|
LYRICS |
|
MYSPACE |
|
MEDIA |
|
CONTACT |
|
SHOWS |
|
SHOP |
|
LISTEN TO: from “Carpenter’s Falls” LP (2008) from “The Ghost of H.W. Beaverman” (2007) Live at the 40 Watt 2/7/2007 Live at the 40 Watt 2/7/2007 Live at Transmet 8/7/2007 Live at Transmet 8/7/2007 YOU TUBE VIDEOS: Folklore Live @ The North Star Bar 2009 |
|
LIVE PERFORMANCES: Folklore Live Studio Session Optical Atlas Show #2: Folklore Live Folklore Late-Night Live Session Folklore Live @ Transmet 8/7/07 Folklore Live @ The 40 Watt 2/7/07 INTERVIEWS / REVIEWS: Interview with Jimmy Hughes of Folklore Review of “The Ghost Of H.W. Beaverman” Review of “The Ghost Of H.W. Beaverman” Review of “Carpenter’s Falls” Preview of Folklore CD Release show Winter 2008 Review of “The Ghost Of H.W. Beaverman” Interview with Jimmy Hughes of Folklore Tour preview for Winter 2007 Interview with Folklore / Review of “The Ghost…” Review of “The Ghost Of H.W. Beaverman” |
|
PRESS CLIPS: Review from Girl About Town (2009)
Review from PopMatters for “Carpenter’s Falls” (2008) “Folklore’s (Carpenter’s Falls) and their brilliant record The Ghost of H.W. Beavermann might be two sides of the same coin. If so, Carpenter’s Falls suggests the coin fell through a hole in Ian Curtis’s pocket and landed in some mud...“Bingo Beats” launches Folklore into another realm. It’s as if the icy voice of Curtis and the rhythm of Joy Division are haunting every step... Carpenter’s Falls is a less immediate record than it’s predecessor but still a convincing take on angst, decay, significance, entropy, and perspective.” Review from DayTrotter (2008) “Just in the last month, Jimmy Hughes took himself out of Athens, Georgia moving to the city of brotherly love … It’s a move that’s unlikely to affect his personal tides and compositions, for once the zaniness and uncorked atmosphere of one of the weirdest cities in America has reached you on a personal or impersonal level, there’s no extracting it back out… the yarns that he spins are reminiscent of those that a babbling old man at the end of his days would produce.” Review from PopMatters for “The Ghost of HW Beaverman” (2008) “The Ghost of H.W. Beaverman is a tale told from several perspectives broadly in the tradition of Kurusawa’s Rashomon, Sudden Sway’s To You With Regard and Iain Pears’ An Instance of the Fingerpost. This device conveys mystery and posits the notion that we all make our own reality within the grand illusion of life… The Ghost of H.W. Beaverman reminds me of perhaps the greatest concept album you have never heard: The Alchemist by 1970s British group Home. Their record had beautifully illustrated panels in a gatefold sleeve to reveal much of the narrative detail, leaving the music free to wander up gloriously muddy paths… There are some great tunes here, pitched somewhere between Appliance, Sun Kil Moon, and a stark, yet hummable, North European folk tradition… The Ghost of H.W. Beaverman is a totally satisfying blend of imagination, truth, myth, personal history, bullshit, nostalgia, experiment and philosophy. Regardless of whether Beaverman is a malevolent presence with inhuman powers, a convenient enigma, a misunderstood accident, or something else entirely, this is a delightful record.” Review from Viva Indie (2008) “(The album) focuses on the stories of how one man, HW Beaverman, basically upset the lives of almost everyone he came in contact with in a small town in upstate New York . Hughes spent years collecting these stories for a novel that never came to pass. Luckily for us, he used his considerable song writing skills to capture the stories in verse and share them with the world. Guest vocalists abound on this record all singing as various characters from the town telling their individual stories....The songs are poignant and provocative, heartbreaking and haunting. Truly a great effort by Hughes and absolutely everyone involved. “ Review from Americana UK (2008) “Not the simplest thing to achieve in the context of indie-pop and if you factor in nine different vocalists it is amazing that it sounds as coherent as it does… The band and guests are all from Athens, Georgia area and all mesh their own sound into the vision of Hughes; he takes lead vocal on ‘The Pharmacist’ a warm organ and brass decorated song full of simmering pop… A strange medievalist ‘The Ghost’ voiced by Heather McIntosh (The Instruments) evaporates out of the speakers like dust from a box in the attic, a remnant of a former age. The overlapping vocals of ‘H.W. Beaverman’ sound like voices leaking into the same space from different dimensions to create some kind of ghostly static, which is I suppose the point of all of this. Those of you excited by the Neutral Milk Hotel re-issues will find something to like here.” Review from Whisperin & Hollerin (2008) “The story is told through nine songs (and two instrumental tracks) narrating what Hughes calls a backwards rumor tree. So,at the outset, Beaverman is a menacing spectre while by the end he is a relatively benign figure in a diner and not a ghost at all…. The perspective on this urban myth varies to the extent that he is perceived as a dangerous psychopath or harmless prankster…. The tracks showcase standard indie instrumentation which is augmented by brass and string accompaniment. This gives an overall feel of a half hour Baroque psych-pop opera very much in keeping with the offbeat lo-fi style of Elephant 6 collective from which many of the contributors are drawn…. Hughes' concept is nevertheless an intriguing and original one. The album features accomplished ensemble playing and I wouldn't rule out the possibility of the songs working effectively with a strong visual presentation, say in a multi-media stage show or as a soundtrack to an animated film.” Review from Southeast Performer Magazine (2008) "Concept albums are a tricky thing; they work either because the music is fantastic or the story the record tells is engaging, but rarely do both things work out simultaneously. The first full-length CD from Athens band Folklore is one of these rarities. The Ghost of H.W. Beaverman tells the story of this much rumored and elusive man through the characters on the CD that recount their experiences of Beaverman, from sighting his specter to seeing the man himself in the flesh. Each character on the CD has his/her own song and each track is voiced by a different vocalist. Anyone familiar with the roster of Athens musicians will be delighted to see guest appearances from the likes of Amy Dykes (I Am the World Trade Center), Scott Spillane (Neutral Milk Hotel), Heather McIntosh (Circulatory System), Andrew Rieger (Elf Power) and many more veterans of the Athens music scene. The CD shifts between lo-fi acoustic tracks and highly stylized studio tracks resulting in 11 tracks of melodically charming and sometimes humorous pysch-pop songs. The airy sounding CD adds layer upon layer of harmony by utilizing an array of instruments from melodica, bells, harmonica and euphonium, to a variety of horns and strings. Another nice gem about the CD is the fact that each song can stand alone as its own entity outside of the storyline, and when taken out of context, the songs take on an even deeper meaning." Review in Flagpole (2008) “Folklore… pop music (that) veers towards lo-fi storytelling and takes unexpected narrative turns.” -Chris Hassiotis From www.georgiantheare.com - CD release show for Folklore in Athens (2008) At the beginning of 2007, after three years of being a band and two years of performing out live around Athens GA, Folklore completed their first full-length album entitled The Ghost Of H.W. Beaverman. This album, though available in Athens at shows and local record shops for some time now, is just now seeing proper release nationally via revived local label bumbleBEAR records on January 15th 2008. This Georgia Theatre presentation of Folklore live will celebrate the release of this album as well as a second CD from the Folklore gang, entitled Carpenter's Falls. This 12 song "companion piece" to The Ghost of H.W. Beaverman is said to tell further "back-story" and "periferal stories" pertaining to the previous Beaverman story as "J.D. Sallenger's “Nine Stories” would to his “Fanny and Zooey" (for those of you who can appreciate a literary comparison). Musically, Folklore is a 7-piece pop/rock/sometimes psychedelic jamboree that layers lush horns and wall-of-sound noise behind the lyrical storyteller. For now, the