| The Holy Modal Rounders | |
| Background: | group_or_band |
| Origin: | Lower East Side, New York, NY, USA |
| Genre: | Old-time, Psychedelic folk, Freak Folk, Acid Folk,[1] Folk rock |
| Years Active: | 1963–2003 |
| Label: | Prestige, ESP-Disk, Elektra, Metromedia, Rounder, Adelphi, Don Giovanni |
| Associated Acts: | The Fugs The Clamtones |
| Spinoffs: |
|
| Past Members: |
|
The Holy Modal Rounders was an American folk music group, originally the duo of Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber, who formed in 1963 on the Lower East Side of New York City. Although they achieved only limited commercial and critical success in the 1960s and 1970s, they quickly earned a dedicated cult following and have been retrospectively praised for their groundbreaking reworking of early 20th century folk music as well as their pioneering innovation in several genres, including freak folk and psychedelic folk. With a career spanning 40 years, the Holy Modal Rounders proved to be influential both in New York scene where they began and to generations of underground musicians.
As the Holy Modal Rounders, Stampfel and Weber began playing in and around the Greenwich Village scene, at the heart of the ongoing American folk music revival. Their sense of humor, irreverent attitude, and novel update of old-time music brought support from fellow musicians but also caused controversy amongst folk traditionalists in the scene. In 1964, the Rounders made history with their self-titled debut, which included the first use of "psychedelic" in popular music. After their first two studio albums, the duo briefly joined the newly formed underground rock band the Fugs in 1965 and helped record the band's influential debut album.
Following their exit from the Fugs, the duo released two albums that experimented with psychedelic folk before they expanded their lineup to a full rock band by the end of 1968. The Holy Modal Rounders' expanded lineup notably included famed playwright Sam Shepard as a drummer (amongst others) before stabilizing in 1971, with a band that would later back Jeffrey Frederick as the Clamtones. In 1972, Weber relocated the band to Portland, Oregon, while Stampfel stayed behind in New York. Although Stampfel would describe Weber as his "long lost brother," they often had a hostile relationship[2] and the two would only reunite sporadically following the band's Portland move. After Weber returned to the East Coast in 1995, the duo began a series of concert reunions starting in 1996 before breaking up for the last time in 2003.
Stampfel explained the origin of the name in the webzine Perfect Sound Forever:
[Weber and I] kept changing the name. First it was the Total Quintessence Stomach Pumpers. Then the Temporal Worth High Steppers. Then The Motherfucker Creek Babyrapers. That was just a joke name. He was Rinky-Dink Steve the Tin Horn and I was Fast Lightning Cumquat. He was Teddy Boy Forever and I was Wild Blue Yonder. It kept changing names. Then it was the Total Modal Rounders. Then when we were stoned on pot and someone else, Steve Close maybe, said Holy Modal Rounders by mistake. We kept putting out different names and wait until someone starts calling us that then. When we got to Holy Modal Rounders, everyone decided by accumulation that we were the Holy Modal Rounders. That's the practical way to get named.[3]
Fiddle and banjo player Peter Stampfel and country-blues guitarist Steve Weber were introduced to each other in May 1963 by Stampfel's girlfriend Antonia Duren (or Antonia Stampfel), who was mononymously known as Antonia.[4] Stampfel grew up in Wisconsin and moved to New York City in 1959, where he soon became entranced with Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music.[5] Weber grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where he met musicians Michael Hurley and Robin Remaily, both of whom would collaborate with the Rounders.[6] According to Stampfel, he and Weber began performing together in New York City not long after being introduced, eventually settling on the name the Holy Modal Rounders.
