Remember back in March when we featured Kentucky artist Joplin Rice? Well that release was put out by Practice Records, which I said at the time was run by the same people who run the excellent music blog The Modern Folk Music of America. The site is one of the best around at featuring properly independent, DIY music, the kind of stuff people make in the bedrooms and garages because it’s lots of fun or they feel some urgent calling to do so – the best kind of stuff, in other words. As the ‘About’ section states:
“The goal of my site is to feature what i think of as “folk music”, which is music made by people who are trying to get by leading lives in our modern world who love to express themselves through music”
That sentiment resonates with us here at WTD, and it should with you too. Folk songs don’t require banjos and fiddles, it’s something a little deeper than that. You’d be a fool not to follow that link above and spend all evening trawling through the (sometimes rough) gems that get posted on a regular basis.
But! This post isn’t all about singing the praises of The Modern Folk Music of America. What I really want to tell you about is that J. Moss, the guy who runs the site and Practice Records, also makes music of his own – under the moniker The Modern Folk. The last six months has seen three releases from The Modern Folk, each of which represents a slightly different approach to making DIY music. Surround Me is an album of gutsy, lo-fi garage rock, recorded in warehouse spaces with a drummer and everything turned up to eleven, whereas Leather Jacket is much more reserved, recorded at home with the aid of an “ancient” drum machine. The album has this great swaggering, half-soaked coolness about it, all mumbling vocals and lazy guitars – basically exactly how a record called Leather Jacket should sound. The final release is American Sewer, which was reportedly recorded on a cellphone under a bridge in Portland in the space of just two hours. It kinda sounds like it too, all blown-out rumbling blues rock guitars and yelpy vocals, the sort of thing they play in bars frequented by tough guys (I’d imagine).
This is bona fide DIY music. Don’t let the lo-fi tag deceive you, a lot of hard work has gone into these recordings, right down to the artwork, which Moss produced himself. Check out a few of my current favourite tracks below:
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[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=1205618681 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=3116433934]
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=1787259529 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=160867368]
You can get each of the releases on a pay-what-you-want basis via The Modern Folk’s Bandcamp page. There are also plans for physical releases so keep your eyes peeled and ears to the ground!