The Importance of Being Folk

(taken from the band Adult.).

Maybe it's all the Joan Baez and Peter, Paul and Mary i listened to (via my mom) as a youngster, but i have a special affection for folk music. You know, songwriting? It's a bit hard to find these days, but it's coming back! Honestly, i herald the resurgence of Folk.

As i've previously mentioned, if you had asked me ten years ago if i would be listening to all of these stripped-down, bare-bones songs, i would have probably laughed in your face. But hearing Fleet Foxes on the radio the other night gladdened my heart, because it is the sign of a slowdown. The return to a slower, quieter, more ponderous place. The kind of music that softly grabs your thoughts and runs with them, weaving a small story along the way, depositing you kindly back down with a renewed gentleness. Does that make any sense?

Not that i'm advocating the abolition of loud noisy thrashy songs. Come on, we need those, too. But it's getting a little loud in our modern world. Taking it down a notch is just fine by me. Bring back the Folk! Bring songwriting and actual singing talent back to the forefront, not production values and flashiness. Let's just all fucking smooth out a little.
And hey, if it's not your cup of tea, it's just not. Hey, i understand! No worries here, friend. i like so many different kinds of music, and i never take anything (musical taste-related) personally. Here is my song of the week. It just keeps popping into my head, especially the ending refrain (i don't know what i have done/i'm turning myself into a demon). I'm not very familiar with Fleet Foxes (or their version of this song), only a couple of their songs (here's a great one) have made it to my ears. But oh, how glad i am to have ears.

Me and my rhythm box

So one of the (few and far between?) great things about San Diego is, interestingly enough, the radio stations. Perhaps it is the proximity to L.A., but the main radio stations down here are not complete and total crap! They have a propensity towards '90s grunge (Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Nirvana, Bush etc.), which just takes me right back to high school. They don't cut off the freaking songs or talk over the intros, and the local music hour is not something that makes you want to run out and buy earplugs. The station i'm speaking of mainly is FM 94.9, KBZT.

Weekday nights from 10:00 at night to 2:00 in the morning, they have Big Sonic Chill (please come back, Midori, we miss your tiny voice), which is just what it sounds like to you, only probably better. A good 85-90% of the songs are totally enjoyable, plus you get to make fun of their self-advertising mini-spots: "Carnal... kinky.... salacious." –Hilarious! But they definitely play the goods: Boards of Canada, Cocteau Twins, Mazzy Star, Air, Portishead, Cat Power, Maps, et al. Good for Nat, since those are the hours when he is usually trying to get all the studying done that he'd put off all day/week. Very chill indeed.

But the best part, the crowning glory, is Swami. If you are like us, and not going anywhere on a Saturday night (don't front, you know you stay at home too!), don't miss this rockin', swingin' program. Swami plays the oldies but goodies, the kind of songs that would actually be playing on the stereo of the Coolest Party Ever, and probably only on vinyl. Everyone would be smiling, and actually dancing, there would be tiki torches out back by the pool, where the men would be in porkpie hats and rolled-up jeans and the ladies would be in vintage swimsuits and have painted toenails. Someone would hand you a Tom Collins, and you would go and have a limbo in the rumpus room... He plays lots of '50s and '60s stuff, originals of songs you didn't even know were covers ("Love Buzz" is a prime example, even though i still think Nirvana's version is much sexier), surf guitar jams, old R & B, the occasional punk anthem, jump-n-jive, doo-wop, you name it. Seriously, try and stop your body from moving when you listen to Swami. Go on, try it!

::waits patiently::

Yeah, see–you can't. Let all the children boogie.


Also worth noting:
The other night, as we were fleeing along the bandwidth from some Feist song or another, we stumbled onto something great: the 11th Hour program on 105.3. Listening to Apoptygma Berzerk ("Nonstop Violence"!), Siouxsie, Bauhuas and Sisters of Mercy all in one fell swoop brought us right back to everything i loved (the eyeliner, the Amaretto sours, the music) and hated (the clubs, the clothing, the 'tudes) about the goth/industrial scene from back in the day. it was like i was twenty again. You could practically smell the clove cigarette smoke wafting from the speakers...

Now the only thing we have to do is figure out how to pull the plug on the Sunday morning Bob Marley-fest they got goin' on every week on 94.9... EVERY WEEK! Seriously, i have had to start training myself to set the alarm to "buzz" instead of "radio" on Saturday nights so that i don't have to wake up to "Buffalo Soldier" or some extended bootleg version of "I Shot the Sherriff". Ugggghhhh. No offense, but the only 2 Bob Marley songs i can handle are "Natty Dread" (for obvious reasons) and "Could You Be Loved". Beyond that, i think i've heard enough for the rest of my life, thank you. Sorry to all the Marley-o-philes out there. i know you love him; i know he's great. But if there's one thing i have had enough of in San Diego, it is Bob freakin' Marley. Oh! and Sublime, but don't even get me started on that one. ::shudder::

p.s.) This is all just personal opinion, obviously. Nothing i say has any merit, so feel free to write it all off as dreck, and carry on!

Okay, let me just come right out and say something. Something divisive.

i love the new Animal Collective album, Merriweather Post Pavilion. Okay?

Can you deal? Because i know that i just either lost or gained 20 Indie Points, depending on just how indie you are. But all of that could not be more irrelevant, because i simply love listening to these songs. i wake up with them in my head. i hum them all day long, until Nat finally puts one on so i will shut up. And he enjoys them, too, which must say something...

And i would also love to point out (like 99% of other people giving this album a good review) that i was never a fan of these guys before this. To be honest, i had only heard them fleetingly through someone i used to work with and was not particularly grabbed with what i heard, so i moved on. But then a few weeks ago i heard the track "Summertime Clothes" on KALX, and was deeply impressed with the under-watery vocals and marching backbeat. It lingered in my head until i looked up some of the (insanely romantic) lyrics and found out who it was. Soon after, through a different DJ, same radio station, i heard "Brother Sport". That was it, i was done.

i sat there on a chair, in a room, in an apartment building, in a city, in a state, on a continent, on a globe, and just sort of.... went away. Somewhere else. And it was nice. It was mighty nice. Went and bought the album while up in Berkeley on a mini vacation and could not be more glad i did. "My Girls" is insanely listenable, dance-y, catchy as catchy can be. (wow, i had to really command my hands not to type "catch-as-catch-can" right there; funny how sometimes the body can seem to go on manual override.) Other notable tracks are "Daily Routine" (tinkly, subtle) and "Also Frightened", which i didn't like at first because the chorus is sort of... aggressive seeming. But now i can't get enough, of course. It is almost Beatles-esque. "In the Flowers" builds to a sweet and melancholy almost-urgency before it fades away.

All in all, it just feels rather... joyous. i can't even deny it. It leaves you with an open, quiet feeling, like stripping away the detritus and starting fresh, somehow. Although, having had a listen to some of their back-catalog, i will be brutally honest here and say with some certainty that i am not going to run out and buy any of their other albums. But it's okay, because for now, with this album, i am totally drinkin' the Kool-Aid, and enjoying every last otherworldly sip.