Folk-Rock

Recently, I have been obsessed with a band from North Carolina called The Avett Brothers. After seeing them at the 2010 Newport Folk Festival along with the other great acts such as other of my favorite bands including: Dawes, Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons, and the crazy-love filled, thirteen member band, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros I have focused in on their lyrical skills along as their musical skills. The band is made up of two brothers, Scott and Seth Avett who play the banjo and guitar respectively. They also are the vocalists and occasional drummer. Bob Crawford plays the stand up bass and they are often joined on tour by cellist Joe Kwon, (who if anyone can rock out on a cello and make it look cool it's this guy).Following on from Seth and Scott's former rock band Nemo, the Avett Brothers combine many types of genres including: bluegrass, country, punk, pop melodies, folk, rock and roll, honky tonk, and ragtime to produce a sound described by the San Francisco Chronicle as having the "heavy sadness of Townes Van Zandt, the light pop concision of Buddy Holly, the tuneful jangle of the Beatles, the raw energy of the Ramones." The Avett's song, "The Perfect Space" is an example of these different genres fused together, about halfway through, the listener can hear the shift to a heavy drum beat and more pop/rock melody.


One of the other bands I mentioned that I really enjoy is Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. This band, is funky to say the least. Led by lead singer Alex Ebert, who was addicted to hard core drugs and left rehab because he started to write about a messianic figure named Edward Sharpe. Ebert's alter-ego Edward Sharpe is the namesake for the band, Edward Sharpe fell in love with Jade, who is a member of the band, and the album, Up From Below, describes their journey. According to Ebert, Sharpe "was sent down to Earth to kinda heal and save mankind...but he kept getting distracted by girls and falling in love." Recently, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros have had their music been openly enjoyed. Their song "Janglin'" is on TV for a car commercial, and their song "Home" has had recently some radio exposure. Both of these bands use meaningful lyrics and interesting music to drive home their meanings, which is similar to poetry. Also, these bands use every member of their band, much like the team poets in the "Slam" movie the poetry class watched this past week.
Here is a video of "Home" and "40 Day Dream."





Here's a better quality version of "Home":