Thanks in part to Don DeLillo’s 1973 novel Great Jones Street, it didn’t take long for the rock-star-toiling-away-in-seclusion narrative to go from the stuff of critical legend to obvious fodder for parody. Nevermind that two years later saw the release and instant canonization of Bob Dylan and the Band’s long-buried The Basement Tapes—the inspiration, in fact, for the DeLillo character Bucky Wunderlick’s “The Mountain Tapes.” And so for listeners, the brilliant, hermetic artist has persisted, both as a reductive, suspect concept and as an undeniably seductive one. Listed here, some examples of the latter.

The D.C./Baltimore psych-folk act Le Loup retreated to a cabin in North Carolina to record much of its latest album, Family (out now on Hardly Art) and the result is druggy, country-fried, and poppy. Take “Grow,” which sports what might be the best pairing of Beach Boys harmonies and the “Be My Baby” beat since, well, the Beach Boys. But the real innovation here is space: Where past Le Loup songs were concise and linear, Family’s breathe and frolic and expand. The band—which performs Saturday at the Black Cat with Pree—recently recorded a session for All Our Noise. Check it out:

More records made in wooded seclusion after the jump: Reluctant backwoods Svengalis, some latter-day Johnny Cash, and brassy mountain ditties!

Read More “Clip Job: Five Records Made in Cabins (Other than Bon Iver)” »

For more info about upcoming shows — free, kid- and date-friendly, or otherwise — see our Summer Music Guide.

• Cricket Fusion Quartet. 1905. Call for price.
• Jonathan Coulton, Chelsea Lee. Birchmere. $29.50. All ages.
• Deleted Scenes, The XYZ Affair, Casper Bangs. Black Cat Backstage. $8. All ages.
• Dick Morgan. Blues Alley. $25.
• Buster Brown and The Get Down. Cafe Martini. Call for price.
• Tally Hall, Malbec, Prabir & the Substitutes. DC9. $12. +18.
• Pree, Dead Heart Bloom, Tripp. IOTA Club & Cafe. $12. +21.
• NSO: “Nights at the Movies: A Night on the Red Carpet.” Kennedy Center Concert Hall. $20–$65.
• Berklee College of Music: Liz Longley. Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. Free.
• Old Crow Medicine Show. Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. $25.
• Toad the Wet Sprocket, Eddie From Ohio. National Harbor. $16.50-$35.
• The Jones, The Known Unknowns, The Very Small. Rock & Roll Hotel. $8. All ages.
• Maryland Deathfest Pre-fest show w/ Ghoul. Sonar. $10. All ages.
• Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers, Dead Rock West. The State Theatre. $15.
• Hopewell, The Flying Eyes, Bad Liquor Pond. The Talking Head. $10.
• Fight the Bear, The Blue Line, Imaginary Friends. Velvet Lounge. $8. +21.

Photo of the XYZ Affair by Kyle Gustafson, via MySpace.