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

yeah i notice a bunch of shitty comps dropped really hate that about spotify

okay, this is really weird. there's even some studio banter for tracks off of the "Railroad" release (you can hear the engineer and several false starts on 'Frisco Leaving Birmingham")

spotify:album:7i2FNUeKNloLXHqp8AOivf

credited to "Acewonder LTD" and "Cugate music"

what even is this shit

lol one of the tracks is called "Dvorsack"

Whoa. I have not logged into Spotify in a long time, might have to go back for this.

it's pretty interesting. sounds like studio outtakes from the "Railroad" sessions.

Hey all, just throwing out that the Three Lobed day party at Hopscotch is slated for Friday, Sept. 5. Lineup apparently doesn't get announced until Aug. 13 at the main festival's request, but I have heard some rumors etc. and it looks like it is (potentially) going to have some heavy hitters and cool collaborations. I am close to %100 sure that I am going, so if anyone is inclined or already headed there let me know, would be happy to meet up.

Just in case this helps the cause, it should be mentioned that it is a free show, all you have to do is get there!

dammit I'm on the wrong coast

Hah sorry sleeve. Time to visit the family again?

they were in Duck NC last week!

sadly I will probably not visit until next summer

Ah well.

we need a ilx brigade private jet to fly you guys to MN for the old familiar chime and us all to NC for the 3 lobed fest

http://soundcloud.com/matthew-lee-helgeson/lenas-end

new song i did....i called it "lena's end" because the coda is just a real simple melody....the queen of the flat top guitar record by lena hughes has been really important to me in a lot of ways...

sometimes i listen to ppl like john renbourne or kottke or newer folks like bachman and tyler etc and they are so damn talented and skilled i get bummed out about my own playing, but then i try to remember lena hughes because those recordings are so great to me, and she's so comfortable with her own skill, and it's just really simple great melodies played beautifully, and at a fidelity level that's not even as good as a USB mic and a laptop...i dunno i find it inspirational to remember that you sometimes just need to let the song be the song and not worry about what you can't do

UMS, that song is really good. Everything is articulated really well, you can hear all the parts/notes clearly, and I especially like the section at the end where you slow it down (if that is the "real simple melody" then it is a keeper, happy to take more of these kinds of songs). Songwriting is definitely a "feel" thing as much as a skill thing, so yeah man keep it up. Your playing is plenty good already anyways.

Hah man I have listened to your tune like 5 times in a row, it is catchy as hell. Sorry to skew the stats, but I am going to listen to it a few more times.

skew away - thanks i'm happy you're enjoying it

That Lena Hughes record is really nice man. I got it in a bundle when Tompkins Square had a sale and I listen to it all the time. Good thing to emulate/keep in mind in my opinion.

yeah dude, that sounds lovely.
been kind of futzing around w/ alt tunings and so forth, probably need some actual lessons in this stuff.

Tyler, I would think open tunings could be very cool w/ your bamd, as you are a classic trio and having sympathetic strings droning behind you when you solo can add a lot of good texture etc. to the sound of the band. Of course I am a sucker for this stuff so take that with a grain of salt, but man I love that sound in a band for sure.

Uh, "band".

Ah man the Forces At Work "Tomorrow Never Knows" came up after UMS's tune on soundcloud. Good afternoon listening!

That particular song is in C9 (cgcgcd) which I like lately... It's got an odd suspended quality to it and not quite as distinctive as open C which is great but definitely always sounds like open C

xp haha, that is a good one. we've never been able to play it that well since.
but yeah i like the open string drone, even in more straightforward rock situations. we have one song using the open tuning (i kinda forget which one, i think it was the one chasny uses?) and will probably have some more. i'm sort of figuring out how to write songs in it w/o having them all sound the same.

what's forces at work soundcloud? when i search forces at work on soundcloud i get an iggy azealia song

it was part of that ILX beatles comp from a little while back - https://soundcloud.com/ilx-beatles-comp/forces-at-work-tomorrow-never
if you really need to go deep, http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/92744477097/forcesatwork-tasty-jams-vol-1-this-cd-r-was

Oh, speaking of alt tunings, some of us over on the Joni Mitchell thread were marveling at her playing in this '66 or '87 show: http://bigozine2.com/roio/?p=1884 She re-tunes pretty often, though always quickly. One poster mentioned a book where she's playing at Mama Cass's house, and Clapton's staring at her fingers, like wtf (like everybody else). But (in the show tracks) it's never showboating, just part of the overall effect.

'66 or *'67* show, I meant.

ums yr playing has come on a lot & I agree with you on the strength of simple, uncluttered playing. something about the kind of comfortably worn-in feel of that piece, mb accentuated by being lofi but extant regardless, reminds me of some of the miighty flashlight/mike fellows stuff which I feel like I've mentioned already on this thread but seemingly not. also that coda is indeed wicked

thx that's very kind. i will check out mighty flashlight/fellows cheers :)

don't forget the double ii! a v chill instance of rock dude going acoustic, his stuff was compositionally v riff/loop based but it's all about the ~vibe~

did you hear the recent chris brokaw record on VDSQ? might be up yr alley

there was a nice live vid of him that I liked. I am outside the demographic of boutique stuff like vdsq but he's done some other stuff which is more readily accessible so I'll have a rummage

agreed with the praise for yr track, ums, and likewise i'm especially fond of the coda. quite into the idea of doing that kind of very minimal, melodic loren connors / for octavio paz etc thing myself, but i'm not sure i have the confidence to trust in whatever austere melodies i come up with being any good.

