They began as a folk duo on the lower east side, doing irreverent versions of songs from the Harry Smith anthology. They became the backing band for The Fugs, had a brush with fame on the soundtrack to Easy Rider, briefly featured playwright Sam Shepard on drums, moved to Oregon and became the uber bar band. After carrying on for more than 40 years, they are still the most underrated band in history, The Holy Modal Rounders. [more inside]
posted by snofoam on May 24, 2011 - 15 comments

Have you reached the 13th level of rock and roll that is anti-folk? Do you think using an 8-track recorder is selling out? If the phone rang while recording a song for your album, would you try another take? Not if you were the Moldy Peaches you wouldn't. . . pansy. The Moldy Peaches are Adam Green and Kimya Dawson. Their first album, "the Moldy Peaches Greatest Hits" was most people's first taste of anti-folk and it featured clever (and occasionally insane) songs recorded in their apartment and subsequently rocketed them to stardom. In fact, they've just formed as a 6 piece and they have a video out. (The video is in realplay*buffering*er format)

But what exactly is anti-folk? The Moldy Peaches are pretty much all over the place musically and other anti-folk artists are no different. Take Jeffrey Lewis, who's songs range from intricate tales (his first love is cartooning) of chance encounters with love to rockin' songs about killing ghouls chimes in: [More Inside]
posted by untuckedshirts on Aug 31, 2003 - 20 comments