New-Primitivist Bands

Ugggggh . . . that's "drowning" in rote work. Sheesh.

Umm, the quote in question is:

...the band's music has garnered comparisons to the less abstract moments of Animal Collective and the output of other new-primitivist bands like High Places and Yeasayer.

... in which "new-primitivist" looks a whole lot more like a normal adjective than an attempt to round up any genre. (Note also that Animal Collective aren't being modified by that particular adjective.) So any work being done to make a genre out of it is mostly being done in this thread.

That said, I don't think that'd be bad work -- except that any current "new primitivism" still seems less like a genre and more like a trend, thread, or streak that's running through a lot of current bands of very different sorts. I'm not sure who I'd point to as actually distilling that primitivism into their main or major quality, or the actual field they're working in.

Hmm. Not much to add here yet, but I really like all those bands (except High Places, have yet to hear them). I think I might add Ruby Suns to that short list though.

Actually, sorry, wait: the "other" might mean Animal Collective are being modified by that adjective, yeah. (It's a little ambiguous whether the "other" refers to AC or Dodos, but yeah, AC seems more likely.)

Who are the Old Primitivist bands?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d4/GrandFunkSurvival.jpg

http://www.isntlifeterrible.com/uploaded_images/sha-775878.jpg

the godz and john fahey of course.

http://www.thetruevinerecordshop.com/www/american%20primitive%20vol.%20image.jpg

Amon Duul. Yes. In what universe could John Fahey ever be described as primitive?!??!!

uh, in his own words.
http://www.amazon.com/American-Primitive-Guitar-John-Fahey/dp/0786662085

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51irVOgICzL._SS500_.jpg

uh, in his own words.

Never exactly Mr. Reliability, was he?

Who are the Old Primitivist bands?

J.J. Rousseau & the Natural Men
The Marshal Sahlins Band
Ted Kaczinsky & His Package
Matisse 187
Beat Happening
We Are Cavemen
Your Mom

bo diddly.

Fugs

back from the grave to thread.

I.e., it's an art and theory term, not a pop-music one (although I think there was an eastern-European "new primitivist" punk scene at one point?).

i LOVE your mom

Fahey shunned the term "American Primitive" iirc. Then again he wasn't known for consistency in his public statements.

I'm not trying to create a genre where one doesn't exist or wasn't intended. Very possibly, I misread that line in Pitchfork. But it does make some sense, both in the context of that review and considering the bands mentioned therein. And, as it happens, the image upthread of American Primitive, Vol. I now makes me want this to be a genre, if it isn't already (tho, admittedly, I'm not in a position to make it so).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Primitivism

there have been threads of primitivism running through american music, both popular and underground, since at least the beginning of the 20th century. pretending otherwise is naive.

Hurting, he wasn't known for consistency in his consciousness.

Seems like the obvious criticim to make of the "primitivist" label is that the people who think of themselves that way are privileging their own position over the more "primitive" music they imitate, and by doing that also imputing to it a greater simplicity than it may have. The tendency in America has been to lump together all the people on *those scratchy old recordings*, especially people of color or from rural areas, as primitive, unschooled musicians.

Many of those *primitive* musicians, fwiw, in fact had varying levels of musical training. Some of them would have learned some harmony and theory in school or church, some of them took lessons, some of them travelled to cities and were influenced by a variety of styles of music. And that's not even to get into the problems with the very idea of "unschooled" or "primitive" music.

Actually, FWIW, I thought, in the past few years "those scratchy old recordings" had become a hip signifier (with all those reissue labels, e.g., Dust-to-Digital, Revenant Records).

Well, they've become a hip signifier again. And I'm not sure they ever weren't. But that's kind of what I'm trying to say.

i.e. Anyone who thinks of himself as "primitivist" is setting up a relationship where he can play make-believe savage by appropriating the work of what he sees as actual savages.

Understood. I'm not sure that's the intent or the mindset of any of the band mentioned on this thread, tho.

The tendency in America has been to lump together all the people on *those scratchy old recordings*, especially people of color or from rural areas, as primitive, unschooled musicians.

Far from being unschooled, some of those musicians were damn good, I think. (See, e.g., S/D: Old-Timey Music).