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=lpw8mG1MfJEPublic Housing – Black Water Shithole
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeGfZK0ATk8