Revolt of the ILX Brigade: New Post-Fahey Folk For PPL that post in the Takoma & Tompkin's Square Threads

yeah sounds really good, evan!
got to hear the new bachman LP and the guy just seems to be getting better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9cT8Qp_RMQ

Thank you all! Funny you say mid 90s since early to mid 90s music makes up most of my all-time favorites

...though I wasn't expecting that to come through at all with this piece!

I played it a bit robotically in my opinion due to it being the 50th take or so and it really is a knotty composition so it's tough to get both the bass and melody on point per chord.

Let's all remember that Bachman is like 23 years old. Assuming he doesn't get bored of this guitar thing who knows where he'll take it. Feel like his feel for nuance and songwriting is definitely ratcheting up though.

haha totally. boy, when I think of all the stuff I had accomplished by the age of 23 ... actually I can't think of anything.
chuck johnson thing is for the PBS series "a chef's life"! http://www.pbs.org/food/shows/a-chefs-life/

what kind of guitar is that? has a neck like a lapsteel but it's acoustic

he's great

fahey was born in 39 so he would have been in his early 20s when he did his first stuff too
man i suck & am old :/

i was a total mess when i was 23
this kid has got it together!

Hah I was a mess through like age 30. Sure wish while I was a mess I practiced guitar a lot more though. Bonus is that you can "age gracefully" playing solo guitar and doing improv stuff as opposed to being in a band that has to appeal to an actual demographic beyond the 5-20 people in any given town that care about this stuff.

I think what Bachman is playing is still a lapsteel, just not an electric one, but not positive.

i want to take up the guitar, i haven't played it since i was 12. i plan on being an epic faheyite when i'm 80, maybe put out a little something on tompkins square

Good plan. You can still gig at 80 if all you gotta do is show up with an acoustic guitar.

All this old guy talk makes me want to listen to my Cast King record now.

Speaking of old guys---haven't had time to listen yet, but this looks promising:

George "Smoke" Dawson played banjo in MacGrundy's Old-Timey Wool Thumpers with Peter Stampfel (later of Holy Modal Rounders) in 1960, lived for years at Caffe Lena in Saratoga Springs, NY, and roamed around the US as an itinerant bagpipe and fiddle player for decades. His life is laced with small triumphs, and lots of tragedy. But he's still with us. Tompkins Square reissues his only album, a remarkable 1971 private press LP, on August 19th, 2014. LP/CD/DL

Excerpted notes by reissue producer / Tompkins Square label owner Josh Rosenthal :

I was doing some research for a box set of music recorded at Caffe Lena, the hallowed folk music venue located in Saratoga Springs, NY, when I came upon a photograph of a musician I didn't recognize. He looked like a sixth member of The Band - a handsome fiddler with wax moustache, goatee, black Western hat. There was a traditional air to him, a seriousness, but there was also something wild there. I needed to know who he was, and everything about him. The producers told me his name was Smoke Dawson, and they had tape on him. We listened, and his live version of "Devil's Dream" made it onto the box set. Then I started digging. I found a 1996 blog post from someone named Oliver Seeler, who claimed to have recorded a solo album by Dawson in 1971. I called the number on the site, not expecting much from an 18 year old blog post. But he picked up. He gave me background on the record. And, he gave me Smoke Dawson's phone number . . .

SMOKE DAWSON 'FIDDLE' AVAILABLE AUGUST 19TH
CD : TSQ 5036 / LP : TSQ 5043
Distributed BY INgrooves in NA, Cargo UK for Europe

HEAR / POST A TRACK
https://soundcloud.com/tompkinssquare/connaughtmans-rambles-devils-dream-marche-venerie

Dan's lap guitar is a weissenborn-styled model. Hollow neck Hawaiian guitar. It's not a brand name weissy, but a knock off one, he told me that he picked it up in Nashville around late 2012. If it's his first owned lap guitar, good lord has he mastered that thing quickly. Most all, probably comfortable to even say ALL, solo guitar lap slide players own a weissenborn. Fahey is hugging one on the cover of Railroad I, Jack Rose had a custom luthered one.

There's an interview of Dan, and you can kinda come to this conclusion by talking to him, living a guitar life seemed purely an experiment, told himself for a personal goal to try and live completely off music $$ for two years, defiantly has hit that goal already. Always says he wants to completely stop doing if publicly after each album comes out. His message in the current US tour said 'this'll be the last time I'll be in X city for a long time'. I kinda don't think his age comes into much consideration from his pov. Dudes been dedicating 100% of his time to this for 8 years or so, he perfectly filled some weird hole in the solo guitar world at exactly the right moment.

