November 05, 2005

• I’m going to cut the bullshit. Did you set out to make the scariest, most haunting, beautiful, shockingly fucking awesome harmonies ever on purpose, or did you just get in the mood to do that while sitting there trying not to think up songs? Darn, I missed that link, would have been good in the FPP
• Excellent use of multiple media in a post.
• Holy cow. Bought an album, thanks for the link.
• tcobretti: you shant be disappointed. I found a copy of Oh Vanille at my local music store, and I'm currently being blown away by it. My recurring thought as I listen to the album is "oh. god."
• I don't get the folk/anti-folk distinction, even after reading the wikipedia entry, but then what do I know. She sounds folky to me, beautifully so. Love the way she builds the song in i'm yr here - i - am (video clip from 2002). Thanks.
• a very good song
• Gorgeous! Love those fourth intervals - thanks, ian would say.
• "Holy shit those vocals" just about sums it up. Damn, that's a good song.
• Yes, that was a very good song but... that last picture... For some reason it looks just like my mum when I was a kid. Don't know how, just the angle. [waves of nostalgia]
• Reminds me of a mix between The Story and Happy Rhodes.
• thanks so much, ian would say- nice way to start this beautiful sunday morning! skips off with smile on face to purchase album!
• Wow, I don't mean to rain on anyone's parade-- I totally think music is in the eye of the beholder-- but I am surprised by such a strong positive reaction to this song. I find it rather messy, toneless, and forgettable. Again, I'm not at all trying to frame taste objectively, I'm just legitimately surprised. No snarkiness intended.
• I'm a bit surprised too. I think it's pretty good, but there are lots of pretty good contemporary folk artists. To each her own, I suppose.
• All you haters got something better to recommend?
• wo mu si -- I think that that the people who really liked it wanted to comment and thank the poster. It is not the kind of style that many would hate, so no one bashed it. The indifferent people will typically not comment because they are, well, indifferent. As finding music that interests and stimulates me is very important to me, I am just happy for the eight or so people on here who seemed to find something that they can genuinedly enjoy. And I liked the song. She reminded me a bit of Erin McKeown.
• Smo: There are tons of good contemporary folk artists - but I've never heard anything like those harmonies. Reminiscent of Antony and the Johnsons, Joanna Newsome, and other parts of the New Wierd America psych-folk movement. In fact she's toured with CocoRosie, so that should give you an idea of where she fits on the folk spectrum. In other words, this isn't exactly Gillian Welch (who is incredibly mindblowingly good). This is more like if Iris Dement did too much acid and got produced by Nigel Goodrich. It's fucking wild and unlike anything I've heard before, and I like it. wo mu si: Unfortunately I don't have any Hootie and the Blowfish links. I keed! (:
• Yay! New music! Thanks ian would say, I always appreciate being turned on to new artists.
• All you haters got something better to recommend? All you haters? There were 2 posters before you that respectfully posted legitimate comments and you call them haters? I'm glad I didn't post what I really thought of that track. And, I did recommend two somethings better.
• Sorry, techsmith, I meant that more lightheartedly than it came across. Think of it as saying "Mmmm, I kinda like it. But I don't know much about contemporary folk or spinoff genres-- smo, if you've heard better I'd love to hear it." That's what I was thinking, at least. And I'm liking Jonatha Brooke, by the way.
• What ian did say -- speaking as one with at least passingly familiar with the more known and "respected" artists in many genres, having a halfway decent knowledge of music theory and composition, and being a musician/composer myself, I have to say I've heard very, very few songs which are this adventurous in their harmonic structures that still really hang together as a catchy song. Mostly when I hear things this far from the mainstream (I'm not thinking of truly arcane harmonic structures like those of Schoenberg and Ligeti), they're usually interesting on only an academic level, or so intentionally downright dissonant and disturbing that catchiness doesn't really enter into it. But this song still hangs together and is at the same time pretty catchy.
