A dozen years into its career, Thrice is still evolving. Following 2005’s experimental/atmospheric Vheissu and four-part concept album The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II (2007) and Vols. III & IV (2008), the California quartet—vocalist/guitarist Dustin Kensrue, guitarist/engineer Teppei Teranishi and Breckenridge brothers Eddie (bass) and Riley (drums)—has issued the edgier, hard-rock-leaning Beggars (Vagrant). On paper, such a description might make you believe the LP is a return to the post-hardcore days of Thrice’s first three albums, though Beggars is far more mature and varied than that. Unfortunately, the record was leaked in July, forcing the band to change the release date and marketing plan for Beggars, but Thrice seems to have come out of all this extracurricular drama unscathed. As the foursome prepares for its upcoming U.K. tour, they are also guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our Q&A with them.
Teppei Teranishi: I was introduced to Alan Lomax‘s breathtaking catalogue of field recordings when I picked up a CD of his entitled Prison Songs, Volume One: Murderous Home. I didn’t know anything about him at that point, but I was looking for something new to listen to and was intrigued by the concept, so I dished out the 10 bucks. Glad I did. Lomax (at least as far as I know) is one of the most important and prominent figures in ethnomusicology and folklore. He traveled the world, capturing the sounds of anyone from Woodie Guthrie and Jellyroll Morton to chain gangs and Finnish immigrants in the U.S. to the townspeople of Great Britain, Ireland, Spain, Italy and the Caribbean. He also, aside from audibly documenting his subjects, took hundreds of stunning photographs, which in my opinion, at the very least rival his audio work. I think this quote, by librarian of the U.S. Congress James H. Billington, sums him up pretty well: “The Alan Lomax Collection contains pioneering documentation of traditional music, dance, tales, and other forms of grassroots creativity in the United States and abroad.”
Lomax was repeatedly interrogated and investigated by the FBI for fear of communist sympathies, although nothing incriminating was ever found and the case was abandoned. Here’s a great clip from his FBI file: “Neighborhood investigation shows him to be a very peculiar individual in that he is only interested in folk lore music, being very temperamental and ornery. He has no sense of money values, handling his own and Government property in a neglectful manner, and paying practically no attention to his personal appearance. He has a tendency to neglect his work over a period of time and then just before a deadline he produces excellent results.”
Brian Eno on Lomax: “[He later] turned his intelligent attentions to music from many other parts of the world, securing for them a dignity and status they had not previously been accorded. The ‘World Music’ phenomenon arose partly from those efforts, as did his great book, Folk Song Style And Culture. I believe this is one of the most important books ever written about music, in my all time top 10. It is one of the very rare attempts to put cultural criticism onto a serious, comprehensible, and rational footing by someone who had the experience and breadth of vision to be able to do it.”
Video after the jump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK_MTOeiwww