Everytime, kinda cynically, new guys get praise for their debut album, I always say to myself 'alright I don't think there is anymore room or spare enthusiasm from the fans, for another awesome player'.. But it keeps happening. Anyone else think that, either consciously or subconsciously?

Back to Bachman though, I love these slow and steady lap slide pieces so much. Really solid playing. If all goes as planned, his next record will be for Three Lobed and I back him with a guitar on a couple of tunes. I think he wants it to be a long form record, akin to Fare Forward V. Okay sorry [/lamenamedropping] :)

making a living off of playing solo steel string guitar in the year 2014 seems a scary prospect, i don't blame him for wanting to quit while he can- but amazing he pulled it off! i'd love to hear some long-form stuff from y'all.

Yeah that sounds awesome hope it happens

Neal man you are a good player and obviously have known Daniel for a long time. Don't sweat the name-dropping, I think we would all be psyched to hear that. Thanks for the info on the hollow-neck Hawaiian guitar info too, cool instrument.

Hopefully there is alwasys room/enthusiasm for new players, but it helps if there is an obvious personality behind the music. You talk to Chasny, Bachman, or any number of good players somewhat related to this thread and generally you find that they are pretty strong personalities with serious opinions. It comes out in the music for sure. Obviously Rose was another example of this.

Not to bring things back to me, but my hope in my playing for years and years is that I sound like me, that is the main goal. No matter what I learn/rip off/emulate, hopefully there is some inherent thing that just sounds like me when I play, but I mean that is most folks' goal and is hard to achieve.

I agree with you- that's my main goal too. Learning to suppress the urge to think 'what would so-and-so do right here?' and just naturally let things happen and learning to trust my own instincts and tastes has been one of the hardest and best parts of making music. Learning *how* you work is incredibly important.

Interview up with Bachman at AdHoc: http://adhoc.fm/post/interview-daniel-bachman/

Wonder how widely reviewed this will be. Would be happy for Bathetic to get that press, some good releases on there, but not too much in the Bachman realm. They did release Angel Olsen records originally, pretty diverse label.

Hah be prepared, there is 0 copyediting in that piece, i.e., and errors with names ("Sacred Heart") etc. Don't understand why stuff like this doesn't get vetted a little better, sheesh.

That was supposed to be "spelling errors and errors with names" btw. Gotta edit myself apprarently.

At the 7th St Entry for Chris Forsyth! Just talked to global! He's in the zone!

So jealous. Forsyth did a summer of dead post! http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/91456306192/summer-of-dead-2014-greek-theatre-university-of
Everyone here should do one.

Hey, how was the Forsyth/Global show?

Tyler, I am gonna try to revisit the Dead for a while and see if I get a spark to write something up. Been digging the posts so far.

global had a great set, did some super cool stuff w/a loop pedal that he didn't do when we played together...(btw global i talked w/chris f. at the merch booth & he was very impressed w/yr playing)

oh man what a night....solar motel band ripped a hole in the universe, holy shit.....best fucking band right now imo....was just giddy the whole time...did a bunch of new stuff and i'm beyond psyched for the new record...one new song was a lot more structured and almost reminded me of jeff beck

but yeah met kyle the guy who reissued the robbie basho visions of the country album and bought a CD from him....also snagged a copy of the RSD live solar motel band live album which i hadn't been able to get on record store day....

also got to mee matt sowell a guy who moved here from philly who's a great player

talked tentatively to a booker about us trying to do an american primitive type showcase nite w.me, global, kyle from grass top, and matt....hopefully can swing it

also

not announced yet, but heard word of a Minneapolis show (possibly showS) in sept that will seriously blow your guys' minds! super excited

Thanks UMS! Sounds like a great night, wish I could have been there. Glad the new stuff was killer too, really looking forward to seeing what they wrote collectively as a band. They definitely played one new tune when I saw them in February (which prompted my Zeppeling/Presence comparison above I think), but that was it. I really like the second guitarist in the band too (and all the dudes are good players). Interested in this Jeff Beck direction!

