Swamp Music. Does it exist?
A little while back I came across something from one James Junkin Jr, formerly of goth/industrial outfit Masochistic Religion. Swamp music, he called it:
http://music.cbc.ca/#/play/artist/James-Junkin-Jr/Scrapin-Jr-Off-The-Floor
I dug it enough that I got to thinking where else I'd heard this kind of thing.
[The first obvious contender was Interruptus/Corruptus-era Feotus, back when the live incarnation of Feotus was basically Swans – Kizys, Westberg, Parsons – minus Gira:
Fudge Punch live
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eWWvAwvgKo
("Scraping Jr Off the Floor" an obvious Feotus reference in any case.) Sink Manhattan, with their rock-band-in-a-scrapyard sound (http://freedomhasnobounds.com/?p=484), could qualify. Or perhaps some live incarnations of Swans when they were transitioning via Jarboe'd country flavors into the Children Of God sound:
Blood and Honey live
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czMhu3fCe40
But with a very few exceptions, most of this stuff is just too damn rockin'...]
Okay. So "swamp music" is probably not the right descriptor. "Clunky, badly recorded country music" might do. I'm looking for something dingy, dilapidated, lurching, but with a swampy, twangy, Southern swagger. All of the bands mentioned here feature legitimate musicians, but to really pull this Clunky Country Swamp thing off "good musicianship" might well be regarded as a crutch...
Gira's Angels Of Light gets closer. Couldn't find "Not Alone" from New Mother on YouTube, but these three are not bad substitutes:
Real Person
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NN_SdvusUU
Purple Creek
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XXP42aIGZ4
Michael Gira - God's Servant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4AFkuGm2Wk&feature=related
Others might include the more lumbering efforts from early Nick Cave / Birthday Party and later Tom Waits...
...but if anyone can suggest others in this general vein of sound, I'm all agog. Needless to say I'm not concerned with particular genre tags as such.
Not exactly what you're looking for but if you dig deep enough into the roots of rock'n'roll you find magnificient stuff like Harmonica Frank Floyd. Whenever I hear somebody say "swamp music" I think of stuff like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQY5fVwNU14 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQY5fVwNU14)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEYMWRyhCS8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEYMWRyhCS8)
A non-obvious recommendation might be the Finnish band Balls and their album Jungle In A Barrel. Nothing else by them comes near it (as far as I know), really swampy and sweaty psych-scented rhythm & blues. Sizzlin' production too, like live electric wires flying thru the air. Doesn't have the country twang you seem to seek but might still be worth a shot. Seems to be downloadable from here
http://obscurealbums.blogspot.fi/2010/01/balls-jungle-in-barrel-1995.html (http://obscurealbums.blogspot.fi/2010/01/balls-jungle-in-barrel-1995.html)
I never thought of Jandek having a Southern sound in any way... but it might be just me.
And yeah, James Junkin Jr lists Screamin Jay Hawkins among his influences
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqxEXYxvUW8 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqxEXYxvUW8)
Ah, Angels of Light... lovely! Absolutely fantastic project that I much prefer to any other Gira-related thing. Especially 'Sing Other People' I find totally magnificent. It's a great record, not only for the material/individual songs, but also how over the course of itself it seems to grow ever darker. Wonderful, wonderful music. Also very fond of the split with Akron/Family, a band which occasionally ventures into something that suits your descriptors in their own right, but just as often does not. The AoL/AF split is great, AF material is very intuitive and wild (but very musical). Great stuff; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvmeTiswnyE - but definitely not what you're looking for.
Seeing the descriptors (and veering a bit away from James Junkin, which is fascinating but which reminds me of little more than some Nick cave material... - just my limited frame of reference), I'm thinking of a couple of things - one of which indeed was Jandek. Dingy, dilapidated, lurchy - it's all that. I'd agree it doesn't necessarily have a 'Southern' sound to it, but it fits all your qualifications quite well. Definitely worth digging into, I'd think.
A record I think absolutely fits the descriptors is Smog's The Doctor Came at Dawn. Smog/Bill Callahan has recorded a lot of material, and a lot of different stuff (he once started out extremely lo-fi, even made it onto Garbage Sandwich!) and now does more general folky country. What you could call his 'middle ages' harbour some material that comes close to 'dingy, dilapidated' music, and The Doctor Came at Dawn is the prime example. It seems quintessentially Jandek-inspired, but more musical. Some great cuts:
You Moved In: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MARBOVCSkwQ
Spread Your Bloody Wings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8156uxBESk
Everything before was more 'eclectically' lo-fi (great as it is), everything after became decidedly more polished, sometimes annoyingly so, up until the beautifully pure A River Ain't Too Much to Live. It is by far not dingy and dilapidated enough to suit, but it's a wonderful record to try anyways...
