Blog: Uncommon Folk

My Uncommon folk friends. You can now find my writing over at Stylus Magazine where I am now a Music Reviewer and Features Writer. It is an amazing site with a great mission statement. I highly encourage you to read anything you want on the site but if you wish to keep track of my writing you can visit and/or bookmark my Stylus Magazine bio page which automatically updates when something of mine has gone up on the site. My first review just ran two days ago and it is a review of one of the [...]

In Between Time (Uncommon Folk, 2005) MP3: Look At What The Light Did Now On Thursday, September 22nd Uncommon Folk will end its short legacy on a charitable note. For the past three years here in Chicago we have had a wonderful event organized by the non-profit organization Rock for Kids (www.rockforkids.org) called the Music Mixer. The [...]

Dear Friends of Uncommon Folk, For almost half a year Uncommon Folk has served as a major (and probably only) niche blog for current and experimental folk music. When your humble preacher first took on this endeavor I never realized how popular it would become and how great the reception would be. Like sports players [...]

An Interview with Kranky (September 14, 2005) MP3: Somewhere Far MP3: Comfortable Expectations Uncommon Folk is glad that the final interview posted on this site is with its favorite record label, Kranky. Bruce Adams and senior partner Joel Leoschke run Kranky out of Chicago and since 1993 have been releasing some of the most original, innovative and amazing [...]

Dear Friends of Uncommon Folk For almost half a year Uncommon Folk has served as a major (and probably only) niche blog for current and experimental folk music. When your humble preacher first took on this endeavor I never realized how popular it would become and how great the reception would be. Like sports players do, [...]

O Happy Marriage (Factory R, 2005) MP3: Don't Play Dead Before You Have To Michael Iafrate runs a weblog called Catholic Anarchy. His musings on religion and politics will remind many of the great Mario Vargas Llosa novel The War of the End of the World where religion and politics intersect for the common good and, also, [...]

Trill Press (Trill Press, 2005) SPECIAL: Trill Press T-Shirt Giveaway Shirt #1: Beat Meister (Mens) Shirt #2: Blood Engine (Womens) Trill Press is an absolutely brilliant independent screenprinting press based out of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Their designs are just not nice eye candy but very informed pieces of art. For instance, Forest of Trill Press writes about their [...]

Tell-All Records Vol. 1 (Tell-All Records, 2004) MP3: St. Rosa MP3: Keith Negley Tell-All Records announces on its website that it "is a small record label" whose "motivation is to find important, careful, ecstatic, moody, reckless sound." While the latter may always stay true the former may not. Even though the San Francisco label only has four releases [...]

RS + PB (Ryan Stively, 2005) MP3: Your Technology It breaks Uncommon Folk's heart not just everytime we hear a really sad song. It breaks our heart everytime we hear an amazing album that is self-released. Not that there is anything wrong with self-released records. It's great. Really great. But we live in such a world where [...]

An Interview with Andrea Bauer (September 7, 2005) MP3: Secret Andrea Bauer grew up in the same suburban cluster and went to the same high school as I did. And yet we never crossed paths until a year ago when I started working at the Chicago Reader where she is a fellow Production Artist and also a [...]

The Empty Heart of the Chameleon (Tell-All Records, 2005) MP3: The Last The Empty Heart of the Chameleon can be construed as an album title that fits perfectly with the music; as someone trying to hide as not to be seen, as a lonely soul filled with longing. Singer is a Portland native who now lives in [...]

Split 73 (Slight Record, 2004) MP3: Atrophy Holy Sons and Dolorean have always been connected in some way. On this split 73, which is the first release on Slight Record, they join forces for an amazing musical output, a short but very sweet taste of these two great bands. Holy Sons is the solo work of Emil [...]

Confused (Temporary Residence Ltd., 2004) SPECIAL: Lazarus Limited Edition 73 Giveaway MP3: Fashion/Murder Trevor Montgomery, aka Lazarus, has been kind enough to donate 2 copies of his extrememly limited, painted, hand-numbered 73 titled Confused. This record sells for $15 dollars on the label's website but the first two people to make donations to AmeriCares and email uncommonfolk@gmail.com their [...]

Trill Press (Trill Press, 2005) SPECIAL: Trill Press T-Shirt Giveaway Shirt #1: Beat Meister (Mens) Shirt #2: Blood Engine (Womens) Trill Press is an absolutely brilliant independent screenprinting press based out of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Their designs are just not nice eye candy but very informed pieces of art. For instance, Forest of Trill Press writes about their [...]

Inventory (U.V. Avnur, 2005) MP3: Victory Victory You can only un-judge a book by its cover with hindsight. That is obvious, because the phrase "don't judge a book by its cover" has no room for hindsight. The cover of the latest U.V. Avnur (whose real name is Yuval Avnur) album titled Border Songs is one of those [...]

Inventory (Keep Recordings, 2005) MP3: Unfantastic Few Today's review will be late. Enjoy the song for now and hurry up and buy this album. The first-edition of 1,000 copies are housed in letterpress packaging & include a mini-Inventory tag, signed by Brian Michael Roff. Full review coming soon . . .

An Interview with Misra Records (August 31, 2005) MP3: Turn Your Transmitters Off (demo) MP3: I Feel Too Young to Die (demo) Phil Waldorf runs the incredible Austin-based record label Misra Records. Along with his cohorts, staff and cats, Misra has consistently put out some of the best music over the last several years. Many people may know [...]

Noah's Ark (Touch and Go Records, 2005) MP3: Noah's Ark With only one album under their belt, the girls of CocoRosie became overnight press darlings and cult heroes. Their debut album, La Maison de Mon Réve, only came out last year and incorporated so many styles from old time gospel, folk stylings to current hip hop trends. [...]

One Way, It's Every Way (The Leaf Label, 2005) MP3: Come To Mean A Natural Law Australian singer/songwriter Mark Mitchell is set to release his sophmore album under the moniker Clue To Kalo on September 5th on The Leaf Label. Mitchell has been known for his lo-fi recording style that is then transported and altered through computer [...]

Boduf Songs (Kranky, 2005) MP3: Lost In Forests Due to a late night of recording, Uncommon Folk's review of the amazing and upcoming Boduf Songs album will be delayed until later on Friday or Saturday morning. That still gives you the whole weekend to read it. In the meantime listen and download the song and visit the [...]