You never knew you loved... Anti-folk resurgent
Every movement eventually suffers a backlash, no matter how noble. In fact, some of the most sincere and relevant movements suffer the greatest backlash from people who detect a thread of pretension in the effort, and attempt to unweave the project with a well-timed tug.
The 1960s is looked back upon as an era of political activism and social change that yielded significant culture change and a killer soundtrack. Folk revival artists such as Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, and Phil Ochs created music that was both of its time and timeless. Even today, when popular governments mount unpopular wars people speak of the eternal relevance of music created half a century ago.
The backlash was anti-folk, a genre with a diverse sound and a unified purpose: to subvert the political pretense of contemporary folk artists. The term came from the New York Antifolk Festival, the opening event for a club called The Fort started by singer-songwriter Lach after he was deemed “too punk” for conventional Greenwich Village folk clubs. The event coincided with the New York Folk Festival, and thus a tradition of contention was born.
The original club was shut down in the mid-80s, but the venue's name and spirit continued for almost a decade at various locations before finding a permanent home where it has remained ever since. Antifolk festivals are still held semi-annually.
More recently the genre has been reborn in the U.K., starting around the year 2000 in London and spreading to Brighton, where a separate yet analogous scene has developed. Recently, the trend has spread back to its birthplace in New York City and has been summarized on the spooneristic two-disc compilation album Anticomp Folkilation.
Adam Green: A founding member of anti-folk band The Moldy Peaches, Adam has been creating his own music as a solo artists since the band went on indefinite hiatus in 2004. His light-hearted anti-folk folk can be heard on Goblin from the album Minor Love, released earlier this year.
Emmy the Great: Emma-Lee Moss is a creation of the London anti-folk scene who goes by the stage name Emmy the Great. Her only full-length album, First Love, was listed at number seven on the New York Times albums of the year in 2009 and features the track Dylan.
Kimya Dawson: Yet another former Moldy Peach, Kimya has also spent time as a solo artist and in the band Antsy Pants. Her 2004 release Hidden Vagenda included Moving On, a track that also featured Vanessa Carlton.
The 1960s is looked back upon as an era of political activism and social change that yielded significant culture change and a killer soundtrack. Folk revival artists such as Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, and Phil Ochs created music that was both of its time and timeless. Even today, when popular governments mount unpopular wars people speak of the eternal relevance of music created half a century ago.
The backlash was anti-folk, a genre with a diverse sound and a unified purpose: to subvert the political pretense of contemporary folk artists. The term came from the New York Antifolk Festival, the opening event for a club called The Fort started by singer-songwriter Lach after he was deemed “too punk” for conventional Greenwich Village folk clubs. The event coincided with the New York Folk Festival, and thus a tradition of contention was born.
The original club was shut down in the mid-80s, but the venue's name and spirit continued for almost a decade at various locations before finding a permanent home where it has remained ever since. Antifolk festivals are still held semi-annually.
More recently the genre has been reborn in the U.K., starting around the year 2000 in London and spreading to Brighton, where a separate yet analogous scene has developed. Recently, the trend has spread back to its birthplace in New York City and has been summarized on the spooneristic two-disc compilation album Anticomp Folkilation.
Adam Green: A founding member of anti-folk band The Moldy Peaches, Adam has been creating his own music as a solo artists since the band went on indefinite hiatus in 2004. His light-hearted anti-folk folk can be heard on Goblin from the album Minor Love, released earlier this year.
Emmy the Great: Emma-Lee Moss is a creation of the London anti-folk scene who goes by the stage name Emmy the Great. Her only full-length album, First Love, was listed at number seven on the New York Times albums of the year in 2009 and features the track Dylan.
Kimya Dawson: Yet another former Moldy Peach, Kimya has also spent time as a solo artist and in the band Antsy Pants. Her 2004 release Hidden Vagenda included Moving On, a track that also featured Vanessa Carlton.
