Quicklist: Fav Weirdo Fringe Alt.Country Albums

[Smitty]

Vic Chesnutt - Little
Palace Music - Lost Blues & Other Songs
Magnolia Electric Co. - Nashville Moon (off Sojourner)
Sparklehorse - Good Morning Spider
Lambchop - Mr M.
Brute - Nine High a Pallet
Handsome Family - Through the Trees
Jim White - Wrong Eyed Jesus
Silver Jews - Bright Flight
Beck - Sea Change
Smog - A River Ain't Too Much to Love
South San Gabriel - Carlton Chronicles
Iron & Wine - Shepherds Dog

[Iowan]

Silver Jews - American Water
Songs: Ohia - Magnolia Electric Co.
Wilco - Being There
Centromatic - Love You Just the Same
Todd Snider - Agnostic Hymns and Stoner Fables
Roadside Graves - If Shacking Up is All You Want to Do
Magnolia Electric Co. - Trials and Errors
Patterson Hood - Killers and Stars

[Zip City]

Shovels & Rope - O' Be Joyful

[cortez the killer]

Tough one. I don't consider the following to fit the description, per se:
Songs: Ohia - Magnolia Electric Co.
Wilco - Being There
Centromatic - Love You Just the Same
Todd Snider - Agnostic Hymns and Stoner Fables
Roadside Graves - If Shacking Up is All You Want to Do
Magnolia Electric Co. - Trials and Errors
Patterson Hood - Killers and Stars
Magnolia Electric Co. - Nashville Moon

They are all excellent records. I just don't consider them to be weirdo/fringe. Fringe maybe, but pretty straightforward in their own alt.country/country-rock manner.

The following (for me) fit the description and would be the 10 that immediately come to mind:



(Disc 2 - The Black Ram)

[cortez the killer]

Shovels & Rope - O' Be Joyful

[Zip City]

charming

[Kudzu Guillotine]

Tough one. I don't consider the following to fit the description, per se:
Songs: Ohia - Magnolia Electric Co.
Wilco - Being There
Centromatic - Love You Just the Same
Todd Snider - Agnostic Hymns and Stoner Fables
Roadside Graves - If Shacking Up is All You Want to Do
Magnolia Electric Co. - Trials and Errors
Patterson Hood - Killers and Stars
Magnolia Electric Co. - Nashville Moon

They are all excellent records. I just don't consider them to be weirdo/fringe. Fringe maybe, but pretty straightforward in their own alt.country/country-rock manner.

Agreed. I also don't think of O' Be Joyful as a Weirdo/Fringe Alt.Country record since it's pretty straight up. Then again, I'm not all that well versed in this area even though I do own some of the records mentioned so far: Little, Nine High A Pallet and Wrong-Eyed Jesus. I don't hear anything particularly country about the first two but I'd definitely consider Jim White part of the weirdo alt.country fringe.

[Smitty]

Roadside Graves - If Shacking Up is All You Want to Do

Great one.
I forgot about The Adventures of the Felice Bros. I think it qualifies.

Cortez, I agree with most of what you said except for Roadside Graves - that album has a distinct weirdness. You also may be right about Nashville Moon; I do consider Molina overall to fit in the WFAC category, but that album is pretty conventional.
When I saw Agnostic Hymns & Stoner Fables on Iowan's list, my first thought was "what is he smoking?" until I thought about it and besides a couple straight forward tunes, that album is pretty damn weird (atleast for Snider). Something about Amanda Shires' playing even gives off an eerie vibe.

[Iowan]

Tough one. I don't consider the following to fit the description, per se:
Songs: Ohia - Magnolia Electric Co.
Wilco - Being There
Centromatic - Love You Just the Same
Todd Snider - Agnostic Hymns and Stoner Fables
Roadside Graves - If Shacking Up is All You Want to Do
Magnolia Electric Co. - Trials and Errors
Patterson Hood - Killers and Stars
Magnolia Electric Co. - Nashville Moon

Its a loose, relatively undefined description, and I'm certainly not as far down this avenue as some folks.

These are all records that sound outside the boundaries of "conventional" Alt. Country to my ears. Be it on the basis of song structure, recording techniques or instruments being used. Just seem different to me.

