Simon Reynolds is a gobshite

Perhaps there's some subterranean connection between freak-folk and the "bear" subculture

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_LTbec9DQoKc/SWqtF1gE0BI/AAAAAAAABXI/NM0FNttQ0TY/s400/200px-Gay_Bear_Mechanic.jpg

"I beg to differ."

x-post

I thought that was...

http://www.pedestrian.tv/uploads/images/blogs/49adf2b1a96f3/sebastian%20tellier.jpg

...for a minute, in which case we would have our set intersector.

So did I

cp:
Most of the time you are hippie
You're a beardo

air are total hippies.

I've just realised, after going out to get lunch, I've got the wrong end of the stick on this. That it's actually quite *funny*. See, Reynolds is taking that whole "let's group together a bunch of unrelated artists on account of the presentation of their secondary sexual characteristics" that is usually applied to *female* artists and herding together beardy men, rather than addressing the actual musical connotations of Beardiness.

Because there are many kinds of Beard in music, apart from the scraggly hippie. There's also the soft rock beard - though in Lindstrom's case, it kind of crosses over with the Prog beard. Though, prog itself divides into bearded (i.e. long haired bearded bikers like Hawkwind snorting amphetamine at the edge of time) vs. unbearded (Yes and those other art school types prancing about having flute solos and the like). The metal-prog goatee. The full Satan. The jazz tag. etc. etc.

The sculpted beard can be just as much evidence of *inauthenticity" as the scraggly unkempt freakfolk hippie beard is evidence of Gilette-shunning Appalaichan authenticity.

he called alison moyet's vocals "proto-joss stone".
he didn't like bogshed.
bit of a sling enough mud approach / feel the width.
nein danke !

Let's throw race and nationality and ever more music genres into the mix...We can create even more sets and see if they interlap.

I've seen places use 'beardo' as a quasi-genre name for all yer Isis/Baroness metal-not-metal bands - I find I quite like it when two totally unrelated music scenes jump on the same genre name, so I approve basically

It treads the line between a convenient way of saying "basically, a total sausage party" and describing something (whether signifying unkempt or chin-stroking) about the aesthetic. I can see it leaping genres quite easily.

my beard, in the subset of freaky beardo beard, is an assertion of the necessity of an Irigarayan ethics of sexual difference, inasmuch as it displays the deficiencies of equality-based approaches to feminist movements. But to deflect the criticism that positions Irigaray as essentialist when it comes to gender, I am also entirely unmasculine in every other way (excl. penis). It's complicated. Joanna Newsom is honorary beardo because she inverts this assertion of gender position.

god I was hoping there would be an xpost to give me an opportunity to delete that.

^ another beardo outed, closets are being vigorously flung open on ILM today

ha ha ha ha, no I'm glad you didn't, that's hilarious.

lol but not really sure how playing a harp and wearing flower lady clothes and smiling sweetly in press photos inverts anything all that much...?

xp to Merdeyeux

erm, instrumental virtuosity and epic ambition as traditionally 'masculine' traits, playing against her own femininity, as well as their codification as masculine? YEAH.

(while playing for lols I do pretty much [kinda] believe my point here. In some sense. A bit.)

Is instrumental virtuosity a traditionally masculine trait? Harp's a pretty feminine instrument, yes?

Gender is irrelevant to this and what is all important is whether or not you sound like you're not wearing shoes.

How could Lindstrom hit his effects pedals if he wasn't wearing shoes?

OH WAIT

http://www.last.fm/music/Lindstr%C3%B8m+and+Christabelle/+images/36957863

FOOTFAIL

post fail

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/37619821/Lindstrm+and+Christabelle+press.png

I don't think any press shot of the 00s has disgusted and horrified me more than that picture of Fleet Foxes where one of them is wearing Crocs.

OMG, no! crocs != barefoot, we're back to our beardosignifyer

Crocs are a new gateway drug to disgusting barefooted hippydom.

But my *mum* wears crocs!

But wait... she also lives in Rural Vermont, which is also clearly a hippie signifier according to that article. We might be onto something. My mum is also a priest, which inverts traditional gender roles. Perhaps MY MUM is the secret intersection set of Joanna Newsom, Beardo, and disgusting barefoot hipsters hippies.

I envy you. to be able to blame your mum for killing the music must satisfy all sorts of subconscious needs.

If I were a man, there'd be something satisfyingly Freudian about that.

