Now that Mid West Music Fest (http://www.midwestmusicfest.org/)
is over its time to turn to other avenues for new music. Each year I read up as
much as I can on South by Southwest (http://sxsw.com/), the granddaddy to our
own MWMF. At this point it’s a real industry extravaganza, yet from what I can
discern is still a breaking ground for new artists.
I only started hearing about 19 year old folk rocker Jake Bugg a couple months ago and resisted the good press, especially seeing Rolling Stone highlight his new album as the front piece in their music review section. I didn’t even read the write up at the time. [Note: my parents got me Rolling Stone for my b-day and I read it like People magazine for rock - a guilty little pleasure with hard-hitting political commentary.]
I did see in several people’s highlights of SXSW, Jake Bugg sets. When Daytrotter (our Midwest, downriver cousin and avenue for sampling lots of new music) posted a set of his tunes I gave a listen. I am not very impressed with English folk rockers, but this guy definitely rocks in his own unique way. A child of the Nottingham projects, he creates a driving, soft psychedelic sound, while referencing smoking “skinning a fat one”, drugs, and general trouble making on “Two Fingers” in a clear, somewhat gritty voice that belies his years. Hard to draw comparisons to American soft rockers when a strong English accent is involved, but the creative lyricism and original vocal of Conor Oberst (of Bright Eyes) solo stuff, or even the inimitable Alex Chilton of 1970s Big Star cuts like “Try Again” or “I’m In Love With a Girl” come to mind; also definite parallels to his countrymen Robyn Hitchcock and Syd Barrett (rare English musicians that I love).
I recently went back and read the Rolling Stone article and loved a quote where he dismisses Mumford & Sons as, “posh farmers with banjos.” Sounds smart-ass in the way many of his lyrics roll off the tongue. Seems like there is some substance to this guy, something to perk the ears.
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