Although taking inspiration from classic jug bands[7] and Anthology of American Folk Music,[8] the duo quickly showed an inclination to "update old-time folk music with a contemporary spirit."[9] Music critic Richie Unterberger noted that they "twisted weathered folk standards with wobbly vocals, exuberantly strange arrangements, and interpretations that were liberal, to say the least."[10] Stampfel himself described his approach to music at the time: "I got the idea in 1963: What if Charlie Poole, and Charley Patton, and Uncle Dave Macon and all those guys were magically transported from the late 1920s to 1963? And then they were exposed to contemporary rock 'n' roll. What did they do? And that sounded way, way, way more interesting than" faithfully imitating the original arrangements. This realization was partially inspired by Stampfel seeing an early Bob Dylan perform folk music with a rock and roll phrasing.[11] During this time, Stampfel also began to change the words and add new verses to the traditional songs they played, once noting "I made up new words... because it was easier than listening to the tape and writing words down." The duo's lyrical changes often featured references to their frequent and open drug use.[12] Fellow folk singer Dave Van Ronk recalled that "they were stoned out of their birds all the time. Everybody knew it, they made no bones about it, and they were having fun."[13] Although Stampfel would give up amphetamines in the late 1970s, he would later describe drugs as having initially been a learning tool for his musical development.[14] [15]
From the beginning, the duo's unorthodox approach to covering old-time music was negatively received by some folk purists. Ariel Swartley of The New York Times retrospectively remarked that they stood out in the New York folk scene, in which performers were usually reverential to the material they covered, for "shoe-horning one old-time melody into the middle of another, slipping updated references into archaic laments, making scatological asides or a casual segue to an unrelated fiddle tune and throwing in enough grunts, woofs, whistles and squeals to put both an aging steam engine and a seventh-grade classroom to shame. In short, they offered something to offend everyone."[16] Despite their seemingly irreverent approach, however, Swartley noted the duo "pursued traditional American music with an archival passion to rival that of the New Lost City Ramblers." NPR echoed this, saying the band "wasn't doing parodies of old folk songs. Its members knew the music inside and out."
While some saw their approach as disrespectful, the band attracted a small and devoted following. Peter Tork of the Monkees was an early fan, reminiscing the duo were "absolutely hilarious" and brought "a whole new level of authenticity" to the scene.[17] Sterling Morrison of the Velvet Underground praised the Rounders, similarly saying that "the Fugs, the Holy Modal Rounders, and the Velvet Underground were the only authentic Lower East Side bands. We were real bands playing for real people in a real scene. We helped each other out if we could and generally hung out at the same places."[18] Terri Thal, Dave Van Ronk's first wife and the Rounders' first manager, thought the songs they wrote were "brilliant."[19] The duo was also friendly with and occasionally performed with Karen Dalton[20] and Luke Faust[21] during their initial iteration. John Sebastian and Jim Kweskin were also fans and their respective bands the Lovin' Spoonful and the Jim Kweskin & the Jug Band utilized the duo's arrangement of "Blues in the Bottle."[22] Stampfel and Antonia would write the liner notes for the Lovin' Spoonful's 1965 debut album Do You Believe in Magic, where the Spoonful's version of "Blues in the Bottle" was released.[23]
In 1963, the duo were signed to Prestige Records by Paul A. Rothchild for two albums.[24] Recorded the day before John F. Kennedy's assassination, their first album The Holy Modal Rounders was released in 1964 and produced by Sam Charters.[25] [26] The album mainly featured covers of traditional songs with rewritten lyrics. Most notably, the album contained a rewriting of the lyrics of "Hesitation Blues," during which Stampfel sings the first recorded use of the term "psychedelic" in popular music.[27] [25] Stampfel reportedly added these lyrics in hopes to achieve this feat. "Euphoria," written by Robin Remaily, was also featured on their debut. It was soon covered by the Youngbloods[28] and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Ariel Swartley later observed that the song "did for marijuana what Grace Slick's 'White Rabbit' did for LSD three years later." Their second album, The Holy Modal Rounders 2, followed in 1965 and was also produced by Charters.[29] [26]
Although neither of their first two albums received much attention upon release (a review in Sing Out! dismissed the debut as "parody of folk song and folk content... with a sort of fear written into it - fear of coming out into the open as serious performers"), the albums have since increased in status, with Michael Simmons of LA Weekly describing the debut as a "classic of demented archaic country with rhythmic hints of rock, Stampfel's helium vocals, and his skewed lyrics." In 1972, the two albums were combined by Fantasy Records on the double-LP Stampfel & Weber.[29] In 1999, Fantasy reissued it as 1 & 2, with the addition of two unreleased songs, to positive reviews.[30] [31] Tom Hull, writing in 2004 for the fourth edition of The Rolling Stone Album Guide, gave the reissue a four and half star rating, saying "it may have sounded weird way back when, but it sounds fresher than ever today."[32]
On February 24, 1965 at Ed Sanders's bookstore Peace Eye, the Fugs performed their first gig, which was attended by Andy Warhol, George Plimpton, William Burroughs, and James Michener.[33] The Holy Modal Rounders were also hired to perform and joined the Fugs onstage during their set.[34] Inspired by their political views, humorous and explicit songwriting, and do-it-yourself attitude to music, Stampfel and Weber officially joined the Fugs after the performance, with Stampfel noting that band previously had only Ken Weaver's hand drum to back up Tuli Kupferberg's and Sanders's lyrics. Richie Unterberger later reflected that the Rounders joining the Fugs "instantly multipl[ied] the group's instrumental skills many times over... A real, albeit ragged, band was beginning to take shape."
