Simon Reynolds is a gobshite

its just a bit of fluff

xp she's freak folk. freak folks have beards. therefore she has a beard.

load of pointless tosh, really (especially as there's no excuse for mentioning m*tt v*lentine, in any context). but nice to see the lovely folks at beard mag get a bit of publicity.

its just a bit of fluff

Looks like a full beard to me

Yeah, DJ Mencap's second post was more what I was trying to say. Like, what the FUCK is he trying to say, that Newsom (or however you spell her name) is metaphorically bearded.

I mean, yeah, I'm not denying that Beardo is definitely a *thing* of the noughties. But it is by its very definition such a masculine thing. Not to even get into the politics of hair removal for women* - it's just such a weird thing for someone to say about Newsom. Considering she's pretty much the opposite (in music and image) of everything I'd consider "beardy"**.

*I mean, what *is* the feminine equivalent of growing a beard for women? Ceasing to shave her armpits or legs? There's such a negative gender coded response to that, that I don't think that bearded men really face.

**trying to think of a female artist I would consider "beardy" in music or image. Peaches, despite the obvious joke, is clearly not. Hence the added shock value of that album cover.

She's kinda hippyish, is that what he means?

of course its what he means you bloody nutjobs

did you guys read the article or

I guess... but she's rather too *ethereal* to be properly Beardy. Beardy is far more... earthy. I think Fever Ray would probably be closer to my idea of a Beardy female artist, but she's still too spooky.

I wanted to say, Beardy is the kind of artist you could see chopping wood for their fire. But then again, I don't think many of those beardy indie boys in Brooklyn could chop wood. They just pretend to look like they can.

Wait - Sarabeth Tucek, beardy as fuck. Maybe even Lightning Dust?

x-post YES I READ THE ARTICLE, hence why I thought the description was so utterly weird and off.

do you have anything to comment on the article except as regards the Newsom reference?

Sure, I do. But your attitude seems such that you're going to criticise me no matter what I say, so I don't really feel like taking the time to type it out.

Joanna Newsom is neo-hippyish, the bearded chaps are neo-hippyish, they are both retro in a late 60s / early 70s way, and this particular type of retro is a hallmark of the noughties. Seems to make sense to me.

^^^ That plus "freak-folk", obv.

xxp not at all, I'm genuinely interested to know. My only point is that one shouldn't expect cutting-edge journalism from the Guardian, least of all its blog pages, which are (yes) lighthearted fluff designed to provoke lighthearted discussion.

my comment is that i felt like more of a pansy having grown a beard than when i was without. what masonic boom's blokishly literalist gender codification is missing is that there's often a subtext of feminine sensitivity in earthyness, just as there is an element of masculinity in distanced etheriality.

ok maybe i wasn't ethereal without a beard, but...

^ outed as a beardo

Interesting point. Only men can grow beards, therefore beard = masculine, and yet the beardo types of the noughties are in fact rather fey.

If he means "freak-folk", say "freak-folk" - if he means "hippie" then say "hippie" - "beardy" has a different resonance (and a very specifically male resonance). In Reynolds-world, nothing ever has just a surface meaning, it's always a signifier for some other point he's trying to reach for. Shoe-horning Lindstrom (and Air, WTF?) in with freak-folk or hippies also seems an odd thing to do, but because, he actually *has* a beard, that's somehow supposed to make more sense?

I know that music and sartorial (and hairstyle) fashions are all very interlinked but if he's trying to describe a "beardy" aesthetic (which seems to be more than just "hippie" or "freakfolk" from the fact he drags Lindstrom and Air in) ... ?

It's like some kind of bizarre set theory. There is the set of Beards and the set of Freakfolk. You can be in the set if you have a beard but are not FF, or you can be in the set if you make FF but do not have a beard... but it's an odd, odd set to draw. But I suppose that's just the nature of Reynolds, so I should take it as given that it will overreach and not make sense.

x-posts, no, there ISN'T a masculinist air to Ethereality. The cult of the Ethereal Girl is almost like this get-out clause for women to participate in the masculine rock arena without getting into any of those nasty, aggressive, weird, outsider/genius things that said rock involves. It's like rock with ALL the masculine stripped out. (But this is something I've been ruminating on for months)

He said "freak-folk" just before the parentheses. it was a joke.

Also Lindstrom is totally beardo, his tunes are on DJ Harvey mixes!!

Also also you're inadvertently onto something w/r/t beardo, freak folk and set theory. The aesthetic impulses that drive the two are very similar at times which is why they overlap so much.

The feyness thing is interesting, though. It's just odd trying to make it reverse.

And that's my point, Tim - Lindstrom is *totally* Beardo, but he's not Freakfolk in the SLIGHTEST.

Yes but the point of mentioning Lindstrom and Air seemed to be to align them against all the freak-folk as being more redolent of Michael McDonald and soft rock.

reynolds is just using a bit of feminine intuition, try it sometime.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0pnbPobqNg

The great unifier:

http://thesebootsaremadeforstalking.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/crazy-joaquin-phoenix-beard.jpg

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.