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The Modern Folk

@themodernfolk.bandcamp.com
2.5K followers 408 following 271 posts

HOMEMADE MUSIC/VIDEOS / ECO-JAZZ / ABOLITIONIST / 🎵 on Debacle, Eiderdown, F/NF, WarHen, Bud, Island House, Horse Complex, IHN, Echodelick, Ramble, EEG, Monadnock S&V / they/them / same @ on IG I often delete posts PNW linktr.ee/modernfolk

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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 8h
Checkin’ out some old Frow Shows and found @bourgwick.bsky.social spun this jam from our digi-only self-released album MF MEGA FRIED. Thanks for goin’ deep Jesse! The Frow Show always delivers and it’s on right now!!!
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 11h
Oh no, love! You're not alone You're watching yourself but you're too unfair You got your head all tangled up But if I could only make you care Oh no, love! You're not alone
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 11h
Listen to all my tunes themodernfolk.bandcamp.com
themodernfolk.bandcamp.com
the modern folk
HOME MADE MUSIC / ECOLOGICAL JAZZ / ANTI-CAPITAL / NO SCENE The Modern Folk is a borderless musical recording and improvisational group based mostly out of the Cowlitz and Clackamas land currently kn...
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 20h
You know it makes sense, don't even think about it Life and death are things you just do when you're bored
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 06/10/2026
The worst offense is intelligence The best defense is belligerence How we stalemate our predicament Governed by tissue and filament
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Peter J Z B @pjb1980.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
bandcamp.com/peterb1980/p...
bandcamp.com
Bzzzt - Playlist by Peter
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 04/10/2026
Leonard Cohen, a guiding light for me. More in the alt text
Leonard Cohen has been one of the most important artists to me throughout my life. His poetry and melodies articulated some of my lowest emotional lows and most triumphant highs for me, the songs like personal mirrors. He is Quebec’s answer to Bob Dylan, and one of the only songwriters that has been able to occupy a similar place in my mind. I like to think about how religion runs deeply through his work as it does through Dylan’s, both were restless religious searchers who mined sacred texts for inspiration. It was these guys that led me to read the entire bible despite not believing in any faith. In my opinion, he never made a bad record, he evolved across his long career the way the greatest artists do. The early stuff was where I got started though, just his clear voice, his nylon string guitar, some strings, bass and percussion here and there, choruses of children singing night-dark refrains for some reason. This music spoke to me when I was 18 and it still speaks to me just as loud now. Songs of Love and Hate is such a great album title - Cohen was a well known buddhist - I think he almost gave up music to become a monk - to me it’s all about how love and hate are the same thing. “Last Year’s Man” is one of the greatest depression songs ever made, and I can say with conviction that “Famous Blue Raincoat” is THE best song ever written about getting cucked by a Scientologist. I’ve seen some “discourse” lately about how maybe he was a jerk or something - who fucking cares!
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 04/10/2026
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 04/10/2026
Show later this month
MF ELEC.
10/29
THURS.
WYRD HUT ENS.
SPIRITUAL
DONE
6:30PM BY100M
EXIT
GOLDEN $10 *A
FEELINGS
OREGON" MUSIC* PORTLAND
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 04/10/2026
I’ve been ‘buked and I’ve been scorned
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WarHen Records @warhenrecords.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
New jams from @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com courtesy of @iheartnoise.bandcamp.com 🐻🐻🐻
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 02/10/2026
Heart of the Congos. More in the alt text
I think this is one of the most iconic Lee Perry productions, the perfect pairing of his hermetic studio techniques with a great vocal group. The result is a sound you can get totally lost in. I love those weird Lee Perry monster noises/wooly mammoth howls, whatever those are. How did he do that? His sounds are mystical but also surprisingly literal at times, like when he puts the howls all over the Wailers jam “Mr. Brown” which is about some kind of monster, making it like a Jamaican Halloween song. I don’t have any further musings aside from that this record rules. Shout out to Stefan Beck (Golden Brown) for inspiring me to finally buy a copy!
