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Wednesday, November 11, 2009

??!! Beard Times, Indeed

Posted by on Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 12:31 PM

"Fleet Foxes have turned their chins into miniature Appalachian forests," writes Simon Reynolds in an essay about the ubiquity of beards among "leftfield rock" musicians in the '00s. Read the (literally) hair-brained, stretched-premised piece here.

Reynolds dwells at some length on Seattle's Fleet Foxes, including this passage:

[I]f face-fuzz has become an epoch-defining signifier in leftfield rock, what exactly does it signify? Let's look again at Fleet Foxes' He Doesn't Know Why, where the group sound like angels but look like satyrs. Here, beardedness is tantamount to a visual rhetoric, almost a form of authentication, as though the band are wearing their music on their faces.

What if Fleet Foxes' members decide to shave en masse today, but don't change their musical style in the process? Whither Reynolds' thesis, then?

ht: @1000TimesYes via Twitter

 

Comments (9) RSS

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1
In this article, Reynolds repeatedly referred to this decade as the "noughties". Does this seem like a man who's going to teach us about contemporary music culture?
Posted by joshtown on November 11, 2009 at 1:30 PM
2
Why are you so reactionary to someone talking about beards returning to rock culture? Do you deny that the Fleet Foxes wish they had been around to be part of the late 60s music scene, trading beard grooming tips with CSNY or The Band?
Posted by Yo. on November 11, 2009 at 1:38 PM
3
Fact is, the Fleet Foxes guy DOES have a long scraggly beard and it does match their Crosby, Stills, Nash aesthetic perfectly. If they cut off their beards, not so much...

I do think the beard thing represents the Alt-Country, Folk, Americana trend to a large degree. If it's not a 100% match all the time, that doesn't disqualify the obvious.
Posted by pretty clear on November 11, 2009 at 2:15 PM
4
my beard will eat all other beards...
Posted by 4wrd44 on November 11, 2009 at 4:08 PM
Dean Fawkes 5
Beards in music have been a transparent attempt for legitimacy for generations and it's difficult to deny Simon Reynolds' point of the superficial nature of it in modern-day indie circles, even if he bloated it with a long, Guardian-style word-count.
Posted by Dean Fawkes http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Author?oid=479789&section=Blogs on November 11, 2009 at 4:52 PM
6
that premise is stupid enough to be an eric grandy article
Posted by m.c.gristledick on November 11, 2009 at 7:00 PM
Estey 7
Sorry, I love a good Reynolds extrapolation. He's fun, smart, playful, willing to play a little bit of the fool, and puts his credentials on the line for a wild theory. I've heard too many, say, house music experts that waste time hammering home lyrical references in an impotent attempt to appear nimble. Reynolds takes chances; I'd rather be lost in his meandering than endure the academic posturing of many of his peers.
Posted by Estey on November 11, 2009 at 7:09 PM
8
I generally like Reynolds' writing, but this piece seems a bit flimsy. Beards have become more popular in general over the last few years, so it figures that some musicians will be sporting them—and a lot of them in genres besides "leftfield rock," too.

Sometimes a beard is just a beard. As Christopher Weingarten said in response to the essay, "my beard doesn't mean I'm some Iron & Wine urban-folkie, it means I'm a lazy scumbag!"
Posted by Dave Segal on November 12, 2009 at 6:14 PM
Estey 9
Okay, Dave, since you're the one making the criticism, and I know you've read plenty of Simon's stuff, I've thought about it, and "flimsy" is probably correct about this article. I just kind of like it even when he's being flimsy, but "What's up with all the beards?" -- how the hell does that get pitched? ("Hey, Eric -- what about nerd glasses? Fedoras? You want in on this action?")

My own beard is a nostalgia for the early grunge period when alternative rock boys could lavishly display hair (even facial) after years of Stalinist clean-shaven punk dominance. (I wasn't capable of such growth back then.) Also, the Seattle communist thing. But if I was a real man I'd go with a David Crosby walrus 'stache. With maybe the chops, but that seems arty.
Posted by Estey on November 13, 2009 at 5:38 AM

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