• This is more like if Iris Dement did too much acid and got produced by Nigel Goodrich. That made me laugh, thanks. Somehow, I can't see DeMent into acid; her last album was all gospel songs! I think probably I wasn't totally blown away by this because I'm a huge fan of male/female and female/female vocal harmonies and I'm kind of picky as a result. Plus, the psych-folk thing doesn't do much for me, compared to more traditional and country/rock styles. (But I did like it and I'm always happy to hear new folk music). But, stripe, recommendations? If you're into harmonies: Freakwater. Probably the best female/female vocal harmonies you're gonna get. But they're much more traditional than the linked song, especially their earlier stuff. Old Paint is usually cited as their best album. I think their latest, Thinking of You, is every bit as good, and probably a bit more accessible. You can hear a couple samples here. Other good traditional folk singers include Gillian Welch (Time [The Revelator], especially) and Iris DeMent (her earliest two albums are traditional, and very good; her third flirts with pop, is highly political, and pretty good; her latest is a solid gospel album), both of whom ian mentioned. On the more contemporary side, I'd recommend Nanci Griffith (especially The Last of the True Believers), Steve Earle (I Feel Alright) and Lucinda Williams (I can't say enough about her). Those three tend to crossover into country and/or rock. Less crossover-y, Eliza Gilkyson is putting out fantastic contemporary folk albums these days. Land of Milk & Honey was properly nominated for a Grammy last year (should have won, too), and I've heard good things about her latest, Paradise Hotel. Closer to the anti-folk scene, Ani DiFranco is probably the most famous and popular. Beyond her, i can't say I'm into it much. And a lot of the psych-folk stuff I find excessively experimental and sometimes downright grating.
• And what chimaera said, about the linked song.
• Doh, after re-reading your post, stripe, I sound like the aggressive one. Sorry. :)
• Oh lovely, lovely Diane Cluck! With love for you I am surely struck! It is a love so large, that it could only be transported in an equally large truck, But one that had first been thououghly cleansed of all rubbish and associated muck. You are like a beautiful pigeon or duck To me, oh lovely, lovely Diane Cluck! But I fear that my tongue will surely get stuck, When I try to describe my love, a love that does not suck, Oh lovely, lovely Diane Cluck! 'Tis the most atrocious luck, And I feel and silly as a shmuck, That my poem must be stopped - as if it were hit by an ice-hockey puck - For I have run out of words that rhyme with your name (which is not "Chuck") Oh lovely, lovely Diane Cluck!
• NOW MORE WITH 40% SPELLING AND GARAMMATICEL ORRERS!
• She refuses to eat chicken Diane Cluck It aint the sound that bothers her But the way it feels She rather be strumming her guitar She's anti what she is Diane Cluck If can't be what I am Then I'll just be what I aint And everyone will buy up all my stuff
• Oh beautiful, beautiful Alison Bunt!
• How shall I win your love, oh wonderful Edna Nitoris?
• I want to give you something, my delightful Gaye Nalzechs ...
• Oh will you never kiss me, my sweetest Flo Chobb?
• Finally got a chance to listen to this - it's wonderful, thanks ian would say! Album's going on my To Buy list.
• It's pronounced "glook." just kidding. I really don't know
• Diane Cluck Whom I want to... er.. um.. nevermind. I could never write a poem so beautiful as Ms Cluck's left index cuticle It really is a beautiful cuticle.
• This is excellent. Cheers Antifolk is the worst name ever, though. "By a loose definition, Anti-folk combines the raw, abrasive, and frequently politically charged attitudes of the punk scene with the sounds of American folk tradition." Which is different from folk music how?
• There was a young woman called Cluck, . . .
• There was a young woman called Cluck, Who had the uncommon good luck To be named on a filter Of monkeys off-kilter... But now on this last line I'm stuck.
• hehe. )!
• Ms Cluck, meet The Man From Nantucket.
• Lovely stuff. If you want some other cool voice harmony stuff (though in a decidedly pro-folk vein), I recently ran across these guys: The Avett Brothers. Let Myself Live is quite good.