Continuing to play with the group for several months, they both participated in an April studio session, but only Weber participated in a subsequent June session.[34] These two sessions produced the material for the Fugs' debut studio album The Fugs First Album, which was released on ESP-Disk in 1965. The album included Weber's cult classic "Boobs a Lot" (the Rounders would record their own version of the song on Good Taste Is Timeless). Outtakes from these sessions were released by ESP-Disk as the Fugs' third studio album Virgin Fugs in 1967.[29] Additional outtakes from the two sessions were released on Fugs 4, Rounders Score in 1975, also on ESP-Disk.[35] [29]
In July, Stampfel left the Fugs and quit the Holy Modal Rounders, later citing his frustration with Weber, who would not work on new songs. Soon after, possibly in July,[36] the Fugs were filmed and photographed at Andy Warhol's The Factory (later in 1965, Warhol would famously become the manager of the Velvet Underground).[37] Warhol was a noted fan of the Fugs and frequented their shows. Featuring Weber performing with the Fugs, the reel was listed in the Warhol's filmography as The Fugs and the Holy Modal Rounders. Although it is unclear if the film still exists, photographs by Billy Name document the band's visit. Weber continued performing with the group until he was fired by the end of 1965 for being unreliable.[38] [39]
After leaving the Fugs and the Holy Modal Rounders, Stampfel decided to form a rock band with his girlfriend Antonia. Although Antonia did not play any instruments, she and Stampfel began a fruitful songwriting partnership during this time. An early attempt at Stampfel's rock band included Stampfel, Antonia, Sam Shepard, Nancy Jeffries, and Bill Barth.[40] [41] Shepard was already a noted playwright when Stampfel met him in September 1966.[42] This lineup never played live but Jeffries and Barth lived with Stampfel and Antonia for a few weeks before they moved into Luke Faust's building. Faust, Barth, and Jeffries went on to form the Insect Trust with Robert Palmer and Trevor Koehler circa 1966.[43] By 1967, Stampfel's rock band, now called the Moray Eels, had a new lineup of Stampfel, Antonia, Shepard on drums, keyboardist Richard Tyler, and Dave Levi on guitar.[44] [45]
In June 1967, Stampfel and Weber briefly reunited at the behest of ESP-Disk founder Bernard Stollman and recorded another Holy Modal Rounders album.[40] Released the same year, Indian War Whoop also included contributions from Shepard and keyboardist (and ex-member of the Fugs) Lee Crabtree.[40] [46] [47] A departure from the old-time music Stampfel and Weber had previously played, Mark Deming of AllMusic later noted that "even by the standards of The Holy Modal Rounders' first two albums, 1967's Indian War Whoop is a thoroughly bizarre listening experience" with "neo-psychedelic fiddle-and-guitar freakouts and free-form (and often radically altered) interpretations of traditional folk tunes."[48]
Because Weber had refused to rehearse before recording Indian War Whoop (which led to an uneven and unfocused project in the eyes of Stampfel),[40] Stampfel did not intend to reunite with him. However, the Moray Eels signed to Elektra Records under the condition that Weber would join the recordings. Thus, Weber came with the Moray Eels, who by this time had added bassist John Annis (sometimes spelled Annas)[49] and dropped Levi, as they briefly moved to California in March 1968 to record an album. During the band's time there, Antonia stopped performing with the group. The Moray Eels Eat The Holy Modal Rounders was released in 1968 as the Rounders' fourth studio album and featured a similar combination of traditional music and psychedelia to Indian War Whoop.[50] Richie Unterberger retrospectively reflected that "no acid folk album mixed inspiration and lunacy in as downright deranged a fashion as The Moray Eels." The album opens with "Bird Song," which was written by Antonia and notably included in Dennis Hopper's 1969 counterculture film Easy Rider and its soundtrack.[47] [51] Stampfel later expressed dissatisfaction with The Moray Eels citing the fact that he, the rest of the band, and the producer used amphetamines excessively during recording and Weber again refused to rehearse any songs before entering the studio. When the album was completed, Weber and the Moray Eels officially combined to reform the Holy Modal Rounders.