Let Me See the Colts: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qohDy0UT1G8
Perhaps even more suitable (?) to your inquiry is Will Oldham, now the much lauded and fairly mainstreamish Bonnie Prince Billy, back then the decidedly rawer and more interesting Palace (in many guises - Palace Music, Palace Brothers, simply Palace...). His discography up until '97 (from thereon it was Will Oldham, and then BPB, with some exceptions) covers a lot of musical ground, some of which may be right up your alley. Debut record There Is No One What Will Take Care You is very raw country (country noir is what is was dubbed back then, I think; not my favourite record, so not too much input from me here). Follow-up Palace Brothers/Days in the Wake is another record that seems very Jandek-inspired (right down to the cover art) and which is raw and shaky and wonderful:
You Will Miss Me When I Burn: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_KIJGCqZz8
No More Workhorse Blues: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqzwaLzjdvU
Viva Last Blues sounds much drier and Southern (Steve Albini produced it), is my personal favourite, but is by far not as dingy as Days in the Wake. 1996's Arise Therefore is absolutely marvellous, very lo-fi and with an added drum computer. It sounds very detached, very raw, very unstable, very imperfect, very amazing:
Stablemate: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUIJ10P6TpQ
Give Me Children: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwnJMcXAmxc
You Have Cum In Your Hair And Your Dick Is Hanging Out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEo0Ij8-OS8
Songs: Ohia may be something you'd like to try. Again, different records have wildly different sound, so depending on what you try you'll get different results (Didn't It Rain - gospely; The Lioness - rockish; Magnolia Electric Co. - pure country rock), but the record worth trying most is Ghost Tropic. It has a very sticks-and-stones sound, some percussion like it were twigs, dry strings on the verge of breaking, and an atmosphere that is sometimes almost suffocating, oppressive, stifling. Great!
The Body Burned Away: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib6pUL5t8ok
Ocean's Nerves: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2vbN47KEXc
Hope anything takes your fancy - this is the music in my collection that I rank among Angles of Light anyway, for varying reasons :)
Swamp music makes me think of Louisana...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9Shbn63AjA
Quote from: bitewerksMTB on July 30, 2012, 01:04:19 AM
Swamp music makes me think of Louisana...
Me too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTNWczKWq1k
I guess Those Poor Bastards might fit this bill? The wife likes them, I'm indifferent.
Still not really what you're searching for but fits my idea of swamp music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4J8VrprrGE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4J8VrprrGE)
That's pure mythical Louisiana for a confused non-American like me, super murky and intoxicating. I've never investigated the other Dr. John albums but I've been led to understand that they're nowhere near as wild as Gris-Gris .
Unexpected to see someone here recommend Songs: Ohia, Smog and Will Oldham. They are cornerstones in collection. Even if i must admit that i haven´t really enjoyed the last 7? years of Bonnie Prince Billy releases. But i still buy them and hope he will find "it" again. I am reading the book that came out about him right know. Recommended for any fan of his stuff.
On the other side i think that Bill Callahan/Smog is getting even better with every new release. Very impressive!
Even if i don´t get the "swamp rock" thing since the bands everyone one is describing is kind of different from each other. But i say Meat Puppets, maybe not the first fastest early stuff. But classics like "Lake of fire". Or am i completely wrong?
when I think Swamp music, the grittier material of Tom Waits comes to mind. gritty, Beefheartian blues with hoarse singing.
I think Meat Puppets are "Desert Rock"...
Thanks to all the great suggestions. I've enjoyed (almost) everything so far. Balls "Jungle In a Barrel" is wonderfully fucked! Love the Dr John and Harmonica Frank Loyd. A lot of PANIC's suggestions like Palace Brothers and Viva Last Blues are very good listens, nice and dingy if a tad on the, um, "pretty" side.
