After a week away, it was nice to be back in the studio. This week I played several folk-related tunes, a few garage-based ones, and a small handful of indie pop tracks. With the amount of indie-folk I’ve played of late, I’m thinking we’re in store for another dreamy mix and maybe even a garage rock mix in the near future.

Andi and I have been on a DIY kick of late and a recent project has been homemade laundry detergent. With the three ingredients displayed in the photo above, along with water, we won’t have to purchase detergent for a few years. How’s that for cost cutting, hipsters?

I’ve highlighted a few tracks below (i.e. the bold ones) for sampling purposes. Download and enjoy!

Here’s the playlist:

“No Retro” by Basemint off No Retro b/w Basemint Theme 7″
“The City Still” by Bears off Greater Lakes

“Late Night Bikes” by Capybara off Dave Drusky
“So Long” by Fruit Bats off Tripper
“Song of the City” by Isidore off Life Somewhere Else

“Serpents” by Sharon Van Etten off Tramp
“Shallow” by Beach Fossils off Shallow b/w Lessons 7″

“In The Yard” by Bowerbirds off The Clearing
“Squawk” by Y La Bamba off Court The Storm
“Chasing Crows” by The Horde And The Harem off A Long Midwinter

“Bigfoot Camero” by Bel Air off Fall
“Switch” by Guy Capecelatro III off North For The Winter
“Lungs, Dirt & Dreams” by Damon Moon & The Whispering Drifters off Lungs, Dirt & Dreams

“Bet You Never Thought It Would Be Like This” by The Scotland Yard Gospel Choir off I Bet You Say That To All The Boys

“Weekend” by Smith Westers off Daytrotter’s Big Orange Studios Session
“I Am The Assassin” by Dag för Dag off Boo

“Doing As I Do” by The Beets off Let The Poison Out
“Girl” by Milk Maid off Yucca
“Vizcaya” by Jacuzzi Boys off Glazin’

“When I See You Again” by Shimmering Stars off Ghosts Past EP
“Come Monday Night” by God Help The Girl off God Help The Girl

“Forgiveness” by Girls off Father, Son, Holy Ghost
“Mona Lisa” by Atlas Sound off Bedroom Databank Vol. 3
“Unfaithful” by Charles Leo Gebhardt IV off Unfaithful

I sometimes find the diversity of my own musical tastes a bit bizarre. Just as apt to toss a classic jazz album like Kind of Blue onto the record player, I too have no qualms listening to the loudest of garage rock then switching over to something a bit folky. Especially if it’s fringe folk; artists that pack their folk-pop with instruments, take on an old-timey sound, or even head down an art-folk, freak folk, or experimental folk path.

Capybara finds themselves among the latter in that realm o’ folk. And I can’t help but become entirely intrigued by the sounds they create.

This is not the first time we have covered Capybara. We wrote about their LP, Try Brother, way back at the tail end of 2009. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long.

Back then, it was the diversification of the band’s songs that drew me in; the inclusion of chamber pop and free jazz into songs was too much to resist.

It is no surprise that this is precisely what draws me in yet again. Capybara is back with a new album called Dave Drusky and it clashes folk with other genres in quite the same way that Try Brother did three years ago.

But what astounds me here is that the songs seem a bit more cohesive. The band has found its unique place in the realm of music and it sounds very good. “Late Night Bikes” and “Neighbor Crimes” have great sounds that will undoubtedly peak your interest.

Check both songs out below and keep an eye out for Dave Drusky. The album hits February 7 via The Record Machine (the same label that brought us Cowboy Indian Bear).

Download: “Neighbor Crimes” by Capybara

Download: “Late Night Bikes” by Capybara

I wasn’t originally planning on doing a show this evening, but decided to take my normal spot behind the microphone anyway. So the playlist didn’t begin coming together until the evening of. There was no theme, it was all variety; folk to electronic to noise rock.

If you missed it, here’s the list:

“The Crystal Cat” by Dan Deacon by Spiderman Of The Rings
“A Dark God Heart” by Sleep Party People off We Were Drifting On A Sad Song

“The Harvest” by Teen Daze off A Silent Planet
“Lately” by Memoryhouse off The Years EP

“The Organ Grinder” by The Migrant off Travels In Lowland
“Ten Sleep, WY” by Damon Moon and The Whispering Drifters off Lungs, Dirt & Dreams
“Martha Ann” by David Karsten Daniels off Fear Of Flying

“Lowtide” by O’Death off Broken Hymns, Limbs And Skin
“Blood Of Angels” by Brown Bird off Salt For Salt
“Lonely Mountain” by Paladino off Paladino

“Gold Rush” by The Horde and the Harem off Harvest EP
“Marathon Runner” by Yellow Ostrich off Strange Land
“Neighbor Crimes” by Capybara off Dave Drusky

“Promise I Won’t Laugh” by Barna Howard off Barna Howard

“Summertime Cowboy” by Husky Rescue off Country Falls
“Pariah” by Mike Wexler off Dispossession
“The Sun Is Going Down II” by Sóley off We Sink

“Enchanted Humanoid” by Steve Moore off Brainstorm

“Broken Record” by Eux Autres off Sun Is Sunk
“Hitman” by Wax Idols off No Future

“Arab Spring” by Literature off Arab Sprint
“Junebouvier” by Whirl off June

“Wait For Us” by Mind Spiders off Meltdown
“Busted Lip” by Odonis Odonis off Hollandaze
“Coma Summer” by Weekend off Sports

Like any genre, folk has artists that are true to the origins of its particular style of music. And, like any genre, it has artists that push the boundaries. Capybara is of the latter classification. Try Brother sees the group expanding into new arenas, mashing pop and freak-folk, and sure, let’s throw in a splash of psychedelic as well. That being said, Capybara’s relation to folk is one that can be listed as partial – it is and it isn’t. It is the root, but there’s much more behind Try Brother to limit it to merely folk.

“Hello City Glow”, for example, is barely folk; the sensibilities of the genre have practically disappeared, though they were quite present in preceding tracks “San Francisco, 1906″ and “The Wimp”. Albeit, when the genre’s traits do appear, they’re a version as distorted as the offspring of a Chernobyl victim. But not as helpless – as if the offspring was, say, the next block in human evolution. The same can be said for “Cutaway Kid”. Yeah, this isn’t your cut-and-shoot traditional folk album by any means. And that’s the first telling that limiting the classification to folk really doesn’t cut it.

Along with the aforementioned genres, there are light traces of free jazz in songs like “Soft” and “Happiness / Let Child Roam” and chamber pop flirts with several songs, but above all there’s the avant-garde that labels all these tracks with the favorable ‘freak’ title. Were that a standalone genre it would work, but even paired with the inevitable ‘folk’ there’s still something not quite right. The influences are too wide and too plentiful.

As the instrumentation grows to include trumpets and banjos, and as the band expands into falsetto-meets-baritone vocal harmonies, and as synth lines weave intricate melodies completely unique in the realm of folk, Try Brother becomes something else entirely – a conceptual album of experimental music with folk leanings that is truly par none.

Capybara: Soft [mp3]

Capybara: The Wimp [mp3]

The Record Machine [CD, 2009]

1. San Francisco, 1906
2. The Wimp
3. Hello City Glow
4. Cutaway Kid
5. Soft
6. Happiness / Let Child Roam
7. Magpies
8. Dynamite Dare
9. Birthday Song For Bridgegirl
10. Waves In The Wire