Examples of conventional alt country in my mind:
Son Volt - Trace
DBT - The Dirty South
Wilco - AM
Whiskeytown - Stranger's Almanac
Slobberbone - Crow Pot Pie

[cortez the killer]

Tough one. I don't consider the following to fit the description, per se:
Songs: Ohia - Magnolia Electric Co.
Wilco - Being There
Centromatic - Love You Just the Same
Todd Snider - Agnostic Hymns and Stoner Fables
Roadside Graves - If Shacking Up is All You Want to Do
Magnolia Electric Co. - Trials and Errors
Patterson Hood - Killers and Stars
Magnolia Electric Co. - Nashville Moon

They are all excellent records. I just don't consider them to be weirdo/fringe. Fringe maybe, but pretty straightforward in their own alt.country/country-rock manner.

Agreed. I also don't think of O' Be Joyful as a Weirdo/Fringe Alt.Country record since it's pretty straight up.

I guess you're "charming" as well.

[Iowan]

Roadside Graves - If Shacking Up is All You Want to Do

Great one.
I forgot about The Adventures of the Felice Bros. I think it qualifies.

Cortez, I agree with most of what you said except for Roadside Graves - that album has a distinct weirdness. You also may be right about Nashville Moon; I do consider Molina overall to fit in the WFAC category, but that album is pretty conventional.
When I saw Agnostic Hymns & Stoner Fables on Iowan's list, my first thought was "what is he smoking?" until I thought about it and besides a couple straight forward tunes, that album is pretty damn weird (atleast for Snider). Something about Amanda Shires' playing even gives off an eerie vibe.

Smitty's picking up on what I'm laying down.

Again, this is just stuff that sounds weird to my ears in comparison to classic conventional alt country. Whatever the fuck that is.

[Shakespeare]

Shovels & Rope - O' Be Joyful

[cortez the killer]

Roadside Graves - If Shacking Up is All You Want to Do

Great one.
I forgot about The Adventures of the Felice Bros. I think it qualifies.

Cortez, I agree with most of what you said except for Roadside Graves - that album has a distinct weirdness. You also may be right about Nashville Moon; I do consider Molina overall to fit in the WFAC category, but that album is pretty conventional.
When I saw Agnostic Hymns & Stoner Fables on Iowan's list, my first thought was "what is he smoking?" until I thought about it and besides a couple straight forward tunes, that album is pretty damn weird (atleast for Snider). Something about Amanda Shires' playing even gives off an eerie vibe.

Yeah... If you want to force-feed something like Celebration, Florida into the mix, or even their self-titled (but not really), I might give you that. Molina is/was (I HATE saying that) on the weirdo/fringe side of the equation, but Nashville Moon is pretty standard-fare stuff. Roadside is debatable. I don't find them to be, but I can understand how/why they'd be included. I LOVE that Shacking Up record, for the record. Snider is a weird dude, but, musically speaking, he is as straightforward as they come (in the genre).

[cortez the killer]

Its a loose, relatively undefined description, and I'm certainly not as far down this avenue as some folks.

These are all records that sound outside the boundaries of "conventional" Alt. Country to my ears. Be it on the basis of song structure, recording techniques or instruments being used. Just seem different to me.

Perhaps. I guess I'm really caught up in the "weirdo" part of the equation. Hard to define, but I know it when I hear it.

[Smitty]

It had been so long since I completely(unintentionally, I might add) mindfucked the board with this thread, I thought I'd make sure everyone was still paying attention.

[dime in the gutter]

sleepy strange/japancakes

[Iowan]

Roadside Graves - If Shacking Up is All You Want to Do

Great one.
I forgot about The Adventures of the Felice Bros. I think it qualifies.

Cortez, I agree with most of what you said except for Roadside Graves - that album has a distinct weirdness. You also may be right about Nashville Moon; I do consider Molina overall to fit in the WFAC category, but that album is pretty conventional.
When I saw Agnostic Hymns & Stoner Fables on Iowan's list, my first thought was "what is he smoking?" until I thought about it and besides a couple straight forward tunes, that album is pretty damn weird (atleast for Snider). Something about Amanda Shires' playing even gives off an eerie vibe.

Yeah... If you want to force-feed something like Celebration, Florida into the mix, or even their self-titled (but not really), I might give you that. Molina is/was (I HATE saying that) on the weirdo/fringe side of the equation, but Nashville Moon is pretty standard-fare stuff. Roadside is debatable. I don't find them to be, but I can understand how/why they'd be included. I LOVE that Shacking Up record, for the record. Snider is a weird dude, but, musically speaking, he is as straightforward as they come (in the genre).