While in California, the band played a number of notable shows, opening for Pink Floyd in August in San Francisco,[52] opening for Ike and Tina Turner in Los Angeles, and performing a set on the sketch comedy television show Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In in October.[52] [53] They continued playing shows of high notability after leaving California, opening for the Velvet Underground in Boston in January 1969 and playing at Carnegie Hall with the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers in September 1969.[54] Not long after the band returned to New York City in early 1969, Shepard left the group to focus on a movie meant to star the Rolling Stones. While Michael McCarty, a friend of Annis,[49] replaced him on drums that year,[55] Shepard remained an occasional associate of the band. In November 1969, Shepard played drums with the Holy Modal Rounders at his wedding.[56] In March 1970, Shepard's play Operation Sidewinder premiered and included music written and performed by the Holy Modal Rounders.[57] A double bill performance of Shepard's The Unseen Hand and Forensic and the Navigators in April 1970 had the Rounders play a set during the intermission with Shepard on drums.[58] In the same year, Shepard played a gig with them, after which he met future lover Patti Smith for the first time.[59] [60] Smith, not yet a musician herself, was there as a journalist to review the Holy Modal Rounders' show.
In Nashville, the band recorded their 1971 album Good Taste Is Timeless,[61] which saw the band move away from the psychedelia of their past two albums.[62] Not long before the album's recording, Robin Remaily joined the group as a multi-instrumentalist while bassist Dave Reisch replaced Annis in February 1971 after the album's recording.[63] Later in the year, the band relocated to Boston, Massachusetts, where they added saxophonist Ted Deane and drummer Roger North (previously of Quill and replacing McCarty). During their time there, they also briefly played with Jeff "Skunk" Baxter.[64] [65] In 1972, Rounder Records, whose name was partially inspired by the group, wanted to record a Stampfel and Weber album. Luke Faust and Remaily participated in the sessions that became the band's sixth album Alleged in Their Own Time but it mostly featured recordings of just Stampfel and Weber. The album would not be released until 1975.
Soon after the band's return from a three month tour of Europe in 1972 (which Stampfel did not participate in), Weber and the rest of the group relocated to Portland, Oregon.[66] [67] Stampfel stayed behind in New York, effectively leaving the group. In 1975, Jeffrey Frederick also moved to Portland where he utilized the Rounders minus Weber as his backing band the Clamtones.[68] The band continued to play with Weber as the Holy Modal Rounders. A live album Steve Weber and the Holy Modal Rounders, B.C. from a 1976 radio show was released in 2006 by Frederick Productions/Red Newt Records. It is the only commercial album featuring Weber and the Portland band in its heyday.[69]
In 1975, Stampfel and Reisch (without Weber) formed the short-lived Unholy Modal Rounders.[29] The group joined Michael Hurley, Jeffrey Frederick, and the Clamtones in the studio and recorded the collaborative and critically-acclaimed 1976 album Have Moicy!.[70] Rock critic Robert Christgau ranked it his favorite album of the year for his ballot in the annual Pazz & Jop poll.[71] Richie Unterberger noted in 1998 that Have Moicy! was "one of the most critically acclaimed folk records of the last 25 years."