To add to the "bouquet" of flavors:
SkyBurial's link to EyeHateGod is actually appropriate. I like my swampy rough. As stated, "swamp music" is probably not the best starter; but it's all I got. It's probable that I'm trying to describe a particular atmosphere as much as a particular sound. Perhaps a little more grim or raw, spiced up with some sexually frustrated redneck dribblings. If there must be Amerikana, a bit of Deliverance in there couldn't hurt...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gLN3QoN-q8&feature=related
Or some Psychodrama:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yXP4ebguBI
Thought I keep hearing in equal measure the sampled intro to that Taint track whose title escapes me, re- "I want you to eat shit, boy! I want you to eat SHITshit, boy!"
Not that I necessarily need to hear these things – more than once. But I suppose it's always kind of irked me that as soon as these self-styled country boys pick up a guitar they have to get all sentimental. Boyd Rice and Spell I could take...he'd been threatening "maudlin" for years in any case. Then he upped the ante with this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AJDzkROYPI
And Al Jourgenson, when he should be talking about Beers, Steers & Queers, gives us Buck Satan and the 666 Shooters:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4Ie9JkYdLQ
Enough! Get yr mind out of the gutter and back in the sewer! Where it belongs.
Jandek I wouldn't consider all that swamp-infested, but he nails it when he does spoken word:
Worthless Recluse
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgWwkHt8hM0
Which to me is channeling Burroughs...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRElTMi251s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGJ7Z6AEzpY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlkorlOzdII
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1Eg6VDPRFw&list=PL41B92FC905F17754
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-U9pabOZ0Q
...all of which sounds pretty goddamn swampy to me!
Swamp via Oakland...
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Effigy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5rI-ow_RSI
Quote from: heretogo on July 29, 2012, 08:00:25 PM
A non-obvious recommendation might be the Finnish band Balls and their album Jungle In A Barrel. Nothing else by them comes near it (as far as I know), really swampy and sweaty psych-scented rhythm & blues. Sizzlin' production too, like live electric wires flying thru the air. Doesn't have the country twang you seem to seek but might still be worth a shot. Seems to be downloadable from here
http://obscurealbums.blogspot.fi/2010/01/balls-jungle-in-barrel-1995.html (http://obscurealbums.blogspot.fi/2010/01/balls-jungle-in-barrel-1995.html)
This sounds great! Remember all the fuzz when it came out but actually never heard it. Have to pick it up!
another Bloated Slutbag thread where I have absolutely no idea what they're seeking, but cuing off the other posts, particularly Gira, maybe this?
http://youtu.be/kJaQOQjBsg8
Quote from: Bloated Slutbag on July 31, 2012, 09:07:30 PM
if a tad on the, um, "pretty" side.
Haha, yes, decidedly so I guess (by board standards, absolutely!) - though it's all very relative. Compare it to, say, Ease Down the Road, and it suddenly seems very unpretty indeed. ;-)
Quote from: Zeno Marx on July 31, 2012, 11:39:40 PM
another Bloated Slutbag thread where I have absolutely no idea what they're seeking
You and Bloated Slutbag both! "Grimy, country-flavored, industrial" or "grimy, industrial-flavored, country" might have been a better topic header, but on second consideration I don't need to hear some campy country-industrial hybrid. I don't care if your name is Johnny Cash. I want swamp music. I concede this to be a fairly random poke in the murk, even by my uneven standards. But I think a vaguely shared atmosphere, if not a very coherent aesthetic, may be detected amongst a fair share of the various, variegated, suggestions. (Definitely NOT from CCR, I will say that.)
This topic may arise out of a desire to fill a perceived gap between the avant garde and certain (rural?) subcultures, a gap possibly exacerbated in part by their apparent mutual distrust/hostility. Though again this is a fairly random poke the in the murk. While there is a whole heap 'o country in the realms of experimental music, the vast majority plugs into that same old pastoral, sentimental, vibe – which I like very much, too, BUT. I think a lot more can be dredged up when someone is more willing to filth it up a few notches. After all, when I think countryside I don't think of campfires and riding off into the sunset, I think of burnt-out industrial shitholes. Am I just re-imagining industrial music in a different context, or are there legitimate gaps to be filled? Nor can I shake the nagging suspicion that such gaps have been filled, over and over again. But that I'm clueless enough as to where to start looking.
