Can outsider music still maintain it’s allure with the inception of MySpace? The music of Memphis C. Depp seems to attest that it can. Regardless of MySpace or the Internet itself,  Memphis C. Depp remains refreshingly enigmatic. Depp’s music is just as entangled and un-revealing as his personality. Intoning his vocals in a deadpan delivery, Depp’s ramshackle anti-folk songs spell out a carefree existence we all long for but will never inhabit. Lyrically the music embodies the outsider ethos by conflating pathos and irony; never letting the listener get too close to Depp’s protean soul.  Like fellow outsiders Ralph White and Devendra Banhart, Depp isn’t afraid to scare us also-shocking us out of our unchecked sensibilities. At the same time, Memphis’s loose bluegrass finger pickin invites us to settle down with a miller high life and learn something about the little things in life. As Willie Nelson once famously stated, “‘Three Chords and the Truth—That’s What a Country Song Is,” if Depp’s music doesn’t embody this then I don’t know what does.

Arc Light-Longe Range

Disc Jockey JoeBloggs-Dance To The DJ

Dan Plaza-Ontario

Download Mindless Vinyls Compilation #1 HERE

Mindless Vinyls is a DIY brotherhood of sorts, created by Easy Tom featuring a bunch of outsider musicians including the great R. Stevie Moore. Easy Tom says its about unity and building a collective energy to help out each artists singular visions. Mindless Vinyls compilation #1 is available for download via bandcamp at the link above. The album includes songs from RSM, Arc Light, Dan Plaza, SPACEMAN, Quint Baker, Derek Spade and more. This compilation screams for a tape or vinyl release, is jammed packed with a colorful variety of artists, and is one the best albums Ive heard in quite some time.