free/freak folk is a loose term of the revival that happened at the start of this decade with acoustic based singer/songwriters and folk enthusiasts who tried to tap into the '60/70's style of the looser, more acid-tinged leaning of the genre (especially from england); sometimes mixed with 90's counter culture sounds (like that of the elephant 6 collective or of singer/songwriters like cat power and bonnie 'prince' billy) or with harder/rougher sounds. bands and artists that have been refered to these tags have been six organs of admittance, devendra banhart, espers, vetiver, lavender diamond and even people like animal collective, sufjan stevens and sunburned hand of the man.

again, just dumb categorization, mostly derivative from the "new weird america" tag.

of course, someone's going to say i'm wrong and that there's 'pure' freak/free folk people and posers. yeah, someone once lost his shit over me because, according to him, it was "free" folk not "freak", i was making shit up in his mind.

Thanks for that Everyneurotic. I keep wanting to hear more Sunburned Hand of the Man. Would you say elements of NNCK fit into that kind of thing?

yeah, nnck, jackie o motherfucker are definitely more folk...perhaps more singer/songwriter i mean than those bands but said vibe.

basically, john fahey is a huge influence.

i recommend charalambides and jack rose, from this loose term.

music that's coming out today, is away from the mainstream and has earthy tones...i seriously once read someone describe xiu xiu as a freak folk band.

Wicked stuff. thanks!

Now, answer this: if The Wicker Man is British psych folk put onto film, does that make The Blair Witch Project its American freak folk equivelent?

Either way, I think I'll watch them both as a double bill tonight.

Bump 'cause that thread can't die

Could you give me John Renbourn album suggestions by the way (I know Bert Jansch and Pentangle more) ?

I'd recommend Lady and the Unicorn. Although I only heard it once, I remember being very impressed. Has a sort of early medieval feel to it as I recall. One I should really get for myself actually.

Thanks demonrail666 :cool:

You should also check these guys out, I'm currently working on a film that has both Belgian bands in it-

KISS THE ANUS OF A BLACK CAT (folk is the new black)
IGNATZ (deconstructed folk and delta blues - improvised stuff)

What a name ! :D

The name stems from a cult in the medieval century where was said that witches kissed the anus of a black cat to cast out spells.

Kiss The Anus Of A Black Cat is great stuff; been following that since the Unbroken Circle site turned me on to it a while back.

It's my understanding that these Belgian folks dont sprechen the anglais very well, and believed this meant The Cat's Whiskers Folk Band in english

just catched the video on their site of them recording one of their songs. great stuff, definitely a band I'll look out for in the future. Thanks for the nod Jeff.

edit: i'm talking of course about Kissing the Anus of a Black Cat. My current fave band title of all time. When you first mentioned it I thought you were joking.

edit 2: Ignatz. In two words, Fucking WOW!

Ignatz. Prepare to be amazed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs4L_l4iDEA

no, it's the fat hot topic mall goth equivalent.

I visited a Hot Topic once when I was in Ohio. I knocked over a display of Goth jigsaw puzzles. The staff weren't impressed until they discovered I was English. They just wanted to ask questions about Joy Division after that.

actually, whenever i've been to hot topic, i've found very good stuff most of the time, from good cds for fucking cents to decent shirts (not many band shirts, though).

I've just discovered Marla Hansen, the violist from the string quartet Osso (My Brightest Diamond and Sufjan Stevens), the tracks on her myspace are awesome.

http://www.myspace.com/marlahansen

Mellow Candle

Good British psych folk.

The demo versions of that Mellow Candle LP are way better IMO than the actual "Swaddling Songs" album. I used to have both, but eventually got rid of Swaddling Songs because I never listened to it.