Joanna Newsom – The Milk-Eyed Mender and Ys

I can understand why people – actors, painters, singers, people who run racialist internet forums – dislike being painted into a corner by the impressions of others. It can be real hard to dig out of a pit filled with the steaming expectations of others (especially with the large Christ-killing shovels of teh joooooooooooooooooos); some people never escape this trap.

Ms. Newsom seems to be quite frustrated with this process – though I have no idea what her stance on racial purity happens to be – because she’s not a Tolkien-folkie weirdo, and like everyone else who makes modern alt-folk-weird music, she wants nothing to do with that batch of labels. (I can’t blame any of them, frankly, for eschewing such an ugly and meaningless word.)

On the other hand, if you play the harp, dress like a princess hippie from the land of Prancington Forest in your promotional shots and the cover of your newest album actually requires people to roll a 20-sided die just to look at it, you may find yourself typecast as a folkie elf girl. Just sayin’.