{{Short description|American folk punk band}} {{More citation needed|date=June 2025}} {{Infobox musical artist | name = Blackbird Raum | image = Blackbird Raum at Northwest Folklife.jpg | image_size = <!-- Only for images narrower than 220 pixels --> | caption = Blackbird Raum performing at Northwest Folklife Festival in Seattle, WA (2007) | alias = | origin = Santa Cruz, CA | genre = Anarcho-punk, acoustic, Folk-punk, Blues, Traditional folk music, Ragtime, country | occupation = | instrument = | years_active = | label = | associated_acts = Sangre de Muerdago, Lynched, Hail Seizures | website = [https://silversprocket.net/raum/ Official website] | current_members = CPN | past_members = Roberto Miguel<br />Mars<br />Zack Religious<br />David<br />KC<br /> Jillian Edward Chaplin<br />Amelia<br />Allen Degenerate }}
'''Blackbird Raum''' is a folk punk band from Santa Cruz, California, formed in 2004.<ref name="cruz">{{cite web|title=Blackbird Raum: Santa Cruz Radicals|url=http://www.santacruz.com/2013/04/16/blackbird_raum_santa_cruz_radicals/|website=SantaCruz.com|date=April 16, 2013|access-date=March 17, 2025|archive-date=October 20, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141020154148/http://www.santacruz.com/2013/04/16/blackbird_raum_santa_cruz_radicals/|url-status=deviated}}</ref> They are known for their frantic live shows and anarchist politics. They have toured Europe and the U.S.
== 2004-2007: Formation and demos == Blackbird Raum was formed in 2004 by banjoist CPN and accordionist Zack while living at UCSC housing in Santa Cruz, California. The band was haphazard at first, playing gigs and busking with a band randomly composed of other musicians living in or around Santa Cruz.<ref name="cruz" /> They made their first dollar from a man on a date who paid them to leave.<ref name="cruz" /> During this period, they wrote songs including "Honey in the Hair" and "Coal" and recorded a demo. After some frustrations with chaotic nature of the lineup, CPN left Santa Cruz for a year to play in other projects. When he returned he and Zack agreed to try the band again and a lineup was cemented with the addition of K.C. on washboard, David on washtub bass and Mars on musical saw and mandolin. They quickly wrote new material and recorded what was to be their first album, ''Purse-Seine'', named after the poem by Robinson Jeffers.{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}
== 2007-2010: ''Swidden'' == The band were unsatisfied with ''Purse-Seine'' and produced the follow-up, ''Swidden'',<ref name="cruz"/> promoting it with a full U.S. tour and several other tours. Two years later, they followed up with ''Under the Starling Host''. During the release of ''UTSH'', the band members set up a small collectively run anarchist record label called Black Powder to support other radical folk projects, including the Hail Seizures.<ref>{{cite web|title=Black Powder Records|url=http://blackpowderpress.com/index.php?route=information/information&information_id=7|publisher=Black Powder Press|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130725040054/http://blackpowderpress.com/index.php?route=information%2Finformation&information_id=7|archivedate=2013-07-25}}</ref> After the release of ''UTSH,'' the band took a hiatus for a few years, playing few gigs. After the 2011 release of the Hail Seizures, Blackbird Raum split 7-inch K.C. left the band.{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}
== 2012-2013: "False Weavers" == In 2012, Blackbird Raum regrouped, replacing K.C. on washboard with Allen Degenerate and signing to Silver Sprocket Bicycle Club for the release of ''False Weavers'' in 2013. Recorded at John Vanderslice's Tiny Telephone Studios, the album marked a change in sound, with psychedelic touches the band has attributed to their love of Chumbawamba and Crass. Five months of touring in the US and Europe followed.<ref>{{cite web|last=Bodewell|first=Captain|title=Blackbird Raum 2013 Europe Tour|url=http://www.sepiachord.com/index/blackbird-raum-2013-europe-tour/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131230233954/https://www.sepiachord.com/index/blackbird-raum-2013-europe-tour/|archive-date=2013-12-30|website=Sepiachord|date=June 6, 2013}}</ref>
== 2015-2016: "Destroying," Mars's departure, and "Nevermind The Ballads" == Following the release of False Weavers, the band teamed up with Dublin based folk band "Lankum" (then called Lynched) to create a new album "Destroying," released in 2015. The bands toured together before the release of the album. After the tour, the band announced the departure of Mars, who had been contributing to vocals and songwriting greatly, as well as playing the mandolin, musical saw and other instruments. After Mars left, the band took a short break before a short tour followed by the release of an EP titled "Nevermind The Ballads" in 2016.{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}
== 2023-present: "come into your power," == After a long break between releasing new music but a continued presence on social media, Blackbird Raum released "come into your power" on July 1, 2023. The new EP featured former band members and multiple cameo<nowiki/>s from groups, including Lyngfarer, Casey Mattson, Holy Locust, the Resonant Rogues and Mama' s Broke. This new EP has yet to be introduced with a formal tour, as the band's last public performance occurred March 5, 2016.{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}
== Lyrical and ideological influences == Blackbird Raum's lyrics tend to paint a bleak picture of modern society, focusing on issues like the destruction of the environment, mental illness, and class warfare. They have described themselves as eco-anarchists.<ref>{{cite web|title=Stoneborn II: We're All Playing Cards as the Ship Goes Down... |url=http://www.hammersmashedsound.com/2011/03/stoneborn-ii-were-all-playing-cards-as.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141018022225/http://www.hammersmashedsound.com/2011/03/stoneborn-ii-were-all-playing-cards-as.html|url-status=usurped|archive-date=October 18, 2014|publisher=Hammer Smashed Sound|date=March 31, 2011}}</ref>
In an interview with ''The Sunday Times of Malta'', banjo player CPN had this to say about their political views:
{{quote|It's clear that if industrial/consumer civilisation continues on its current course we will eradicate life on the planet. The sea is filled with plastic bags and there is more dioxin in the breast milk of American mothers than the amount legally acceptable for cows. Past attempts to redress the ills of capitalism have led to even worse horrors.
