There Is No Cat

The Portsmouth Sinfonia of Tuvan Throat Singing

Dunno how I missed this (too busy with house stuff I guess), but The Guardian had an interesting interview a few weeks ago with one of my favorite bands, The Handsome Family. The article quotes rock critic Greil Marcus as describing them as "The Beatles of Folk". Huh?!? That doesn’t make any sense to me. I prefer to think of them as the Louvin Brothers of indie rock with their modern take on the time-honored Appalachian death ballad genre. I don’t see anything of the Beatles in them at all. The first time I saw them, at the Anyway Fest in Columbus, Ohio, some years back, was a revelation, totally unexpected and out of the blue. I was absolutely gobsmacked. I thought they were completely brilliant, and I was stunned to think that nobody had beaten them to this particular aesthetic epiphany.

Anyway, the band has a new album, Singing Bones, out as of last month. Looks like we missed their New York show (not that I would have gone; now that I’m an old person, I’d rather drive to Ohio to see bands than go into the city, or so my loving wife laments). They’re going to be performing on Andy Kershaw’s show on BBC Radio 3 this month. I’ll definitely want to check that out. You might, too.

Posted at 2:45 AM