It follows that the gaps may be better filled – and have been better filled, over and over again - by outsiders looking in, as there's less mutual baggage weighing them down. (Another random poke in the murk; getting good at these.) By way of illustration, the best thing by far out of this thread, Balls "Jungle In A Barrel", emanates from Finland. And why shouldn't it? By whose measure are we to assess ownership of these (sub)cultures, real or imagined? Real bourbon only comes from the States, real whiskey from Scotland. The French, however, are recently said to prefer the single malts issuing from Japan - apparently the more "aromatic" nose is more amenable to French tastes. In the 80's, James Junkin Jr aka Mitchell D. Krol / Masochistic Religion was a fixture in downtown Toronto; Feotus and Swans downtown New York. What were they representing or "re-imagining"? If you were to ask them you'd as likely get an equivocal answer. Under these circumstances, I've few qualms in suggesting that in some of their murkier junctures they were exorcizing a particular spirit of the good ol' boys. But not the sort of spirit one would normally write home about.
World Of Skin - Cry Me A River
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpw8mG1MfJE
Public Housing – Black Water Shithole
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeGfZK0ATk8
I ran into Mitch K. for the first time in ages a couple of weeks ago - the James Junkin Jr. persona seems to be on ice for the moment, even if he still looks the part. J.J. was a sincere attempt on his part to try his hand at country music (after a couple years of, as he put it, really wanting to play in a band where he could sing the word 'baby', unironically, as often as possible), though it came out much more of a southern blues pastiche in the end. He appears to be getting some sort of rock band together lately.
Based on your initial post, apart from late Birthday Party/early Bad Seeds, which you're no doubt already well familiar with, you might like the first few Crime and the City Solution EPs (Just South of Heaven, The Kentucky Click, The Dangling Man - http://youtu.be/-7iPs-VwnKg (http://youtu.be/-7iPs-VwnKg) )?
Quote from: whateverforever on July 31, 2012, 06:10:27 PM
I think Meat Puppets are "Desert Rock"...
You are absolutely right! But since Smog, Palace Music, Songs ohia were mentioned "Swamp Music" i just took a wild chance :-)
Anyway a good thread.
Quote from: Mattias G on July 31, 2012, 12:06:59 AM
Unexpected to see someone here recommend Songs: Ohia, Smog and Will Oldham. They are cornerstones in collection. Even if i must admit that i haven´t really enjoyed the last 7? years of Bonnie Prince Billy releases. But i still buy them and hope he will find "it" again. I am reading the book that came out about him right know. Recommended for any fan of his stuff.
On the other side i think that Bill Callahan/Smog is getting even better with every new release. Very impressive!
Even if i don´t get the "swamp rock" thing since the bands everyone one is describing is kind of different from each other. But i say Meat Puppets, maybe not the first fastest early stuff. But classics like "Lake of fire". Or am i completely wrong?
will oldham is definitely a cornerstone artist for me, and i can agree that his output over the last few years holds not one candle to any of his previous efforts under the palace moniker. there is no one what will take care of you is definitely still my favorite and is an album that i can listen to in its entirety at any time. good to see other noisers appreciate the mans work to some extent.
Quote from: sterilization on August 02, 2012, 03:00:35 AM
Quote from: Mattias G on July 31, 2012, 12:06:59 AM
Unexpected to see someone here recommend Songs: Ohia, Smog and Will Oldham. They are cornerstones in collection. Even if i must admit that i haven´t really enjoyed the last 7? years of Bonnie Prince Billy releases. But i still buy them and hope he will find "it" again. I am reading the book that came out about him right know. Recommended for any fan of his stuff.
On the other side i think that Bill Callahan/Smog is getting even better with every new release. Very impressive!
Even if i don´t get the "swamp rock" thing since the bands everyone one is describing is kind of different from each other. But i say Meat Puppets, maybe not the first fastest early stuff. But classics like "Lake of fire". Or am i completely wrong?
will oldham is definitely a cornerstone artist for me, and i can agree that his output over the last few years holds not one candle to any of his previous efforts under the palace moniker. there is no one what will take care of you is definitely still my favorite and is an album that i can listen to in its entirety at any time. good to see other noisers appreciate the mans work to some extent.
I even took a phrase from my favorite Palace lyric to a altar of flies CD/cassette release. It´s called "Let new life rise in the face of death" and are from the lyric to "Tonight´s decision and (and hereafter)" from "Viva last blues". Fantastic album and song. So it has certainly inspired my musical output very much.
Anybody mention The Scientists later material - after the pop straight to the swamp. Also I think CCR is a cornerstone in this American sound. Maybe pulling the wool over your eyes in the process...but still.
