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Moshe · 02.18.2007, 09:07 AM

http://www.times-standard.com/portle...682&siteId=127

MV & EE bring 'freak folk,' or whatever it is, to Accident GalleryJoel Hartse/For the Times-Standard
Eureka Times StandardArticle Launched:02/18/2007 04:13:26 AM PST

You can't get much higher praise in outsider music circles than to have Thurston Moore, guitarist of the legendary Sonic Youth, call your album “the ultimate and most genuine artifact of what the media has proffered as 'freak folk' as it not only makes manifest all that is desirous of said scene but, in true nature, goes well beyond any known parameters as such. An already classic and legendary move.”
Your band would pretty much be set, if not ensconced as essential listening for a certain variety of music enthusiasts whose tastes are squarely outside the mainstream. MV & EE, the band of whom Moore spoke those words, find themselves in that position, though Moore is not only a fan, he also runs the record label, Ecstatic Peace, that happened to put out their album, “Green Blues.”
And though “freak folk” is perhaps the most inaccurate name given a genre -- musically, MV & EE (with guests the Bummer Road) are much more on the “freak” side of the equation -- Moore is right (even though he uses too many words) when he says that “Green Blues” establishes itself as a near-perfect example of this new movement, whatever it is. MV & EE have all the necessary points down pat: dressing like it's the 70s (MV has a giant mountain man beard, EE wears flowing hippie dresses), going by weird pseudonyms (collaborators include Sparrow Wildchild and Mo' Jiggs), a keen connection to nature (plants all over the liner notes, band poses with dogs, songs about the grass and the sun), appreciation for drugs (the first track, “East Mountain Joint” is pretty self-explanatory, and so on.
Of course, there's the actual music, too -- MV & EE build their songs slowly, often starting with formless electric-guitar drones, though nothing too overproduced; it's as if the effects were produced “naturally,” dependent on whatever sounds the amplifiers felt like making, with only a modicum of electricity, and eventually layering in percussion, more along the lines of tambourines and porch-stomping than a drum kit. Thick layers of guitar fuzz lay the foundation for old-timey acoustic guitars, and finally, three or four minutes in, a song emerges. In true “freak folk” fashion, the vocal melodies often seem to bear only a tangential relationship to the chords being played, like the moaned “can't pay the rent/with lo-o-o-ove” on “Canned Happiness.” Vocals really aren't the focus here: it's atmospherics, like on the closing “Solar Hill,” an 18-minute number that forgoes singing but zigzags between dissonant feedback, delicate post-rock, and simple -- yes -- folk. MV & EE play in Eureka Sunday Feb. 18, at the Accident Gallery with Charlambides and the Starving Weirdos at 8 pm.

02.18.2007, 09:07 AM	#19
Moshe Super Moderator Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 5,865	http://www.times-standard.com/portle...682&siteId=127 MV & EE bring 'freak folk,' or whatever it is, to Accident GalleryJoel Hartse/For the Times-Standard Eureka Times StandardArticle Launched:02/18/2007 04:13:26 AM PST You can't get much higher praise in outsider music circles than to have Thurston Moore, guitarist of the legendary Sonic Youth, call your album “the ultimate and most genuine artifact of what the media has proffered as 'freak folk' as it not only makes manifest all that is desirous of said scene but, in true nature, goes well beyond any known parameters as such. An already classic and legendary move.” Your band would pretty much be set, if not ensconced as essential listening for a certain variety of music enthusiasts whose tastes are squarely outside the mainstream. MV & EE, the band of whom Moore spoke those words, find themselves in that position, though Moore is not only a fan, he also runs the record label, Ecstatic Peace, that happened to put out their album, “Green Blues.” And though “freak folk” is perhaps the most inaccurate name given a genre -- musically, MV & EE (with guests the Bummer Road) are much more on the “freak” side of the equation -- Moore is right (even though he uses too many words) when he says that “Green Blues” establishes itself as a near-perfect example of this new movement, whatever it is. MV & EE have all the necessary points down pat: dressing like it's the 70s (MV has a giant mountain man beard, EE wears flowing hippie dresses), going by weird pseudonyms (collaborators include Sparrow Wildchild and Mo' Jiggs), a keen connection to nature (plants all over the liner notes, band poses with dogs, songs about the grass and the sun), appreciation for drugs (the first track, “East Mountain Joint” is pretty self-explanatory, and so on. Of course, there's the actual music, too -- MV & EE build their songs slowly, often starting with formless electric-guitar drones, though nothing too overproduced; it's as if the effects were produced “naturally,” dependent on whatever sounds the amplifiers felt like making, with only a modicum of electricity, and eventually layering in percussion, more along the lines of tambourines and porch-stomping than a drum kit. Thick layers of guitar fuzz lay the foundation for old-timey acoustic guitars, and finally, three or four minutes in, a song emerges. In true “freak folk” fashion, the vocal melodies often seem to bear only a tangential relationship to the chords being played, like the moaned “can't pay the rent/with lo-o-o-ove” on “Canned Happiness.” Vocals really aren't the focus here: it's atmospherics, like on the closing “Solar Hill,” an 18-minute number that forgoes singing but zigzags between dissonant feedback, delicate post-rock, and simple -- yes -- folk. MV & EE play in Eureka Sunday Feb. 18, at the Accident Gallery with Charlambides and the Starving Weirdos at 8 pm.
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