Good places to start with antifolk are rough trade’s Antifolk vol. 1 and a compilation called Sidewalk Songs & City Stories on the German label Trikont. Plus this gig on 2nd November obviously.

If the apologies for condescension were sincere, wouldn’t it have been easier to phrase that paragraph in a less condescending way?

Of course, but not as much fun.

And they are sincere apologies – there are people who read and contribute to this site who are much cleverer than me, and I’m not about to get all up in their face about latin and etymology and shit for fear of making a fool of myself – nevertheless I had a point to make.

All of which would make sense if in any way his music was a/ all delivered the same way or b/ relied on some sort of bizarre delivery for its appeal. It does neither.

That all sounds a bit defensive to me. I haven’t mentioned having a problem with his delivery, and yet you seem to have an urge to defend that specific aspect. Is there actually something about his voice or delivery that’s actually bothering you?

I don’t mind if you like this. I actually don’t mind it myself. However, I wouldn’t miss it if someone told me I could never experience it again. I feel exactly the same way about boiled potatoes.

Does Bob Dylan rely on having an unusual voice, or in any way use it as a selling point? No.

Yes, of course he does. He offers his own performances of his work to the general public for sale. Otherwise he’d just write the stuff and let other people perform it.

If the apologies for condescension were sincere, wouldn’t it have been easier to phrase that paragraph in a less condescending way?

Even in this tiny sample, End Result is perfectly measured and lovely and cadenced and gentle. Shoot the Head Kill the Ghoul is pop punk and perhaps Back When I Was 4 and Will Oldham share some waterfall of verbiage similarities, but if the rollercoaster of words was merely a rollercoaster of words without a pleasing rise and fall of its own then it would not be pleasant to listen to. It’s like a lot of electronica in that respect – the tune itself pans out over the course of chunks of song, rather than individual notes.

Does Bob Dylan rely on having an unusual voice, or in any way use it as a selling point? No. For all it gets mentioned all the time, the Arcade Fire don’t rely on there being lots of them and the fact that they all use different instruments – the songs stand and fall as pop songs. This is the same – there is a lot of helter-skelter delivery, but there’s also a hell of a lot more than that and it would be ludicrous to say that he actually relies on this delivery as his selling point above and beyond the melodic and lyrical merits of his music.

Trouble is, when you mention the word ‘novelty’ in relation to music, people start thinking about Agadoo and songs from Spitting Image; and people immediately believe that you’re lumping every songwriter who possesses a witty turn of phrase in the same heap together.

And of course anyone who recalls which fucking band I play in would understand that clearly isn’t the case.

‘Novelty’ is simply the noun associated with the adjective ‘novel’. Which is derived from the latin word for ‘new’ (as of course is the word ‘new’ itself – same word stem). ‘Novelty’ is generally used in English to specify new, unusual or surprising in an especially interesting way. Apologies to condescend – you all knew that – but that’s the sense I was using the word in.

The point I was getting at was that, to me, the strength in Jeffrey Lewis’ music lies in its novelty (as in the definition above) and that it might not be as rewarding over repeated listens, and DC made a similar point.

That’s all. I didn’t say Jeffrey Lewis reminded me of The Chicken Song or the time Hoddle and fucking Waddle appeared on Top Of the Pops singing Diamond fucking Lights.

Many many people have distinctive styles and if the obvious attention of that style was the crutch upon which their music career rested then the novelty accusation might have some substance, but that is a million miles from the case here.

wh666 – I’m aware of a few of the anti-folkies, but I still know very little about the actual scene. Kimya Dawson plays all through the background of our Wave Pictures interview from End of the Road (up before the weekend, promise) and I also know Stanley Brinks and Turner Cody. But as to having a real grasp of the scene, I still fall way short and have to rely on gnashing my teeth at people like Ruth with a bit more first hand experience.

I think that ramshackle, de-tuned sound is something I am really started to love. I am now getting to the point where production can turn me off not because it is bad, but actually because it is good. Which is not to say that deft under-production isn’t great production as well, but things which sound really nice can often just fail to hit the mark with me these days. Give me a crackly, distant bedroom recording over a studio recording any day.

And I’ve got no time for the Celine Dions and Bon Jovis of this world and their formulaeic songwriting.

I’d agree with you about “the best punk” and the manner in which it captured the energy of a generation; but, once you’ve skimmed the cream off, really how much punk was utter shite?

Not to suggest Jeffrey Lewis is “utter shite”, he clearly isn’t. He’s ticking some of the boxes in a very respectable manner, but he just isn’t ticking enough boxes for me to really be bothered whether I hear him again or not.

For me, good songwriting has to have a degree of craftsmanship to it, and I think that’s what I’m missing here. I do prefer the music I listen to be kept loose and spontaneous – but I think this pushes that element just a little too far.