The Scientists - We Had Love
I mean this is what I think of whenever somebody mentions a SWAMP SOUND. Could be way off...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9UPfenzOas
Hot damn boy, now this, this is what I'm talkin bout-
https://erratum.bandcamp.com/track/pcp-poetry-music-by-joachim-montessuis
Actually I know very little about Bryan Lewis Saunders, though he seems to get around a lot, even among persons of the special interests persuasion. I doubt the above is particularly swampy. But it just seemed to hit the right nerve. When he works himself up into a frenzy there's a real, and real
unhinged, country-esque inflection.
Though while I'm here-
Quote from: martialgodmask on July 30, 2012, 03:36:40 AM
I guess Those Poor Bastards might fit this bill? The wife likes them, I'm indifferent.
Of late I've come to the conclusion that the above poor bastards are pretty close to what I was probably looking for. I actually blipped over them initially after sampling a couple youtube tracks... sounded like very slightly noisy garage rock with pointless country inflection... well, these were very brief samplings. But after dipping deeper into the swamp I have to say I appreciate the sheer ragged raggedy-arsed approach. Drunks with guns and some of that old time religion, the kinda country where they beat the fuck out of you soon as look at you, drag you around for a while, and leave you in the ditch after pissing on your scarred, twitching, stump. Hey diddle diddle take this fiddle and shove it up yr ass, yee haw. Actually quite whimsical really- the genre seems to be "goth country" or "goth americana". There's a lotta humor but these bastards sound sincere.
The main vocal guy has a project called Sons Of Perdition which definitely edges closer to soundtrack-y and on rare occasioan dangerously close to an area I try to steer completely clear of... something like punk cabaret or something... Disneyland Pirates of the Caribbean lordy this can get campy as fuck... perhaps that's the Tom Waits influence talking to the poor bastards. But again a sincerity I appreciate and legitimate sound-making talents.
The main vocal guy edges more purely into traditional Halloween type soundtrack stuff via his solo project, but I'd say his lonesome heart is in the right place-
https://lonesomewyatt.bandcamp.com/track/down-in-the-swamp
-just lacking the raw edges of the Poor Bastards.
Anyway, if there are other projects more along the line of Those Poor Bastards- that is to say, more raw n gritty type stuff- I'd be all ears. I've sought but I've not really found. Still, thanks are due martialgodmask (or wife).
Some hugely obvious suggestions BUT
Hasil Adkins?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ2BJo4wzkE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXjnSDl0vMA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAEjOhAzmn4
Doo Rag?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZNqkZ6T4B8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_zS2MnWzD8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1q38pfemGo&index=5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpNit514ihE
and the related Bob Log III?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-70MMdWU7E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDWan9zS1nY
Seems like with the last two examples there is a certain authenticity missing in that it's a clear attempt to make something junky sounding rather than an accident...which may or may not be an issue for you. Adkins is about as weird and backwater as it gets.
Quote from: Duncan on May 11, 2018, 12:12:16 PM
Some hugely obvious suggestions BUT
Hasil Adkins?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ2BJo4wzkE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXjnSDl0vMA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAEjOhAzmn4
Doo Rag?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZNqkZ6T4B8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_zS2MnWzD8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1q38pfemGo&index=5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpNit514ihE
and the related Bob Log III?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-70MMdWU7E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDWan9zS1nY
Seems like with the last two examples there is a certain authenticity missing in that it's a clear attempt to make something junky sounding rather than an accident...which may or may not be an issue for you. Adkins is about as weird and backwater as it gets.
Duncan, you are my new hero. Adkins rocks! (Or swamps! as it were.) Is this stuff hugely obvious? All new to me. And all good.
The authenticity thing is a good question. I've commented elsewhere on the difficulty in honestly trying to grasp what that ("authenticity") might be. There was this crumer country-noise thing that I stumbled across a little while ago... while it certainly dinged several of the proffered cow-bells it seemed a tad too much up the arse of pure farce, thus undercutting the interest before it (the interest) might be stoked. I'd comment further, but I just found it so you be the judge-
Buck Young - Proud Trash Sound
https://norentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/proud-trash-sound-nrr64
never heard adkins before but awesome stuff, thanks. have been listening to it plenty and weirdly, my wife grew up in alabama and she not only knew who he was but could sing along and apparently she played his songs on the trumpet in her music class in gradeschool. hes either more well known than i realize or she had a wacked out teacher.