Joni's tunings are cool, and definitely a really good player.

Tyler, what's Chasny's tuning? Don't think I've ever seen it, or if I have I have forgotten it.

Hah man I listened to UMS's song like 10 times today.

think it's Dgdgad, though i might have done something different with it, now i forget.

think i might have it in just dadgad now, dgdgad was too intense for me.

"Too intense" might work better via solo acoustic vs. electric with a band, can see that for sure. My tuning at my last show was basically DADAA, though all tuned down a half-step. I might be moving closer to just tuning everything to the same note, which is what, the L. Reed "Ostrich" tuning?

yeah! i've done that a few times -- it is fun for a while.

Yeah, I am mostly kidding, but I do love doubled strings at the same octave. I can see doing the "Ostrich" tuning for a specific piece/song, but it would get old pretty fast as far as trying to play any real guitar in it.

Dgdgad is right, he told me at the merch booth at the new bums show & I wrote a note in my phone

Cool, thanks for the follow-up UMS. May try that tuning out for fun, pretty close to what I play in already.

I remember some interview of later years Fahey talking about how he loves tuning the electric to all one note and using a steel bar.

UMS that tune is nice and def is a solid connection to Lena's approah. I think it's the quality of the skin on open strings. I'm always curious as to why people choose finger picks or bare fingers, or also the reasoning behind someone "making the switch" to picks/vice versa. But also I smirk how we all are kinda touchy when it comes to making these kinds of decisions when playing.

I've always noticed many players using a white plastic thumb pick (I'm not hip at all to guitar-dude brand knowledge). I've heard people talk bad about metal thumb picks bc of the rattling, metal fingers seem popular though. I've read how Fahey used to specifically alter his faux tortoise thumb. Shaving away much of the portion that actually touches the string, so that it's more of a spike, and falls faster off of the string as you strike.

I use all metal myself; and ever since putting picks on, I've felt it oddly awkward to play without them. It's kinda similar to the idea where you say, "I wish I could remember what it was like before I started smoking weed". Makes me kinda wish I never put them on in the first place, much more of a rush w/ picks on that it makes it hard to take them off.

I'm sitting in Panera, they always play that kinda cheesy instrumental acoustic guitar stuff, but the song on now is oddly Fahey like, but in a very accessible way. It's funny somehow.

yeah i go back and forth...i guess i was a bass player first and in one band i played with fingers and another more post-punk thing i played w/ a pick

i'm glad i learned fingerpicks, i feel like it helped my playing to become more precise and probably helped my form in picking...i switch back and forth now. sometimes more gentle type songs i feel like sound better w/fingers....i still play better with bare fingers to

peter lang told me that acrylic nails for a performance (he goes to a vietnamese nail shop) were the best but i ain't doing that

I think William Tyler mentioned he does the same thing regarding the nail shop.

new nathan bowles in november!

Yeah I have a good feeling about that N. Bowles record. Looks like he is gonna send out the first sample soon, which might be the song with Tom Carter on it. Tom is just having a great year so far, his records with Pat Murano and as Eleven Twent Nine are both crazy, and I think his upcoming Three Lobed solo record will be a high-water mark for him (I am hoping at least). Really cool to see him bounce back from a near-death experience with such powerful music.

Wanted to respond to this statement from UMS, sorry to the folks on the thread who aren't so into the "talking shop" aspect:

sometimes i listen to ppl like john renbourne or kottke or newer folks like bachman and tyler etc and they are so damn talented and skilled i get bummed out about my own playing, but then i try to remember lena hughes because those recordings are so great to me, and she's so comfortable with her own skill, and it's just really simple great melodies played beautifully, and at a fidelity level that's not even as good as a USB mic and a laptop...i dunno i find it inspirational to remember that you sometimes just need to let the song be the song and not worry about what you can't do

This really resonated with me, and I can't remember who said it, but it reminded me of a quote by some musician I admired at the time saying basically "you are only gonna be as good as you are on any given day, so just go for it and then keep working", which seems like a trite thing to say but just inhabiting that aspect of investing yourself in the playing at any given time and enjoying the process is key to just kinda plowing on in a productive way. Comparing your playing to other people, or getting hung up on technique, is a dangerous road to go down cause there is always a killer player who does stuff you wish you could do (I think even ridiculously good players think this from time to time if they aren't Guitar mag weirdos). While I get frustrated about my own playing plenty, I also can appreciate the times where I just ease into doing something that makes me happy, even if it is the most basic repetitive simplistic thing.

haha that reads more like "good general life advice" than "talking shop" :)

Hah yeah I guess, it is a little corny too in retrospect. Hopefully not too painful for those looking to discuss the players that are obviously ruling the roost.