We’d all rather live in Sweden than North Korea, but the Scandinavians produce trash and toxic waste like any other country. Change is confusing and dangerous, but it’s a dire necessity. One thing is clear: the answer will come from people, not power.<ref>{{cite web|title=Free as a (black) bird|url=http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110703/arts-entertainment/Free-as-a-black-bird.373871|publisher=Times of Malta|date=July 3, 2011}}</ref>}}
The lyrics and song names often contain references to historical events, ancient myths and cultural icons:{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}
*"Ars Goetia," which references the Ars Goetia, a 17th-century grimoire of Hermetic mysticism *"Silent Spring," which references the book Silent Spring by Rachel Carson *"Lucasville," a song about the riot in the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility *"The Helm of Ned Kelly," talking about the Australian bushranger Ned Kelly *"Old One Eye," making an incorrect reference to Odin's sacrifice in Norse Mythology *"Ravachol in Valhalla," named for the Illegalist anarchist Ravachol *"Conquest of Bread," named for the book Conquest of Bread by Peter Kropotkin *"Cadillac Desert," named for the book Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner
Blackbird Raum makes use of epigraphs from many poets and writers. Among them are William Blake, George R. Stewart, Sir Thomas Malory, Gary Snyder, Kenneth Rexroth, Robinson Jeffers, and Black Elk.{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}
== Discography == * ''RAUM DEMO-2005'', released public in 2021 * ''Purse-Seine'' – 2007, Quiver Distro * ''Swidden'' – 2008, Quiver Distro * ''Under the Starling Host'' – 2009, Black Powder Records * ''Split 7-inch w/ Hail Seizures –'' 2011, Go Records * ''False Weavers'' – 2013, Silver Sprocket * ''Destroying'' – 2015, Silver Sprocket * ''Nevermind the Ballads'' – 2016, No Time Records * ''Come into your power'' – 2023, CPNPC, Black Mold Tapes
== References == {{reflist}}
== Further reading == *{{cite journal|last=Fox|first=David|year=2024|title='It won't be the witches that are burning this time': The anarchist temporalities of folk punk|journal=Punk & Post-Punk|volume=13|issue=1|pages=27–45|doi=10.1386/punk_00230_1|issn=2044-3706}} *{{cite web|last=Gardenyes|first=Josep|year=2011|title=Social War, Antisocial Tension|url=https://voidnetwork.gr/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Social-War-Antisocial-Tension-by-Distro-Josep-Gardenyes.pdf|website=Void Network}} *{{cite thesis|last=Roby|first=David|year=2013|title=Crust Punk: Apocalyptic Rhetoric and Dystopian Performatives|url=https://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/151027|type=MA|publisher=Texas A&M University|hdl=1969.1/151027 }} *{{cite journal|last=Stoll|first=Mark|year=2012|title=Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, A Book that changed the world|url=https://rccve.ub.uni-muenchen.de/rccve/article/view/1|publisher=Environment & Society Portal|journal=Virtual Exhibitions|issue=1|doi=10.5282/rcc/3517}} *Tony Shrum (2014) [https://newnoisemagazine.com/interviews/interview-blackbird-raum-explain-shot-coplifting-3/ "Blackbird Raum explain 'Shot Coplifting'"] New Noise Magazine
== External links == * [https://blackbirdraum.bandcamp.com/ "Official Bandcamp"] * [https://www.facebook.com/BlackbirdRaum/ Official Facebook page] * {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20130520221315/http://silversprocket.gostorego.com/blackbirdraum.html?limit=all Official site]}} ;Audio/video media *[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZcobJKCB3o "Blackbird Raum Silent Spring Santa Cruz"], "Courant Times", ''YouTube'', January 3, 2009.
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Category:Anarcho-punk groups Category:Gypsy punk groups Category:Folk punk groups Category:Musical groups established in 2004 Category:Musical groups from California Category:Musicians from Santa Cruz, California Category:2004 establishments in California