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 01/10/2026
It’s always been a dream of mine to be able to get on a stage w/ just a guitar and make it talk and say what I’m feeling. Last night I got as close as I ever have, I needed that
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 01/10/2026
This is gonna be a great one if you like field recordings and synths informed by natural grandeur
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 27/09/2026
One of the great things about art in any medium is you hang out with it, not with its creator. All you will ever experience is the work, you don’t actually have to deal with the person, and you can take that as the relief it is. You likely have enough people to deal with already
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 27/09/2026
The inimitable Abner Jay. More in the alt text
Abner Jay’s rambling one-man-band folk blues sounds like nothing else. His booming voice has a uniquely sorrowful, dirge-like tone, but his music is vital and full of life, even when he delivers his signature line - “oh lord, I’m so depressed”, accompanying himself on bass drum/hi-hat, harmonica and Pop Staples-esque tremelo’d out arpeggios. This record has versions of some of my favorite vernacular standards, “St. James Infirmary Blues” (played on six string banjo and fleshed out with a very long and specific updated story), “Cocaine Blues”, but each of these is rendered in a brand new way. The original tunes include a Vietnam War protest song and a country-soul torch song w/ a full band that kinda sounds like Elvis. It’s strange, the best comparison I have for Abner Jay is the semi-forgotten British blues revival band Medicine Head, who used very similar instrumentation and also hover around in the sound of mournfulness. Medicine Head and Jesse Fuller, a one-man-band folk blues player who is a generation older than Abner Jay. I wonder if direct inspiration flowed from Fuller to Jay to Medicine Head, but I have no idea. I just know that it’s a rare approach, in some cases likely more of an adaption to circumstance than purely an artistic choice.

This was the first MS Records release I ever heard, having gotten the MP3s 15 years ago from some blog. I only got the LP recently
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 26/09/2026
I will always hate Ken Burns for erasing Free Jazz from his jazz series. Horseshit
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 26/09/2026
Oak’s Bottom Wildlife Refuge, Sellwood
DeerWaterDeers
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 24/09/2026
TEST PRESSING
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 23/09/2026
100 years of John Coltrane. This record was my entry point to his work
John Coltrane - Lush Life
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 23/09/2026
New @nowhere-flower.bsky.social LP. Absolute lofi banger
Nowhere Flower LP
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 18/09/2026
Me going Wizard Mode at a Pedalpalooza after party show out in the wilds of the Springwater Corridor. All the amps were powered by car batteries and it was all biked in. 2018 I think
Bass wizard
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Peter J Z B @pjb1980.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
The Modern Folk’s MF lp has landed in Burlington, Vermont. Dangerous Pacific Northwest invasion via Boston, be safe out there people. Available at Burlington Records @iheartnoise.bandcamp.com @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com
Storefront, Burlington Records. The words ROCK and JAZZ loom large in the windows.