In 1977, when the Holy Modal Rounders visited the East Coast for a funeral, Stampfel reunited with them and recorded Last Round, which was released in 1978. Also in 1978, the Portland incarnation of the Rounders broke up, but they continued to live in the Portland area and reunited annually. In 1979, Stampfel and Weber reunited when Weber visited the East Coast.[72] They recorded Going Nowhere Fast, their first album as a twosome in over 15 years, which was released in 1981.[73]
During the Rounders' time in Portland, Stampfel continued to stay active musically, most notably forming the Bottlecaps.[74] Since 2000, he has formed the Du-Tels with Gary Lucas[74] and collaborated with Jeffrey Lewis.[75] In 1998, he won a Grammy Award for writing part of the liner notes for the CD reissue of the Anthology of American Folk Music.[76] Stampfel also took a day job at his wife Betsy Wollheim's publishing company DAW Books,[74] which she became president of in 1985.[77]
In 1995, Weber left Portland and returned to his native Pennsylvania after years of substance abuse issues.[78] With Weber back on the East Coast, Stampfel and Weber reunited in 1996 at the Bottom Line, which began a series of reunions for the duo. They then released Too Much Fun!, with contributions from Dave Reisch and guest slide guitarist Don Rooke, under the Rounders name in 1999.[29]
In 2003, the duo intended to reunite for a 40th anniversary show but Weber unexpectedly did not show up. This was captured in the 2006 documentary film The Holy Modal Rounders: Bound to Lose, which was directed and produced by Paul Lovelace and Sam Douglas. Weber later explained that he did not show up because he felt misrepresented by the filmmakers and was disappointed at the lack of attention directed to the band's days in Portland. Bound to Lose, shot primarily between 2000 and 2003,[79] included appearances from fellow musicians Dave Van Ronk, Peter Tork, John Sebastian, Loudon Wainwright III, John Cohen, Ed Sanders, Tuli Kupferberg, and Sam Shepard.
Weber died on February 7, 2020, aged 76, in Mount Clare, West Virginia.[80] [81] Stampfel noted after Weber's death that he hadn't seen Weber since 2002 and they had last corresponded via email in 2003 when they were arranging the 40th anniversary show.[82]
While Sam Shepard was still a drummer for the band, the Holy Modal Rounders played a brief set on the sketch comedy television program Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In in 1968. Stampfel believes this is the only film of Shepard playing with the band. In 1969, the Holy Modal Rounders' "Bird Song" was included in Dennis Hopper's film Easy Rider and the movie's soundtrack. According to Stampfel, the song caught the attention of co-writer Peter Fonda who thought it would be perfect for the movie. However, it has also been reported that it was Hopper who first heard the song. The soundtrack charted at number 6 on the Billboard Top Ten and went gold.[51] [83]
In early 1974, "Boobs A Lot" bubbled under Billboard's Hot 100 at 103.[84] Sales were driven by a number of radio shows playing the song,[85] including Dr. Demento's. From 1971 to 2022, Demento played it 167 times.[86] "Boobs a Lot" was also featured on Demento's compilation album Dr. Demento's Delights in 1975.[87]
Much has been made of the band's legacy as a cult act. Rolling Stone magazine dubbed the Holy Modal Rounders "one of rock's greatest cult bands."[88] The Seattle Times said "in the subculture of obscure music groups, the Rounders may be in a class of their own for deficiency of fame as well as longevity. For more than 40 years, this freakadelic folk-rock band... had lasting influence on fans wild and crazy enough to be in on the acquired-taste secret of their art."[89] For the band's retrospective compilation I Make a Wish for a Potato, John Swenson reflected that the Rounders "resolutely pursued their eccentric muses despite an almost complete lack of interest from the general public."[90] While nevertheless praising the Rounders' early work, The Mojo Collection: The Greatest Albums of All Time opinioned "that the band ever got to make a [debut] album is remarkable; that there was a second later that year [''sic''] smacks of complete madness on the part of their record label." Writing for AllMusic, Richie Unterberger called the band "almost the very definition of a cult act... Their audience was small because their music was too strange, idiosyncratic, and at times downright dissonant for mainstream listeners to abide."
