Genre Classics
Folk Juxtaposed
Words: Christian Crider

Folk music has been around in one form or another since the dawn of civilization. However, music made in America over the last sixty years is of particular interest to the contemporary listener. It’s safe to say that counter-culture has been around just as long, and so it’s also fairly sound to assume that there is a cultural yin to modern folk’s yang. The sub-genres of psychedelic folk and anti-folk come to mind. In the politically polarized musical terrain of the late 1900s, these genres emerged at different points in time, but with values similar enough to share beers at the pub. Psychedelic folk bands like Akron/Family or Devandra Banhart, and anti-folk acts like Beck and The Moldy Peaches, all share common origins in the folk genre. But what sets them apart from the mainstream deserves closer inspection.

Pearls Before Swine
One Nation Underground
ESP-Disk
1967
Hailing from Melbourne, Florida, Thomas Rapp and his posse set out to do something entirely different with folk music. Taking cues from psychedelic rock, Rapp composed folk songs culled from the surrealist imagery that became so popular in the 60s. One Nation Underground starts with the beautiful trek, “Another Time,” featuring crystal swans and velvet ponds. And if trippy lyrics aren’t enough, “(Oh Dear) Miss Morse” manages to spell out F-U-C-K in Morse code in a wry, yet seemingly innocent, banjo/organ tune that caused a small amount of controversy once the moral enforcers caught wind. “Drop Out!” cultivates urgency against the forces of society pushing and pulling at the individual, while also placing an emphasis on living life unhindered. Perhaps the best song on the album is “Uncle John,” which is an upbeat – yet scathing –indictment of the hateful religious extremists advocating violence in the name of God, which is unsurprisingly still relevant in 2008. Pearls Before Swine’s early contributions to the genre of psychedelic folk helped cement the genre in the minds of the counter-culture as a viable alternative to the popular folk of the turbulent period of the Vietnam War. The tradition of psych-folk lives on today, and remains a platform for the conscientious objector in a new time of war and strife.

Regina Spektor
Songs
Self-Released
2002
Anti-folk emerged in the 80s in New York, and has spawned some very popular acts in its time. While anti-folk takes into account its predecessors, the genre offers its own subtle twists on American folk music. In Regina Spektor’s case, this Soviet-born prodigy laces her music with quirky intellectualism and off-kilter vocal techniques including such oddities as the vibrating lip trumpet on “Lounge.” Songs was Spektor’s second foray into her incredibly weird imagination, and perhaps her best release to date. “Reading Time With Pickle” captures a fictitious relationship with a pickle, while “Consequence of Sounds” showcases Regina’s mad skills in spoken-word poetry set to piano. While Regina has recently become somewhat of a sensational pop act, her roots in the anti-folk scene are nevertheless present on her most recent release, Begin to Hope.