Mumford and Sons

hi-cult forms of heart-of-oak back-to-the-land stuff also on the rise? Feel like I'm hearing a lot more about John Piper over the last year or two, and that Alexandra Harris book, Romantic Moderns (nb not about romo) getting a lot of reviews. Bloomsbury pastoral.

Big Society?

Let's all get together with our washboards and ukeleles and Tyrloean hats and try to put the Great (or at least) the Nice back into Great Britain

toryism seems kinda wrong anyway, i imagine them sublimating any sense of politics into a 'it's not about left and right' evasive ruritanian stupidity, a sugary mix of wishful thinking and apolitical amnesia about the risible doughty peasant tropes they trade in

but this, really, about M&S. Want to try and figure out that quoted-upthread Mumford enthusiasm for Chesterton when I'm not in an office.

You can't spell 'Tyrolean' without Tory *taps nose*

Look forward to their setting of GKC's The Secret People. xpost

Tyro Lean and the Jing Jang Jong

There's already a tribute band:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3oWh5G9ysk

oh for fuck's sake

jesus t'night, look at the "Brooker" cut on the lead singer.

holy cow this band is getting popular on the bar jukeboxes...let me just say, mark e. smith was right

Tyro Lean and the Jing Jang Jong

― ka£ka (NickB), Friday, 25 February 2011 14:25 (1 hour ago)

a+

could save a lot of hand-wringing and just napalm the cunts

Tribute bands already? I've never understood the Brit tendency to crank out tribute bands while the artists they emulate are still at the peak of their powers. The U.S. tribute bands usually focus on bands or classic lineups you can't see live anywhere (aside from shitty jamband tributes).

It's because British provincial nightclub bookers are fucking lazy and risk averse.

Makes sense I suppose. Do bands like this do well?

that's because u specialise in industrial level production of pro forma shite, whereas england is able to produce perfectly formed, unique snowflake of finest fibrous alsatian faeces like les mumfs

+ audiences like a night out where 'you know what you are getting'. (+ i guess beaten musicians like some money + attention, even in this odd vicarious form? Can't really blame them. )

Yeah there's a whole industry in this country devoted to catering specifically for people who can't be bothered to take a risk on a night out.

the same pressure must exist in america tho? and it would make sense for tribute bands in a larger country with plenty of places seldom visited by the big bands

Not really, because here in the States there seems to be a pretty strict dividing line between "clubs that focus on live acts" and "clubs that just employ djs". The former usually want to focus on names that they know will draw people in while the latter would rather just pay a dj less. There are tribute bands that break these barriers, but they tend to be pretty popular and based on specific era - early Beatles, first four albums era Metallica, etc etc.

Guesses - size makes it less economically viable maybe? Sons of Bumford can do several pub + clubs Thursday-Sunday, Exeter-Winchester, be back at their desks (guitar teachers? I just don't know) Monday morning.

Are there adaptable local bar bands in the US? Would they add Little Lion Man to their set?

Actually, wait, NZ worships the Fall, yeah? Mumford go down there, they'll be arrested at the airport, charged with being crap and dunked in the ocean.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, February 25, 2011 7:52 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

probably my favorite post in this thread...

Most bar bands I'm aware of stick to classic stuff and are really slow to adapt current hits, I think "Little Lion Man" would have to blow up even more first.

NZ worships the Fall?

yes, especially in Auckland (I should ask LJ about this...)

The only time they hit Top 10 was in NZ, with "Lie Dream of Casino Soul." The following tour there yielded one of the finest live albums in the prime Fall era, In a Hole released by Flying Nun.

(lot more to this story, involving lawsuits and Marc Riley, but I'll let it go for now.)

when I think of folk I mostly think of protest music or bearded CAMRA lefties

Maybe you have to be be English and a certain age or whatever but this seems ridiculously specific. "When I think of rock I mostly think of jet black quiffs or playing piano standing up". "When I think of rap I think of Afrocentrism or 808s".

Think it's barking up the wrong tree with M&S tho. They're basically aiming for Arcade Fire, but more contrived.

this album methinks will be No Fences for the '10s. nice to lol at the UK for once; get the magnifying glass on all the abominable bands from there in the last Idk how many years...

http://i.imgur.com/OKvFd.jpg

lol

this album methinks will be No Fences for the '10s.

I will listen to No Fences 2.7 billion times before willingly listening to an entire album of Mumford.

I am from NZ and I worship The Fall so it must be true.

some days I think that 1981-82 New Zealand pop charts was the final true sanctuary for great pop music

this was #1 for like 5 weeks in 1982:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMHY3GEhdsc

in one way it's kind of like the Jamaican version of that Lady Antebellum song; in another sense, the longest Jamaican hit single to top the UK charts up to that point was "Double Barrel" for two weeks...

(Musical Youth would hit #1 for 3 weeks before the year was out...anything not to talk about Scumford and Nones huh?)

(sorry)

Glad to see this thread has provoked some top-draw Carmodism:
http://in-the-cage.blogspot.com/2011/02/ilm-mumford-and-sons-and-politics.html

later on today i will be escorting Mumford and Sons and the Felice Brothers to what they think is a special dinner in their honor

i will load them all into a converted schoolbus

put a brick on the gas pedal

and point them towards a cliff

could somebody summarize this thread for me

no one likes this band; british ppl say some incomprehensible stuff.

class is discussed, i think

thanks man, sounds like stirring stuff

i did not bookmark it, lets just put it that way

not surprised this goes over the heads of earnest americans but a lil dismayed that english ppl can't see how mumfords are worse than the rest of landfill combined

lex, what is the nature of yr issues with carmody? (nb i have seen his writing before but am not that familiar)

One last thing about NZ: not only did Toots and the Maytals make #1 for five weeks, but Joy Division hit #1 on two separate occasions in '81. The Clean debuted in the top 5 twice, for their Boodle Boodle Boodle & Great Sounds EPs, not so surprising considering they're local boys made good, and of course the Fall hit top 20, but so did the Dead Kennedys, with Too Drunk to Fuck of all things! Craziness!

not surprised this goes over the heads of earnest americans but a lil dismayed that english ppl can't see how mumfords are worse than the rest of landfill combined

that's the thing though, i really don't think they are - don't get me wrong the mumfords are fucking terrible and abhorrent etc, but...so were the futureheads, kaiser chiefs. and so were all the bands in the 90s britpop poll. (kaiser chiefs also much more reactionary lyrically - like that shit's actually overt in their music.)

lex, what is the nature of yr issues with carmody?

ehhhh broadly, projecting political shit into music where it doesn't exist/kneejerk anti-americanism/my #1 pet hate in all of music journalism - seemingly taking everything that surrounds a record into account except how it actually sounds

Really enjoyed reading Carmody - its been a long time, glad he's still around.

Doubt Lex will like his latest post.

wouldn't know where to read it