Really not sure if this is what you are after but Tervahaat is worth checking out, the blurb on discogs:
The Finnish mystics of Tervahäät have been working together with ritualistic folk and ambient music since 2008. Their style varies from calm folk ballads to strumming noble neofolk, and from freezing ritual music atmospheres to rough industrial music. Broad range of instrumentation is equally wide-ranged as the various styles of vocals, they use warm and deep lullaby styles, powerful clean folksongs, freezing blackened shrieks and otherwordly voices and spoken words reeking of death.
Their last album was pretty swamp like, sounds from a lonely lodge in the middle of nowhere
Quote from: Bloated Slutbag on May 12, 2018, 05:29:45 PM
Quote from: Duncan on May 11, 2018, 12:12:16 PM
Some hugely obvious suggestions BUT
Hasil Adkins?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ2BJo4wzkE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXjnSDl0vMA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAEjOhAzmn4
Doo Rag?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZNqkZ6T4B8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_zS2MnWzD8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1q38pfemGo&index=5
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpNit514ihE
and the related Bob Log III?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-70MMdWU7E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDWan9zS1nY
Seems like with the last two examples there is a certain authenticity missing in that it's a clear attempt to make something junky sounding rather than an accident...which may or may not be an issue for you. Adkins is about as weird and backwater as it gets.
Duncan, you are my new hero. Adkins rocks! (Or swamps! as it were.) Is this stuff hugely obvious? All new to me. And all good.
The authenticity thing is a good question. I've commented elsewhere on the difficulty in honestly trying to grasp what that ("authenticity") might be. There was this crumer country-noise thing that I stumbled across a little while ago... while it certainly dinged several of the proffered cow-bells it seemed a tad too much up the arse of pure farce, thus undercutting the interest before it (the interest) might be stoked. I'd comment further, but I just found it so you be the judge-
Buck Young - Proud Trash Sound
https://norentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/proud-trash-sound-nrr64
Yeah, that maybe had me sounding like a bit of a know it all snob! Some context: Bob Log plays pretty much every year round where I live and I've always assumed he was quite well known and popular. Similarly, Doo Rag seem to be a pretty well known thing among a bunch of my older pals who were all pretty headlong bought up on all the bananafish era American gunk. As for Adkins, I was astonished when I first discovered him but then found most of my potentially interested friends were well aware when I game gushing forth.
The authenticity argument is indeed a confounding one in that it lies almost entirely in the projections of the starry eared listener. I suppose - having mentioned Adkins - we are more or less in the same territory that deals in 'outsider' music. Where beyond the sounds of the stuff doing what we want, we also need to be aware of some convincing back story to make it that little bit more of a gem than something like that Crumer record which is ultimately a concept idea. Looking toward far more mainstream examples for a moment, this seems always to have been the big debate surrounding Seasick Steve whose music is undeniably a lot of fun from the angle of a bent, broken, DIY blues thing but whose back story doesn't quite seem to match up. It seemed that a lot of people thought they'd found some kind of real, lost hobo blues man when he first hit big when really a lot of his background later came to look embellished or not spoken of depending on how it fit with that aesthetic. Same again for something like the White Stripes where the brother/sister, stripped down, outsider tint increasingly begins to look like the result of huge affectation and a growing budget as time and popularity wages on. I know the problem ultimately is the listener who needs all the accoutrements and bells and whistles besides just where the music takes them but I'll be damned if I still don't get a huge boner for all of these isolated, weird musicians who never seemed to realise that what they were doing was incredibly strange.
Quote from: Duncan on May 15, 2018, 12:45:18 PM
Yeah, that maybe had me sounding like a bit of a know it all snob!
I'll take the know it all snob willing to school my ass over any alternative any day.
Going with some of the other posts here, I should probably be hitting up people's wives for proper ass-schooling. Is there a support group I should be checking out somewhere, Noisewives Anonymous?
Not necessarily related to the above, but per Duncan's observations re- comparable boner sizes
QuoteI'll be damned if I still don't get a huge boner for all of these isolated, weird musicians who never seemed to realise that what they were doing was incredibly strange.
I'd have to add that, while I haven't actually measured yet, the degree of wood returned might not necessarily diminish when said weird musician has long since realized the strangeness of the pursuit... but continues on regardless.
Here's your swamp music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKH9JEdZREc
Quote from: bitewerksMTB on May 16, 2018, 10:13:07 PM
Here's your swamp music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKH9JEdZREc
That gator at the end there's got a real pretty mouth.
I want to have a pussy wearing women's skin
I want to be a woman wearing human skin
edit
https://unclewormwood.bandcamp.com/track/dance-of-the-skins