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July 12, 2012

Yo Soybean performance and interview

“There’s a lot of people with this new folk emergence that sounds like an older folky sound with their instrumentation, but it’s lacking the message that folk music used to contain.”

Yo Soybean let us crash their band practice and hang out with their awesome dog in Athens, Georgia in late October, 2011. Nick Mallis, the band’s lead vocalist and songwriter, was in the midst of scoring a friend’s still-in-the-works documentary looking into the culture, obsessions and lives of Civil War reenactors called “The Lost Cause: An Old War in the New South” (check out their progress here.) After Nick and company wrapped up their recording for the day, we sat down in their sound proofed room, passed around some Fireball whiskey and discussed the evolution of “folk” and where Yo Soybean’s music fits into the narrative.

The guys had a lot to say - too much to fit into this short clip without losing focus. But one thing that came up, as it has many times in our interviews, was the idea of folk music’s message, or its problematic lack thereof. Overall-clad Andrew Klein yells at the beginning of our interview, “I’m not talking about the style of music, I’m talking about a message!” and that’s really a key issue we’re looking into with this project.

Today, much of what falls under the broad umbrella of “folk” music is just music with a certain instrumentation: A familiar blend of banjos, guitars and pretty harmonies that is all well and good, but doesn’t necessarily challenge any dominant systems. And though music doesn’t always have to be challenging, it’s important to remember that folk music has played that role in the past (and continues to play that role now *See Ryan Harvey, Mark Gunnery and Riot Folk*)

Folk music doesn’t always have to be in the form of a Phil Ochs, Woody Guthrie or Bob Dylan-style protest song to be challenging. It can challenge the system by incorporating sounds from different cultures’ definitions of folk, speaking to a truer, more diverse American makeup (Hurray for the Riff Raff, Brown Bird, Dark Dark Dark). Or it can be, in Yo Soybean’s case, music that challenges a strangely nostalgic American past time, like Civil War Reenactors and sentimental Confederacy empathizers in the South. Ideally, it should make us think when we listen.

We’re looking forward to seeing how “The Lost Cause” turns out! In the meanwhile, check out Yo Soybean’s last album, Manifest Blasphemy, on their Bandcamp.

Tags: yo soybean athens georgia nick mallis sweet lou and a pack of smokes andrew klein an old war in the new south folk music american folk music the lost cause

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June 27, 2012
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Having The Weavers as a musical blueprint meant that from the beginning I got the message - however subconsciously - that music was about cultural exchange, internationalist interpretation, and radical politics. The Weavers were white, English-speaking, highly educated Americans, and yet some of their songs were in Spanish and Hebrew, some of their songs were written by Latin American revolutionaries, South African poets, and African American laborers. They identified as “American folksingers” and yet their America was different from McCarthy’s, different from Jim Crow’s and different from suburbia. Their America was a provisional, ideal America where racial difference did not mean racial persecution, where rights and social welfare were not selective, where, as their partner-in-folk-crime Woody Guthrie would sing, the land belonged to everyone, from the Native Americans it was taken from to the poor black, white and Mexican farmers who now worked its fields.

…

This idea of being a stranger among sounds immediately seemed a fitting way to understand how identity and listening work and, especially in the context of “American” music and “American” culture, a fitting way to approach the study of music’s relationship to the production of listening subjects, citizens of pop music’s myriad republics of sound. Popular music has always been my refuge because it is the refuge of strangers; because in the world of popular music, we are all strangers among sounds made by others.

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— These are two excerpts from the introduction of Audiotopia by Josh Kun… It’s a ton of information to digest, but so far Kun’s goal of exploring race and America through music has been incredibly fascinating. I highly recommend picking up the book if you feel like learning something new from a unique, socially conscious perspective. 

Tags: josh kun audiotopia the weavers american folk music definitions of folk music race strangers identity

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March 29, 2012
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Kickstarter Success… and MORE!

As the reality of reaching our Kickstarter goal sets in, our excitement is sort of acting as ambition-steroids… and we’d love to be able to hit a grand slam (sorry for the awful analogy, I am not sports people).

Let me put it differently: We want to go everywhere and talk to everyone. These past three weeks have been incredibly affirming, and not just because we’ve actually raised the money we need to keep this project going and expanding.

We can’t sing enough praise for Kickstarter and what it’s doing for independent creativity, not only as a fundraising tool but as an online community. So many people with so many great ideas - we’ve heard from more people across the country about their local folk music communities and the projects they’re working on since launching than we have since starting Folk to Folk this past summer. We’ve also gotten a ton of recommendations of places to go and people to meet. 

So before we ask you to keep sharing our project (because we’ve still got over a week to go and the more we raise the more we can do!), here’s a few blogs, organizers and generally awesome things we’ve found out about this month.

In Brooklyn…

Go Folk Yourself (GFY) is a Brooklyn-based volunteer organization focused on promoting local and independent musicians. GFY accomplishes this goal by recording live performances and producing music videos free of cost. Additionally, we interview the artists and write articles published on our website as a resource to discover local, talented musicians.

In Baton Rouge…

American Thrift


American Thrift is dedicated to building community and supporting creativity by booking, promoting and producing live music and art events in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

We book/promote/produce shows for touring and local artists specializing in non-traditional spaces (art galleries, listening rooms, houses, theaters, etc.) with hopes to break down the artist/audience divide.

In Eugene, Oregon…

A blog/record company/mixtape making/festival throwing institution. We are told they do big things for the Northwest folk scene. Yum.

In New York…

Acoustic Night NY: A monthly unplugged acoustic series showcasing local artists in different amazing New York spaces.

There are just… so many… It looks like we’re on to something.

Tags: eugene oregon brooklyn folk music folk music acoustic night ny baton rouge american thrift kickstarter folk music communities american folk music