The band's frequent drug use as well as Stampfel and Weber's creative differences also hindered a breakthrough. After observing Stampfel and Weber's interactions during the filming of the documentary Bound to Lose, Paul Lovelace said "they really are like an old married couple. They love each other to death at times, but they also just can't stand being around each other at times." Peter Stampfel reflected that "there was just too much drugs, alcohol, and bad attitude in the band" to "capitalize on our positive aspects." NPR noted that the band exhibited "self-destructive behavior" that led to an early breakup and an inability to capitalize on the inclusion of "Bird Song" on Easy Riders commercially successful soundtrack. Dave Van Ronk thought similarly: "that was their moment right there. If they had been able to capitalize on [''Easy Rider''], they would have been two very very wealthy men. But somehow or another it just didn't happen."[91] In the early 2000s, the band's former road manager Jack Gallagher recalled that "managing them was like herding snakes" but put the band's lack of success more squarely on Weber, questioning whether Weber would even complete the band's current tour and saying that Weber "never crashes until the money gets real good."[92]
Despite the band's limited critical and commercial success during their initial run in the 1960s and 1970s, they have since earned significant praise, in particular for their groundbreaking reworking of early 20th century American folk music. Music journalist Greil Marcus used the Holy Modal Rounders as the earliest example of old-time music being reinvented with modern aesthetics, commenting that they were "incapable of taking anything seriously, but nevertheless [got] to the bottom of folk songs other people sang as if they were obvious."[93] The band has frequently been lumped into what Marcus coined as "old weird America,"[94] which refers to the type of music collected on Anthology of American Folk Music. Michael Simmons also noted the band's trail-blazing aesthetics, saying that "the story of the Rounders is one of the grand secret histories of 20th-century American music. If music history is often a game of Who Came First?, then the Rounders can be said to be the first psychedelic hippie freak band and the first aggressively anti-purist folkies, making them a crucial missing link between early- and late-20th-century pop." The band's first two albums have been called early forerunners of the genre freak folk,[95] [96] with music critic Robert Christgau commenting "freak folk started here." In 1983, The New Rolling Stone Record Guide called Stampfel and Weber the "cocreators and lone practitioners of the genre known as acid folk." The band's two psychedelic albums are also of historical significance, with The New York Times saying that they "still stand as extreme examples of acid-tinged folk music."
Both Stampfel and Weber have been singled out for praise when reviewers discuss the Rounders' legacy. Music critic Eric Weisbard, writing for Spin in 1999, declared that "Stampfel has become to roots music what Jon Langford is to punk: the patron saint of lost causes and good times in spite of them."[97] Robert Christgau had similar high praise, believing that the Holy Modal Rounders, like Bob Dylan, "greatly transcend" the New York folk scene they began in and that "next to Bob Dylan, Stampfel is the closest thing to a genius" to come out of the 1960s folk revival. Christgau also praised Weber, calling him an "ace guitarist" who "can just not give a fuck while remaining both charming and musical." Jason Weiss observed that "from the start, [Weber] was recognized for his technique and divine spontaneity he brought to old-time music." The New York Times also noted Weber's "mastery of traditional guitar styles."
While Stampfel was dismissive of the Holy Modal Rounders' influence in the late 1990s, calling it "practically nonexistent" outside of the Portland music scene, others have disagreed. Writing for New Haven Independent, Eleanor Polak discussed how the band had not just had significant influence, but that they had also inspired "countless other musicians to take deep dives into American folk music to find the dark and weird within."[98] In 1999, Dave Van Ronk reflected: "they were hugely influential in New York and on college campuses around the country. Those albums were played in dorms from coast to coast." Ben Sisario similarly wrote that the band's music has served as inspiration to "generations of underground musicians." Jeffrey Lewis has cited the band as an influence for his brand of anti-folk.[99] NPR mentioned Yo La Tengo and Espers as newer bands influenced by the group. The Anniversary named the Rounders as an influence on their 2002 album Your Majesty.[100] Space Needle named their 1997 studio album The Moray Eels Eat the Space Needle in tribute to the Rounders' 1968 album.[101]
Rounder Records was named partially as a tribute to the Holy Modal Rounders.[102] The label would release several of the band's studio albums after its formation in 1970. In 2008, the Holy Modal Rounders were inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame for their long stay in the state and their influence on the Portland music scene.[103]
Intervals for Tyler, Remaily, Deane, Reisch, North, and Shepard are included in the documentary The Holy Modal Rounders: Bound to Lose. The list below is adapted from the list the film provides during the credits.[104]