crayola kids: an underground music scene (short documentary)

i thought i'd post this brief documentary about the current generation of people booking and playing shows at the crayola house in harrisonburg, VA.

a place that holds a lot of memories for a lot of people, the crayola house has been a venue for DIY shows for nearly 20 years (i think..) playing host to bands from all over the US and the world.


Crayola Kids: An Underground Music Scene from Tony Schaffner on Vimeo.

i played and attended many shows there myself years ago and i hope people keep the tradition of the crayola house going for a good long time. a quality presentation ground for the modern folk music of america.

practice records - ghost brush

waking up on a frosty dawn
i'm sad but i'll only be cold
until i start walking

after i saw the first ghost brush
i kept seeing them
all along the rim of the butte

small patches of hoar frost
live in the shadows
cast by the wheat stubble

practice records - deer trails b/w sweat house stones

a quick and lofi experiment with open tuned guitars and a casio. another 'practice records', a demo version of something i'm working on, inspired by the outdoors, the remains of the past, haikus, and the revival in american primitive style guitar that's going right now.


name your own price for it (i recommend $0) here.

slenko & hyde - back roads

pennsylvania's slenko & hyde pump out pleasant, eccentric lofi folk/anti-folk with banjos guitars, and the occasional air organ. i say 'pump out' because the bandcamp site for their loose recording collective, sioux trails records, where this release appears, has 20 + albums on it dating back to 2008. recording everything and releasing it all for free: it doesn't get much more 'modern folk music of america' than that.


download this and some of the other stuff for, you guessed it, free. i'm not gonna go claiming i listened to all of it, but i am gonna embed a highlight or two below.


'an articulated process' is a strange noise/folk excursion i liked quite a bit...


'recreational burials' is longform improvisations with guitar, drums and organ. and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

arlo aldo - zelie

pittsburgh, pa's arlo aldo are an indie folk quartet that draws a sound from the stately and beautiful corner of that palette. their latest album 'zelie' focuses mostly on slow and mid-tempo ballads, with lyrics that put the listener into the dimension of 'americana'.

recorded in a barn, a smooth, velvety reverb saturates the proceedings to just the right degree, causing the tasteful arrangements and lilting vocal harmonies to complement each other. there is no sliding into that ubiquitous 'foot-stomping' nu-folk style so many bands are currently perpetrating. arlo aldo avoids the easy way out for good stories and pretty compositions.


buy the digital album for $9.99 or the CD for $12 right here.