The Otter Farm

The Otter Farm
Ornery Rants

the Kingdom of Leisure

What's All This Deal About Tripgrass?

7.6.98

This is how it is, Luther. Like most things, it beats me. And like most other things, it fell out of our huge, collective butt. In its infancy, tripgrass was billed as "our own contrived, hybrid, sub-genre." In short, it was a cheap marketing ploy. And an effective one at that. But, as it gains its weird acceptance into musical parley I find it necessary to clarify a few points. First, a definition:
Grass - As in bluegrass, or, as the Washington Post described our last album, "a proclivity for rural styles," - essentially the lazy, rootsy, style of playing that we can't seem to shake.
Trip - 1) a sly reference to trip-hop, and Ty's soulful and brain-crack drumming, or 2) A journey, spiritual or otherwise. A tKoL album is designed as an hour-long hijacking of your consciousness. It is NOT intended as a collection of three minute singles, but a full voyage where you end up someplace other than where you began.
Hence, tripgrass. Get it? Nothing too difficult here. Okay, now that you have a grip on the basics, meditate on them for a while. Next time the Otter Farm will delve deeper into tKoL's disturbing, musical underworld with the discussion topic:

"In Pursuit of Tripgrass - The Pentecostal Answer to the Question: Why tKoL?"

and

"Are There Any Other Tripgrass Bands?"

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