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Selena Kane @serendipityjones.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
got our first PORTLAND show coming up, which is also the first ever Trash Panda Go Kart performance outside of Washington State woo-woo! FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 25th Five Big Rocks (pdx), Trash Panda Go Kart (PNW), Skullkat (Tacoma), Uncanny Valley Girls (pdx) Hawthorne's Hideaway Doors: 8pm, show: 9pm
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 25th ... Five Big Rocks, Trash Panda Go Kart, Skullkat, Uncanny Valley Girls ... Hawthorne's Hideaway 2221  SE Hawthorne blvd Portland, OR 97214 ... Doors: 8pm, show: 9pm, $10-$20 notaflof 21+
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 17/09/2026
You should all watch my DIY Bigfoot hunting show. I'm still really proud of this. Youtube playlist below with all the episodes
youtube.com
SQUATCHIN' WITH JOSH EP 1
YouTube video by josh moss
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Nick Samuel @nicholaslsamuel.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Beautiful new tape here from Swanke and Moss. Thanks @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com
Swanke and Moss tape
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 17/09/2026
I’m floored. More in the alt text
I just got this in the mail and I am a little obsessed. I underestimated the emotional impact of hearing a person jam with Orcas. The sonic interplay feels intentional in both directions. At the very least it *comes off* as an actual document of some form of interspecies communication. Cetaceans are supposed to be among the most analogous animals to humans in terms of the way their intelligence functions - at least that’s our guess. This record shows the potential that may exist for all beings on earth to relate to one another on an essential level. Shows the truth of all-is-one. If our whole species approached other species the way Jim Nollman does, maybe we’d live in the garden of Eden. The potential heard here is full of pathos, given the realities we currently face. This is a very powerful record
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 17/09/2026
But it's alright God dug your dance And would have you young and in his harem Dress you the way he wants cause he never had a doll Cause everybody made him a boy And God didn't think to ask his preference You can bring your dress and your favorite dog And your husband’s cane And your old spotted dog
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 14/09/2026
Banjo music for our times by @johnnybellsounds.bsky.social - out now on @centripetalforce.bsky.social More in the alt text
New Mexico based banjoist Johnny Bell’s Mountain States focus on the meditative potential of the instrument, mining the vein of drone that is so omni-present yet so overlooked in old time music. Johnny frails - drops thumbs, plays clawhammer style. He stretches this traditional form out into repetitive American ragas, turning moments into eternities. Falling through holler having accidentally eaten Jimson Weed, blowing on the Devil’s trumpet. It’s a beautiful and understated LP. Progressive folk music in the most intentional sense. Produced by the venerable Andrew Weathers, who knew what to do with the material. Centripetal Force records did a beautiful job with the physical edition 

I’m playing a show w/ Johnny on 9/30 at Turn Turn Turn in NE PDX along w/ Lucas Gunn and Nate Wallace/Anna Verlet. Come on down, see the show, buy this record in person!
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 13/09/2026
Alma’s painting - Seal Neighborhood
Seal neighborhood
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 13/09/2026
Forgot to add the highlights to this guy’s eyes and nose. All better now
Seal painting
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 12/09/2026
Seal painting
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 11/09/2026
Big show later this month ❤️🎸❤️
"26 SPECTACULAR!
TuRn Turn TURn!
SEP:30
SEP.E
TICKETS $IO - $20 OR CASH
DOORS 7:00 P.M.
ONLY AT DOOR
ON SALE AT USUAL PLACES
SHOW 8:00 P.M. UNTIL?
PORTLAND, OREGON
Centripetal Force Records presents:
#I FRAILIN' MAESTRO!
BANTO!
ALL IN PERSON!
FROM SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO
JOHNNY BELL
AND FROM
PORTLAND, ORE.
LUCAS GUNN
HATE
Wallace e
ANNA
Verlet
TURNTURN
NAT
"Mighty"
JOSH MOSS GUITARS.
POSTERS BY THE SOUND-O-MAT MR. BELL STYLED &
N. MISSOURI & FAILING
PHOTOGRAPHED
PORTLAND, ORE.