Glad Global's set went well too, would definitely be interested to see what he is doing live. Do you know if anyone taped/recorded any of the sets? Would love to hear them if so. And yeah man, keep stuff rolling in Minneapolis, seems like you have a good crew there for shows.

i saw some people taking photos but the one big show taper guy i know wasn't there :/

they are some kinda band...

who is the second guitar player? he's really an amazing player in his own right, equal to forsyth and their tones meld so well together

how was the drummer? that guy was awesome when i saw them.

yeah really great as well, bassist too, whole band really just seems dialed in together, they can definitely ride the waves of build ups and cool downs in the jams

second guitarist is the main guy in spacin who are worth checking out! http://spacin.bandcamp.com/album/deep-thuds-2
glad the show was good, been hearing pretty ecstatic things about the new material.

and yeah, grandavis if you feel inspired definitely do something for the summer of dead. pretty happy w/ the stuff i've been getting -- hopefully will get some things from a non-deadhead perspective too.

tyler i can write about uh....when they used "box of rain" in the last scene of freaks & geeks :)

Drummer actually grew up here in the Charlottesville area, I just watched part of the World Cup final with his dad! He played drums in The War On Drugs but is full-on Forsyth now, which who could blame him. I would love to be in a band like that.

And yeah, second guitarist is named Paul Sukeena, pretty sure he "leads" Spacin'. Certainly not aiming for the heights that the Solar Motel Band is going for, but pleasant/cool stuff:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmss4WN9Vys

Super-nice guy too, but they all were, at least to me. Bassist was really easy to talk to, and a cool guy in his own right. He has a band called the Peter Kerlin Octet that has a record out called "Salamander". Interesting stuff, not like Solar Motel Band at all, more like mid-90s post-rock/large jazz ensemble hybrid. It's on Spotify I believe, but cool compositions/instrumentation.

Hah UMS is your man for the non-Deadhead contingent. I loved that Freaks & Geeks episode, as goofy as it was (that show is all-time though). I would decidedly be pro-Dead, though I am a conflicted fan for reasons I have stated many times. I will try to come up with an angle though and see where I get. May take a bit though, need to go down the Dead rabbit-hole for a while.

He played drums in The War On Drugs but is full-on Forsyth now, which who could blame him. I would love to be in a band like that.

huh! well he must love playing w/forsyth because that also is probably taking one hell of a pay cut, but yeah he's fantastic, thanks for the info all, talented band of dudes by all accounts

I was wondering what the guy from Spacin' was up to! Deep Thuds is such an awesome record, "Sunshine, No Shoes" especially.

yeah i've been digging that kerlin octet record. very different from the forsyth action! ugh, hopefully i get to see the solar motel band at some point...

and i'm fine w/ war on drugs, but goddamn it'd be boring to be the drummer in that band i think.

no kidding
i'd pick the "ride the giant waves" job too

speaking of awesome drummer, I've been working out something for one of your beats LL! should have something back to you in the next week or so...

Hah I actually talked to his dad about his choice between War On Drugs and Forsyth. War On Drugs is straight-up "play the songs this way" action, plus they take long breaks between tours/records. So, double-whammy of more freedom/"giant waves" to ride plus a band that is just gaining momentum, and playing/recording a lot. If those dudes can tap into the fandom of any number of jam bands then they will do fine monetarily, but being instrumental and a little edgy in ways that that crowd aren't necessarily used to will be the barrier.

!! I can't wait to hear it! New songs give me so much mojo that it makes me dizzy. Excited!

yeah i mean musically forsyth is was above war on drugs and that band would be boring, was more admiration like i'm sure touring is a lot easier w/war on drugs and better pay

but i guess either way you still probably aren't making like real money

i was actually thinking it would be cool if they could crossover into the hippie/jam world a bit, would def be good for those guys moneywise if they could play those camping festival things in the summer

and yeah, grandavis if you feel inspired definitely do something for the summer of dead. pretty happy w/ the stuff i've been getting -- hopefully will get some things from a non-deadhead perspective too.

― tylerw, Tuesday, 15 July 2014 14:41 (38 minutes ago) Permalink

I know we talked about this on Twitter but I'm still hoping to find some time in the next couple of weeks to listen to some stuff and turn something in for this.

The show last night was completely fucking awesome.

if you and UMS just want to do a back-and-forth statler & waldorf thing where you make fun of a dead show that would work too.

Oh! I bet that could probably be arranged

Here, let Bob be your inspiration:

http://www.purplemoon.com/card/bob-seva.jpg

some photos from last nite including some good ones of global

http://www.reviler.org/2014/07/15/photos-chris-forsyth-7th-st-entry/

That photo barely does justice to how short those shorts are, but that is probably for the best.

Cool guitar Global, and nice pics overall.

excellent recording of a recent bachman show here!
http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/91870212017/daniel-bachman-parc-de-la-cure-dair-paris