The Fold Compilation
Various Artists
Credit
So… much… music… The Fold Compilation is two discs, almost two hours and two videos of solid indie rock. It’s almost too much to encapsulate in a review, but I’ll try.
According to the liner notes, The Fold is a “Mexican gay/punk dive bar” in southern California devoted to making its stage accessible to any musician who wants to use it. The roster of these discs, all Fold stage alumni, should include an indie sub-genre checklist, because almost all styles are accounted for: from shoegaze (Acetone) to slacker pop (Earlimart) to seedy gutter rock (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Warlocks). Even aberrations like the salsa slow-core of Devendra Banhart’s “Cada Casa Que Crece” and Mike Stinson’s straight-faced honky rock “Last Fool at the Bar” co-exist harmoniously.
Among the heaviest hitting big names, BRMC and …Trail of Dead both contribute previous b-sides, while Black Heart Procession coughs up an awesome live version of “Song For a Mule.” From the lesser-knowns, Midnight Movies, Metric, Patrick Park, Trespassers William and especially Dengue Fever leave excellent impressions. There’s not a clunker to be found in any of the twenty-nine tracks on here. Not bad for what is ostensibly a two-hour ad for a bar I’ll never visit.
Credit Records: http://www.credit-records.com/