Maybe that's why I threw Agnostic Hymns in there. You're absolutely right in that Snider, in general, is as straightforward of an alt-country artist as there is.

When he threw in a bunch of a creepy violin, dusty hollow-body guitar and really sparse drum/bass sounds, it gave me lots of weirdo vibe. Could have just been because it didn't sound like Todd Snider usually sounds.

[cortez the killer]

It had been so long since I completely(unintentionally, I might add) mindfucked the board with this thread, I thought I'd make sure everyone was still paying attention.

Man did that thread get messy (and incredibly misunderstood). Brilliant!

[Kudzu Guillotine]

It had been so long since I completely(unintentionally, I might add) mindfucked the board with this thread, I thought I'd make sure everyone was still paying attention.

You read my mind as that's the first thing I thought of when trying to comprehend this thread. It's one thing to try to define an already undefinable genre, just try throwing "weirdo" and "fringe" into the mix to make it even more difficult. Still, I trust anything folks come up with here more than I do on that Saving Country Music site. I can't quite put my finger on it but there's just something sort of half-assed about those lists they came up with.

[tinnitus photography]

let's get Jimmy Jack in this thread.


maybe it's my reading of what 'alt.country' is supposed to signify, but this record needs to be represented:

[tinnitus photography]

The Wire had a good feature a few years ago on New Weird America (think Devendra Banhart, mv+ee, Jack Rose, etc) and though that article isn't online, this unpublished one is:
http://thewire.co.uk/in-writing/essays/ ... ng-fathers


btw, Coley's feature on Fahey in Spin years ago was a pivotal eye-opening moment for me. check it:

http://books.google.com/books?id=ZURL7u ... ey&f=false

[Clams]

btw, "weirdo, fringe alt-country" might be the best description I've ever heard for what I listen to. I still struggle for a succinct, non-rambling description whenever I'm asked what kind of music I like. "Alt-country" doesn't quite cover it, neither does americana or whatever else (and I absolutely bristle when my kids tell people that I listen to country music b/c where I live that means top 40 country). "Weirdo, fringe alt-country" pretty much perfectly suits my need for a quick catch-all description. Love it.

[cortez the killer]

You could make an argument for HGM to fit that description. Although, the "weirdo" part in his case is a bit of a stretch. Musically, he is fairly straightforward country/folk/rock. He obviously puts his own stamp/spin on things, but, personally speaking, I don't consider him to be like some of the other artists mentioned in this thread.

[Clams]

You could make an argument for HGM to fit that description. Although, the "weirdo" part in his case is a bit of a stretch. Musically, he is fairly straightforward country/folk/rock. He obviously puts his own stamp/spin on things, but, personally speaking, I don't consider him to be like some of the other artists mentioned in this thread.

My apologies, Cortez. I was under the impression that it's weirdo "and/or" fringe to qualify for this thread, but now I see that it has to be both weirdo and fringe. Thanks for clarifying this important distinction!

[cortez the killer]

Anytime, Clams. Anytime.

[TW_2.0]

Dark and weird and fringe and depressing.

[tinnitus photography]

You could make an argument for HGM to fit that description. Although, the "weirdo" part in his case is a bit of a stretch. Musically, he is fairly straightforward country/folk/rock. He obviously puts his own stamp/spin on things, but, personally speaking, I don't consider him to be like some of the other artists mentioned in this thread.

My apologies, Cortez. I was under the impression that it's weirdo "and/or" fringe to qualify for this thread, but now I see that it has to be both weirdo and fringe. Thanks for clarifying this important distinction!

one man's weirdo is another man's fringe.



head over to the NNCK camp for fistfuls of both.

[RolanK]

I am confused; What differentiates Weirdo Fringe Alt.Country from "regular" Weirdo Fringe Country?

And can we have sub genres?

[StormandStatic]

The weirdest Molina records that still have something of a country air are probably Ghost Tropic and Didn't It Rain, definitely two of his best.
Pyramid Electric Co. also has some strange stuff on it.

[cortez the killer]

The weirdest Molina records that still have something of a country air are probably Ghost Tropic and Didn't It Rain, definitely two of his best.
Pyramid Electric Co. also has some strange stuff on it.

Exactly.