Record Label: Joyful Noise Recordings
Genre: Alt-Folk
Band Link: link
Buy on Amazon.com link

One time in a History of Music class in college, the professor played this ancient audio recording of a large group of people playing makeshift instruments and crying out blues or folk or something, and their wailing was sinister and disconcerting. The strange, haunting voices, combined with the creaky, dusty recording, was a downright fright to listen to. It was the root of Americana.

Grampall Jookabox is trying to tap into that same disturbing sound. From the press release: “With their debut, Grampall Jookabox emerge with the explicit goal of creating their own ‘anthology’ of American Folk music, focusing on the strange, dark, and morbid characteristics of turn-of-the-century sounds.”

Suffice it to say, this album isn’t for everyone. And I can’t commend Grampall for originality as there have already been 18 or 25 or so Residents albums that have had the exact same goal (and, yes, those albums will give you horrible nightmares that will never leave you).

But Grampall is more accessible by virtue of, well, not being the Residents. They also have an idiot-savant-hipster feel to them. Like, I could see Beck inviting Grampall to open for him, if Beck, like, really hated his fans.

Bottom Line: Not the most feel-good music out there…
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