Paul Thorn "Burn Down the Trailer Park" off his 1999 album Ain't Love Strange. Just some Texas blues, y'all.
-- Badtux the Music Penguin
1 day ago
Thursday, December 01, 2011
3 comments:
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I love how location influences musical style.
ReplyDeleteI think it might be more a case of people migrate to where their music styles are most appreciated. For example, Gurf Morlix is a staple of the Austin music scene, he's produced the albums of a number of Austin-based musicians ranging from Lucinda Williams to Slaid Cleaves as well as released a fair number of his own albums that reflect the Austin sound. But he was born in Buffalo, NY. Similarly, Chan Marshall was a staple of the New York indie "noise" scene in the mid 1990's, her band "Cat Power", consisting of herself and two other staples of the New York indie "noise" scene (the drummer for Sonic Youth and the guitarist from Two Dollar Guitar) played almost every night and released several albums of noisy rock. But she was born in Atlanta, GA.
ReplyDeleteSo yes, there are these geographic locations where a particular sound seems to thrive. But it appears to be more a case of people with similar musical tastes moving to a common place, rather than because of someone being born there and just absorbing it from birth.
And this doesn't quite address what you said, but it's 11PM, WTF, I'm going to bed :).
- Badtux the Tired Penguin
That is certainly one reason why a musician might choose to move to a place. I know one or two people who moved to Seattle because they hoped to get their bands into that grunge scene there.
ReplyDeleteBut I've also seen music form locally here among locals in a kind of word of mouth way although sometimes when you are in a music scene, it isn't always easy to realize that it is local. Techno is my big example of that. What happens when a bunch of kids in Detroit decide they want to sound European? ;) I used to go to clubs all the time to dance to this music we just called "house" and never even realized that it was a local style. I thought every dance club in the whole world had creative types producing original music for dancing :)
Lucinda Williams is from Austin? She always sounded like she was from New Orleans or something. I guess my ear isn't especially sophisticated when it comes to hearing those location differences unless they're really obvious. ;) I still find it really fascinating.
The last time I was in California, I went to see a few bands in local bars. They all seem heavily influenced by the Grateful Dead which is ok. But that California sound was born in California even if the musicians who birthed it were from someplace else. And to me now, I can't listen to a Grateful Dead tune without thinking of this whole California lifestyle and well California. But I suppose if I were a musician who was really into that type of music, I would move to California. That just reinforces the link between a sound and a location.