Freak folk
 | It has been suggested that this article be merged into Naturalismo. (Discuss) Proposed since June 2007. |
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Freak folk or Naturalismo is a genre of contemporary folk music and Indie folk associated with artists like Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom, The Shivers and Animal Collective.
The first reference to freak folk was by way of The Shivers who after a song about the asexual lifestyle, the audience started chanting "Folk Freak", in which the lead singer Keith Zarriello proclaimed, "Yeah!! This is Freak Folk! Get with it". Yet, it wasn't until recently the genre was actually being claimed with pride by other bands.[1]
It is related to but distinct from the historical genre psych folk.
"If you were to ask me how I feel about the term freak-folk," said Banhart to the New York Times[1], "it's cool - you have to call it something - but we didn't name it. We've been thinking about what to call it, and we just call it the Family."
After further connotations were connected to the term "freak folk," Devendra Banhart had the following to say in 2006:
I started talking to Andy Cabic from Vetiver about this. ‘What do you think about this? Naturalism is a good one, right?’ If we give them some alternatives then maybe people will start taking this seriously. It’s not going to happen with these humiliating, embarrassing, cheesy, tacky phrases like ‘freak folk.’ Then he says, ‘We don’t want to be anti-artifice. We don’t want to be against anything or elitist in any way.’ I agreed.” “Then I started thinking about something I’ve said in every interview, which is that everything is a derivative of nature. Everything. Even the most plastic, most synthetic things are derived from nature. The source of them is found in nature at some point. Naturalismo becomes a completely all-inclusive thing."
Banhart would eventually become fed-up with the term, saying in a 2007 Rolling Stone interview "the term is fucking lame! I just play rock 'n' roll." Many people, including those who have been labeled freak folk, have criticized the label. Greg Vandy, of KEXP, wrote on its blog, "The press have labeled it Freak Folk. Which pisses off all the artists described as such." Ed Droste, of Grizzly Bear, has said, "Freak-folk comes with an image attached: You have to have a beard and be Jesusy, if you know what I mean.... You have to have a really extreme voice, and be really divisive."[2]
See also
External links
References
See also
- Naturalismo
- Anti-folk
- Apocalyptic folk
- Ptolemaic Terrascope - a psychedelic folk & rock magazine
- Galen Pehrson - Galen Pehrson -- Psychedelic folk Artist and Director
- Mellow Candle
- Neofolk
- New Weird America - A modern American psych-folk movement