Music: Indie Folk

[eplsoccer7]

HoCfXXjoKNM

[sawyer]

Can anyone give me some suggestions? I am kind of a slump with finding folk/bluegrass artist

few ive been into lately: salamander crossing, agnostic mountain gospel choir, the devil makes three

bon iver autotunes like a motherfucker

fuck bon iver

was hoping this'd be about more authentic folk... nouveau folk upsets me.

the whole concept of authenticity is pretty stupid (relative as well), you might miss out on some cool stuff if you re making all these arbitrary genre designations

i dunnoo, i really like justin vernon and he consistently puts out quality material. some analog diehards will decry the digital effects but that part of his music really seals the deal for me, esp on songs like 'the wolves act i and ii'

and fleet foxes is flat out spectacular, have yet to hear anyone else still using VOLUME as part of the whole songwriting process

[jack napier]

authentic is an iffy word - i don't mean it in the same sense as the 60's critique, i don't think. i agree with you in principle that 'authentic' is pretty much the watch-word for a relative standard.

but i consider golden age hip-hop and it's precedents to be folk music. same thing as early blues, etc. - music that actually relates to a form of life.

'nouveau-folk' is a misnomer for me. it generally has little to do with 'folk' life, whatever that may be...

now we've just got this crap folk found in just about every television ad.- iPod, pretty much any phone, restaurant, etc... and that's what i take issue with.

but maybe my contradiction here is that this is what counts as 'folk' for our generation. some hyper-bourgeois, simulacral folk... to put my negative spin on it.

bon iver isn't as bad as this type of folk - and i'll admit that i enjoy about 3 songs from that album. but for me, autotuning ruins what you might call the discrete charm of an album recorded at a remote cabin in solitude. it's the overly electronic artifice that bugs me in this case - he has a great voice to begin with... no need for that.

[sawyer]

oh hm well i see where youre coming from, but i think most people in this thread will come to talk about man-and-guitar/country/bluegrass/etc kind of music. stuff with banjos, fiddles and acoustic guitars

- you shouldnt feel accountable for the popularity of certain kinds of music. there is no "our generation's" music. that kind of thinking is for losers!

your folk is whatever you choose. if you are concerned with the image of yourself as part of a demographic, that is your personal insecurity

- it sounds like you re disputing the authenticity of any music coming from the bourgeois. i dont think a person's financial background has any bearing on the emotional truth (or compositional brilliance, creativity, etc) of their music.

- as far as music being in commercials, cafes, etc. i think the explosion of media and advertising is the culprit, not the music (though i see no crime).

- i don't have much proof beyond sales figures for electric guitars, but there are more people recording more music than ever before. considering the pace of advertising and trends, i am not surprised nor offended by the abundance and success of mediocrity

i mean if you want to talk about music that is associated with certain socio-economic and ethnic groups, i can share some american indian powwow music and capoeira stuff if you like.