The Kallikak Family - Vineland Social Maturity Scale

Pitchfork recently reviewed a newer album by these guys, comparing them to the Books - a comparison which I now know to be completely baseless but which at the time intrigued me.  Searching around, I found this album and their newer one (May 23rd, 2007).  Neither is very long - Vineland Social Maturity Scale - whatever that means - is just over half an hour, and their followup just under 40 minutes.  I'm not really sure what to classify these guys under - extreme lo-fi experimental singer/songwriter is probably as close as I'm going to get - like earlier Microphones, in fact.  When I picture them, I see a few people recording things on a 4-track in their basement in semi-rural Virginia, or maybe Maine.  I don't know their history, so if you or they would like to illuminate it for me, that would be great.

Tracks vary widely in quality and character despite the short length, but generally it's some hissy, home-recorded stuff, with or without strange drum kit/machine, but mostly with some basic guitar and occasionally something else thrown in, like a keyboard or random noise/unidentifiable instrument.  I won't go on at length about it, because there's little to be said - but if you have ever listened to the more obscure stuff put out by Phil Elvrum or Jeff Magnum this may sound familiar.  It's weird and pretty poorly recorded, but there are some good moments and given the changes from this to their newer album, we may have a larval talent here - not fully mature even today but certainly promising.

Here's "(Harmonica)" and "Hands Clenched" by The Kallikak Family, from their/his album Vineland Social Maturity Scale - I fused two tracks because this song, like a few others on the CD, has a short intro on the track before it and I think it sounds better with than without.  For your convenience.

update: Two informative comments (below) have been made by the mystery man/woman/child/man-child "Historian."  Whence this inside information?  Unless...nah.

Comments

[Historian]

The Kallikak Family was founded in order to musically explore the writings of now discredited psychologist H.H. Goddard, famous for his purported coinage of the term "moron." Using the concept of "feeble-mindedness" as a starting point, the Kallikaks wrote catchy, overdriven songs about subjectivity, underestimation and the large, oppressive sun. It was at this point that May 23rd 2007 discovered the Chicago underground noise movement, and embarked on a series of solo performances that combined an appreciation for ambient textures with a flair for performance art. May 23rd 2007's unsettlingly hilarious shows involved such bizaare elements as tape-delayed audience interaction, camping, and countless jokes dropped purposefully as lame ducks to universal discomfort. After spending a year in Portland, OR making contact micorphones with Adam Forkner (Yume Bitsu, [[[VVRSSNN]]]) and collaborating with artists such as Liam Singer, May 23rd 2007 relocated to Santa Cruz, CA, where he roams the beaches and boardwalks steeling himself for the inevitable barrages of publicity.

[Historian]

The Kallikak Family/Andrew Peterson is in the film program at UC Berkeley.

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