BY RILEY BELL
NO VAGABONDS
TURNED AWAY FOR LACK OF CHEDDAR
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 10/09/2026
Leadbelly is eternal. More in the alt text
I have a very specific memory of listening to this album with my friend Zac Jones, who passed away in 2022. He was a drummer and this Leadbelly record was very inspirational to music we worked on together, 20 years ago. I miss him all the time, but I love to remember him; I can revisit music we dug together and music we made together. Of anyone John and Alan Lomax recorded, Leadbelly has to be the source of the most pop songs - Nirvana, Johnny Cash, CCR, Ram Jam and many others had success with their takes on Leadbelly arrangements. His singing and playing emphasized force and power, it matched his name. He was released from prison, where he was serving 30 years for murder, based on a song he wrote - he must’ve been extremely charismatic. He must’ve been sharp, too. The way he combined issues of race and class in the song “Bourgeoise Blues” would be the envy of any leftist Youtuber today. Absolutely timeless music
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 07/09/2026
In honor of Trout Mask Replica never being on streaming for some reason, I always keep a handful of what I consider my best albums forever unstreamable
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 07/09/2026
This is my best worker’s song
practicerecords.bandcamp.com
do you know my name, by the modern folk
from the album holayela
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 07/09/2026
An ambitious Labor Day tape stack
Tapes
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 07/09/2026
Labor Day Tascam jam
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 06/09/2026
The ghost of American music past, Charley Patton. More in the alt text
Charley Patton’s recordings are some of the most mysterious and ghostly sounding of the pre-war blues era. They rise up like a rippling mirage of Mississippi heat, cottonwood fluff floating on thick, humid air. John Fahey wrote his master’s thesis in ethnomusicology on Patton; I have that thing printed out in a drawer somewhere, but I haven’t read it. Patton’s ethnicity has been up for debate, I find the idea that he had Indigenous heritage fascinating, along with the idea of Indigenous music traditions being a part of the delta blues, which is something I never thought of when first discovering this music. His parents are only speculated at, but his life experience was Black, living most of his life on plantations. He inspired the first generation of delta blues players and every subsequent generation of blues, folk and rock musicians. Truly a cornerstone of American music, and you can hear why even through the crackle of 78 rpm recordings. I am currently working on my own arrangement of “Jesus Was A Dying Bedmaker”, though I am going more off of Bob Dylan’s version of Blind Willie Johnson’s version (“See That My Grave Is Kept Clean”) - that all just shows how far Charley Patton’s influence reaches
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 05/09/2026
Live CAN. I love to hear them jam. More in the alt text
I love these archival CAN live albums, though I have only sprung for an LP copy of this first one. 1975 in Stuttgart finds CAN singer-less and engaged in highly rhythmic long-form jams, sometimes sounding almost like proto-techno played by a band, mostly thanks to their legendary rhythm section. At other times, they sound like a German bizarro Grateful Dead - one passage on the 3rd disc sounds so much like the Dead lining up to fall into “Fire on the Mountain” it’s crazy. I have received push-back on this comparison, but it’s valid. Neu is the German CCR but that’s a different post! I think both bands share a high degree of danceability - even if the respective dances would look very different! Anyway, CAN can jam, I think we all knew that. Grateful for these recordings
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 05/09/2026
I was deleting contacts in my phone last night but kept the ones for the handful of folks who’ve died
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 04/09/2026
Such patient and deliberate guitar playing on this; free but with everything in its right place
America - John Fahey
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 03/09/2026
Here I am with my wares, available bandcamp Friday or any old day! All the links are in my bio
Me and my records, tapes and cds
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 04/09/2026
Finally getting decent at playing songs I wrote ten years ago. I guess I never really stop writing any of my songs, it’s a slow, never ending process
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 04/09/2026
No bye, no aloha Gone with a rock promoter A rock promoter I know, I saw and now may die Oh, all the treats Saw it on the wall Motherhood means mental freeze Freezeheads, no aloha I know, I saw and now may die
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 03/09/2026
Here I am with my wares, available bandcamp Friday or any old day! All the links are in my bio
Me and my records, tapes and cds
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 03/09/2026
I’m on a delta blues kick. All these pre-war recordings are so magical. I am fascinated by the idea Patton in particular was maybe influenced by American indigenous music and/or was indigenous himself
CHARLEY PATTON
ELECTRICALLY RECORDED: JESUS IS A DYING-BED MAKER
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 03/09/2026
RIP Gloria Steinem
Gloria Steinem
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Dillon @freeyourradio.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
#NowPlaying #NewMusic2026 John Swanke/Josh Moss @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com - Swanke and Moss themodernfolk.bandcamp.com/album/swanke...
themodernfolk.bandcamp.com
Swanke and Moss, by John Swanke/Josh Moss
7 track album
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The Modern Folk @themodernfolk.bandcamp.com · 02/09/2026
Well, the moral of the story The moral of this song Is simply that one should never be Where one does not belong So when you see your neighbor carrying somethin' Help him with his load And don't go mistaking Paradise For that home across the road
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