folk' stuff (which also had all the breakout stars) and there was plenty of cross over, but I feel this gnarlier end of things bears analysis. This is kind of a sister to Whiney's noise-punk thread, which also had some crossover esp in terms of audience.
two questions:
1. what holds up? can you pick only ten?
2. why did this happen? what was the appeal of the underlying vibe/aesthetic and how does that relate to subsequent mainstream tastes for beards/urban lumberjack ish/bon iver? was this a retreat into The Wild or post-materialist transcendence? why did banjos suddenly sound good? why did ppl decide to bow everything?
anyway I know what ILM is like so I made it a poll, so you can just argue about who I included/excluded if you prefer. it was a scene full of side-projects and collaborations and rotating memberships but this includes the big names as I recall them
Poll Results
Option | Votes |
No Neck Blues Band | 8 |
Meg Baird/Espers | 6 |
Six Organs of Admittance | 4 |
Paavoharju | 3 |
Jack Rose/Pelt | 3 |
James Blackshaw | 3 |
Raccoo-oo-oon | 3 |
Charalambides/Christina Carter/Tom Carter | 2 |
Hala Strana | 2 |
MV + EE/Bummer Road | 2 |
Tower Recordings | 2 |
Califone | 2 |
Paul Metzger | 1 |
Pumice | 1 |
Kemialliset Ystavat | 1 |
Chris Corsano | 1 |
Sunburned Hand Of The Man | 1 |
Fursaxa | 1 |
Willie Lane | 0 |
Currituck Co. | 0 |
Samara Lubelski | 0 |
Mike Tamburo | 0 |
Marissa Nadler | 0 |
Spires in that sunset rise | 0 |
The Blithe Sons | 0 |
Dead Raven Choir | 0 |
Josephine Foster/Born Heller | 0 |
Avarus | 0 |
White Magic | 0 |
R. Keenan Lawler | 0 |
PG Six | 0 |
Keijo | 0 |
Voice of the Seven Woods | 0 |
Ilyas Ahmed | 0 |
Marcia Bassett/Double Leopards/Zaimph | 0 |
Dredd Foole | 0 |
Entrance | 0 |
Enos Slaughter | 0 |
Jackie O'Motherfucker | 0 |
Heather Leigh Murray/Scorces | 0 |
Badgerlore | 0 |
Hush Arbors | 0 |
Harris Newman | 0 |
Islaja | 0 |
Alexander Tucker | 0 |
Glenn Jones | 0 |
Lau Nau | 0 |
Skygreen Leopards | 0 |
Thuja | 0 |
Black Forest/Black Sea | 0 |
― ogmor, Tuesday, 15 November 2016 22:14 (seven years ago) link