Tag Archives: folk

My iPod #525: They Might Be Giants – Hide Away Folk Family

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When listening to They Might Be Giants’ 1986 self-titled debut for the first time, the opening drum fill for “Hide Away Folk Family” slightly caught me off guard. The four preceding songs establish the album’s upbeat and sprightly mood that you assume it’s the kind of rhythm and mood they’ll be going for throughout the whole thing. But no. “Hide Away” slows the album’s pacing down, allowing the listener to breathe for a few minutes and really feel the music.

Sung and presumably written by John Flansburgh, the track has a cosy and homey feel to it with a light lullaby-like melody to its lyrics and cute instrumentation. Take away the lyrics which creepily depict a mother and father who are paranoid about their house being burned down or blown up, and you have a perfect instrumental for a child’s bedtime song. The ‘happy music with dissonant lyrics’ trope is one that They Might Be Giants have used countless times; this is another instance in which it is executed with great effect. You wouldn’t realise what it was you were singing about unless you had a very good look at the lyrics.

My iPod #379: Pavement – Folk Jam

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I like “Terror Twilight”. I like it a lot. It’s my favourite Pavement album – I don’t care what you think. The whole album has this airy, breezy production to it which acts as a great hangover cure, and generally the songs on there aren’t too shabby.

The album includes “Folk Jam”, a steady number where the band play over a groove that is established from the first hit of the crash cymbal. The track has a bit of a country/folky vibe to it, probably because of the appearance of a banjo that is played by one of the members. Stephen Malkmus also mentions the manner of his birth, bemoans his ancestry and states a fear of Irish folk tales. So you can probably tell that the song won’t necessarily mean anything just by looking at that. But at least Malkmus doesn’t lie, this is a tune about his folks and another type of folk that scares him. Pretty clever, didn’t really think about that until now.

There’s not much of a chorus or a change in dynamics; it may come off as a bit repetitive for a new listener. However, it doesn’t have ‘jam’ in the song’s title for no reason. But I’m just saying, if you get bored listening to the track (which you shouldn’t)…. what you see is what you get.