Freud's theories only apply to men? Or their mothers?

http://www.croatianworld.net/Letters/Gobshite.jpg

i feel a bit sorry for SR at the moment, he is obv not really OTM from anyones perspective these days, but does seem to be getting regular kickings from all over the place. prob overdue really, makes a change from everyone being so over deferential, just weird to see people who were prob his disciples not so long ago suddenly eagerly sticking the boot in, and SR not really bothering to defend himself.

the thing i don't get: what's lindstrom doing with my mum's old sofa?

lolololol that freeway song is fucking AMAZING. love that guy.

man i wanna high-five the whole concept of beards right now! damn!

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2490/4116265866_45beba8198_b.jpg

I'm digging my beard. Could care less about "free/freak folk". I like The VU and synthesizers.

i'm a synth-folk fan.

SIMON REYNOLDS MADE ME GO BEARDO!!!

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2730/4115270731_1c957e1e1d_o.jpg

I should get that on a t-shirt or something.

Ohhhhhhhhhhboy

http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/8463/liv1232535046simonreyno.jpg

TractorTrailer
26 Nov 2009, 1:52PM

Speech DaBelle, Scroobious Pip, Akira The Don?

http://freakytrigger.co.uk/share/HipHopBlogAlert-473x450.png

... seriously, if you can find any more informed commentary on hip hop in the uk broadsheet press, please do let me know ... ?

that chart is great tho.

rap has been a desperately unmemorable procession of cookie-cutter ballers – Jim Jones, Gucci Mane, Yung Doc, Soulja Boy, Lil Boosie, Gummi Bares – whose lyrics trudge a hedonic treadmill of bling and booty, punctuated by the occasional inane dance-craze.

fuck this guy seriously

Barely creating a ripple in the larger pop culture, undie rap is probably pretty content with its niche, a haven of "quality" in a mercenary world

except of course when these guys end up producing for g-unit -- oh but then they're no longer undie so i guess that doesnt count as 'making a ripple'

i mean what a load of bullshit.

YOU ARE OLD. get over it, it happens to everyone

this reminds me of talking to tom ewing about celine dion's book. Tom was like (paraphrased) "he goes through all these mental gymnastics trying to understand what people are getting out of celine dion -- why not just ask them??"

part of this is just from ppl who've been waiting for rap music to 'die' for ages, & now that nothing is selling except old ppl music, they're jumping up & telling us its dead. & 'luckily' for them, there's no accurate way of measuring, u know, popularity or social interest in music right now.

The worst part is there are elements of what hes saying that are true -- i think that creatively there are aspects of hip hop that are totally dull -- but he buries it by trying to make this huge fucking statement out of it, basing his ability to dismiss huge swaths of the music on his 'credibility' as a music writer (note: NOT journalist, even with one quote he managed to pull). It's unbearably egotistical.

does he not notice all that shit he praises from the early 00s:

This seven-year-long surge was largely but not exclusively driven by the Dirty South: cities like Atlanta, New Orleans, Memphis and Houston; producers like Timbaland, Neptunes, Mannie Fresh, Lil Jon, and Mr Collipark; MCs like Ludacris, Missy Elliott, Three 6 Mafia, Clipse, Ying Yang Twins, and those Cash Money hot boys Juvenile, BG and Lil Wayne. But the rest of the US played its part, from the Ruff Ryders family (DMX, the Lox, Eve, plus producer Swizz Beatz) through Ja Rule and Nelly, to the Dre/Eminem/50 Cent axis.

almost all of that shit is the same as

And, for these last three or four years, rap has been a desperately unmemorable procession of cookie-cutter ballers – Jim Jones, Gucci Mane, Yung Doc, Soulja Boy, Lil Boosie, Gummi Bares – whose lyrics trudge a hedonic treadmill of bling and booty, punctuated by the occasional inane dance-craze.

i mean, fucking new orleans is where they coined 'bling bling'. When he started talking about how great all this shit was for using hoover rave effects or whatever, acting like the condescending lecturer to all those 'pretentious' underground rap fans who wanted to hear other shit, they were pointing out "but they're just talking abuot bling & booty ..."

it would be hilarious if all these critics werent buying into it.

& the laziest part -- what music are ppl listening to instead? If rap isnt still creative -- if im crazy for thinking that gucci is just as creative of a rapper as anyone in fucking ruff ryders -- then what music is so important right now? hypnogogic pop? for the most part that 'genre' is straight easy listening. dubstep is basically idm. where is the 'fresh ideas' from those dudes? if you take the long view like he's doing w/ hip-hop here, none of that shit is so amazingly super fresh & original either.

i remember miccio saying basically the same thing when noise like this started being made in the 1st place ... that if booty & bling is such an issue for you, why NOW instead of, you know, anytime in the last 2 decades?

otm, the answer's probably bcuz we're a month from the end of the decade, rap happens to not sound exactly like it did six years ago, and lazy writers need a boring ass narrative for everything