new CD, Carpenter's Falls, will be a limited edition release, only available at local show and stores (the band also is set to tour in March and will have copies on the road), so grab one while you can... first chance is at the Georgia Theatre January 19th for this Folklore CD release celebration. Review in Pitchfork (2007) “Folklore, a new project from Elf Power guitarist Jimmy Hughes with quite an intriguing premise. On its concept LP The Ghost of H.W. Beaverman-- which features guest appearances from pretty much half the population of Athens, Georgia-- the combo "takes ghost stories based in the mountains of upstate New York and dissects them into the myths and rumors from which they are based”… Sample tune "H.W. Beaverman" ain't too shabby, packing enough melody into its layers and vocal cataracts to make it worth a download.” - Matthew Solarski Best of 2007 List on www.mp3hugger.com (2007) “With so many of the big hitters failing to produce the quality albums we expect of them it quickly became apparent that 2007 could be showing the first signs that the shuffle generation are getting their just rewards. The evidence is mounting that the album may indeed be in its death throes… For what it's worth my favourite album of 2007 was Folklore's deeply imaginative The Ghost Of H.W. Beaverman which proved to be a stunning tale that weaved and bobbed like Cassius Clay in his prime.” Live Review in Madison Wisconsin’s The Isthmus (2007) “Folklore… provided the best set of a tepid night. By breaking out the clarinet, trombone, trumpet, keys and your standard bass-guitar-drums, these guys were both tuneful and humorous. At their giddiest, they echoed the happiness of Cornershop and The Tragically Hip, and at their quirkiest, the mishmash of The Coral and The Waking Eyes. Theatrically spoken, ode-like lyrics paired well with the sideshow antics from guys who looked like your local bait and tackle shop workers. During one song, two members played the instruments the other was wearing, employing a silly, musical buddy system. These small touches added humor and appeal.” - Emily Denaro Review in Cable & Tweed (2007) “Although relatively lo-fi in production, The Ghost of H.W. Beaverman is an interesting and ambitious record. It is a concept album, crafting songs around a mythology centered on events and personalities from upstate New York… It's not purely driven by the premise like Tommy, for example, but incorporates various story elements into the songs. This effort is broadly rooted in a sort of psych-folk aesthetic, with songs ranging from accessible folk ("The Vet" and "The Pharmacist") to jangle-pop ("The Father") and psychedelia ("The Drowning of Lake Bonaparte"). A number of tracks incorporate brass, woodwinds and strings as well.” Review in Captain Is Dead (2007) “The Ghost Of H.W. Beaverman is great piece of psychedelic pop that reminds me of uncle Bob Pollard on his best days… its a concept record, but doesn’t feel like one at all as each track could stand alone and you wouldn’t feel like you were missing some piece of the puzzle.” Review from Optical Atlas (2007) “Jimmy Hughes might be best-known as a guitarist for Elf Power, but word is spreading of his Athens-based band Folklore. As Jimmy explains, the band's first album, The Ghost of H.W. Beaverman, peels away the layers of the legend it tells, one track at a time, until it reaches epiphanies that are pretty ambitious for what is, essentially, a pop-rock album. What makes the record even more unique is that each track is voiced by a different singer, the names of whom might be familiar to devotees of Athens music: Andrew Rieger (Elf Power), Amy Dykes (I am the World Trade Center), Jon Croxton (Wee Turtles), Bren Mead (Masters of the Hemisphere and Vetran), Ian Rickert (Bugs Eat Books), Heather McIntosh (The Instruments and Circulatory System), Scott Spillane (Gerbils and Neutral Milk Hotel), and, of course, Jimmy himself. But those wary of elaborate concept albums should check out Folklore, if only to see how they can be done right: The Ghost of H.W. Beaverman plays as a collection of beautifully-crafted pop songs, and the story they happen to tell only gains resonance the deeper you dig.” - Jeff Kuykendall |