Namesakes #96: The Farm

I grew up on a farm. I have many happy memories of feeding the calves, trying to get the chickens back into their hut, and chasing the cows down the road in the middle of the night when they escaped the field and ran past my bedroom window. And in summer, the haymaking. That's the thing I miss the most, being up on the back of the trailer while my dad, my brother and my brother in law chucked bales up at me and I had to fit them together in a giant Jenga puzzle that could make it back to the barn without toppling from the trailer. This time of year then, I always think back to my youth on the farm... but will any of these bands be ably soundtrack my memories? Let's find out...

FARM #1

Bluesy psychedelic southern rock band from Mt. Vernon, Illinois who were mucking out the pigs between 1969 and 1973.

Farm - Sunshine In My Window

FARM #2

In the late 60s / early 70s, filmmaker George Greenough made two movies that attempted to communicate the exhilaration of surfing to cinema audiences. The first of these was called Innermost Limits of Pure Fun, dudes. It was rad. George recruited a surf band call The Dragons to soundtrack the movie, though it was eventually released under the name "Farm" because, as one website puts it...

"The Dragons had progressed within a world ready for jazz improvisation in rock. What set it apart from the reverbed surf crunchers of the early '60s was its beyond "Pipeline" instrumentation. Keyboard riffs meshed fluidly with bass harmonica, sophisticated percussion, snap drums, and a fuzzy guitar ripping through bass lines so thick you would swear there was an orchestra behind them. What you're dealing with are surf instrumental musicians on a par unmatched, a few years after the trend, getting a chance to really dig in,"

I figured I should alert you to that stuff, in case you can't hear it when you press play on the track below...

Farm - Animal

FARM #3

UK band originally known as Fusion Farm, when they were a bit more prog / psych. By 1974, they'd jumped on the glam tractor with Fat Judy, losing all their Fusion in the process...

Farm - Fat Judy

THE FARM BAND #4

I'm letting these guys sneak past the Namesakes Pedantry Officials because they have an interesting story to tell, and I figure adding the word "band" to your Namesake doesn't really take you too far from The Farm.

The Farm was a hippy commune in Tennessee founded in 1971 by Stephen Gaskin and 300 spiritual seekers from Haight-Ashbury and San Francisco. The Farm had its own electrical crew, composting crew, farming crew, communications, construction & demolition crew, clinic, firewood crew, alternative energy crew, motor pool, laundromat, tofu plant, bakery, school, ambulance service, publishers... and its own band. I want to go live there.

The Farm Band - Soul Fire (Part 1) 

THE FARM #5

Originally known as The Excitements, though they became The Farm when lead singer Peter Hooton joined in 1983, this Scouse collective found their way onto the charts in 1990 when they became ringleaders of the baggy movement, with a little help from Suggs on production. Their debut album was huge, but a change of sound meant follow-up records didn't keep the chickens fed.

The Farm - All Together Now

FARM #6

Experimental folk trio from Enosburg Falls, Vermont, farming between 2008 and 2012 on the camp of bands. They may or may not favour a lower case initial letter...

farm - Revelation Sessions

FARM #7

Grungy farm-folk from Sacramento, circa 2021, who write things such as this on their bandcamp page...

"I eat wasps and spit fire into my periwinkle dreams, such an essence overcomes my very being and I ignite. My Mind Is A Blank Oasis Of Silverberry Thoughts."

Farm - The Island

How Ya Gonna Keep 'em Down on the Farm after they've heard these guys?