So, Fleet Foxes...

Wisconsin.

MMJ - appeared on the show to promote evil urges, which debuted at #9 on the charts.
VW - appeared on the show to promote vampire weekend, which debuted at #17 and was everywhere by then (march). certainly comparable to FF in that regard, but i'd argue that VW are easier to like and better suited for such a show
Wilco - appeared after sky blue sky, which debuted at #4, their second top-10 charting album in a row. YHF went gold.
Feist - appeared in support of the reminder, which debuted at #16 and had a song in about every commercial on TV at that point and was up for numerous mainstream awards. cannot seem to find ratings for SNL, but i'd be willing to bet they dipped for this show. could be wrong
Spoon - appeared in support of ga ga ga ga ga, which debuted at #10
Arcade Fire - appeared to promote neon bible which debuted at #2
Shins - appeared to promote wincing the night away, which debuted at #2, not to mention the garden state push
DCFC - appeared to promote plans, which peaked at #4
Modest Mouse - appeared to promote the already-platinum good news for people who like bad news

fleet foxes' self-titled album debuted at #67 in the US. they've been getting a lot of love recently in just about every music publication, but they're easily the most obscure of any of the acts mentioned above, and probably the "weirdest". i'm not saying they shouldnt play the show or that no one is going to enjoy it, i'm just saying that from what i recall there isn't really a precedent for this kind of band, so it caught me by surprise

i don't play this record too much anymore, but when i do i'll try and play it all the way through, because it's somehow never immediately lulls me back in each time i return to it. i like to really establish a rapport with the textures, sounds and moods, and i find this takes some involved listening.

I didn't think I'd like these guys, but you know what, I listened to a few tracks on YouTube tonight and they're not bad, rather pleasant actually, soothing, pastoral.

so many adjectives to describe these guys

and you chose those

by kevink. at 06:35 PM on 01/08/09 Reply
@cookiedough: lol, you're kind missing the point entirely, but w/e.

RHCP
DMB
dashboard confessional (basically any nu-emo)
fleet foxes

:D

the album's doing pretty well plus no one is out promoting anything. you wanna see lady gaga or some shit?

i can't ride for this album but i liked them when i saw them live and im sure this will be pleasant enough

i was being kinda unnecessarily harsh i guess. it's not my thing of course, but like i said, i dont see a bearded dude falsettoing on a chair flying with a lot of the audience.

you know who watches snl regularly? ppl like my parents who are into http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5124YM060WL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

lol, fair. we'll see!

I don't understand -- this band on SNL is the same band that released the Fleet Foxes album (and Sun Giant EP), right? Cause it's like a totally different, not quite as good, band.

omg i forgot today was saturday! fucking packing

lol this is 'fun'

lol their one dude looks like a hairier jeff ross

What the hell is with people sucking on SNL as of late? (Kanye, Taylor Swift, Fleet Foxes...) Are these just bad live performers? Or has something started sucking at the SNL studio?

look at me im awkward lol! arghh i hate this band so much >:|

The first song was fucking horrible.

The second song was really nice but I wouldn't buy their album based on it.

VERDICT: FAIL

also I've only seen her a couple of times but Taylor Swift appears to be incapable of singing live

yeah, i dunno, ive warmed to taylor's vocal limitations (same with Ye), because for me it's not rly the focal point of her music

ugh kenan thompson has ONE FACE

So bizarre. I love Fleet Foxes, but if I had heard their SNL performance I probably would never have bothered with the album. Isn't an SNL performance supposed to encourage sales, not depress them?

No, you heard wrong. It's supposed to depress them.

Why isn't cowboy music ever described as "pastoral"?

What the hell is with people sucking on SNL as of late? (Kanye, Taylor Swift, Fleet Foxes...) Are these just bad live performers? Or has something started sucking at the SNL studio?

― Mordy, Saturday, January 17, 2009 9:49 PM Bookmark

When I saw Kanye ('06) he put on a great show, although I'm not sure I'd be in a huge rush to see an 808s-era Kanye show.

Was that '06 show the Bumbershoot one? That was good.

Yup. That it was.

Haha we could so turn this into a Kanye thread. Xgau just gave the album an A-.

"Avoiding what subject?"

Is the J Tillman album worth a look? (He's the drummer of Fleet Foxes.)

There's something about the SNL space that has always sucked the life out of every performer, but wall-of-sound bands will probably be able to blast their way into listenability. Something more intricate just ends up sounding distant and disjointed. Could be just the way things are miked; maybe it sounds better if you're there. If you knew and liked those Fleet Foxes songs beforehand, you could follow along and provide the what was missing yourself, but if that was your first time listening to them, I can't imagine you'd expend any energy trying to get into them.

i had no idea fleet foxes sounded like that! before snl, that is. i only saw the first song. i've only seen the name here and there. i guess i was expecting some kinda arcade fire thing or on the other hand some sorta 80's synth thing. that first song got my interest. i liked the harmonies. sounded like some sorta lite christian folk rock from the 70's. in a good way, though. didn't make me want to run out and buy their album, but it didn't sound bad at all to me.

The J Tillman albums are some slow, mopey sad bastard stuff. If that sounds appealing, you will probably find it pretty excellent.

They are excellent singers but the first song sucked.

Live performances on TV have "sucked" ever since the 90s.

a) MTV became huge
b) CDs started becoming mastered better (before they started over-compressing later on, but still...)

It's not that performances sounded better in the past. It's just our expectations of live performances increased over time. And again, rise of MTV = dearth of broadcast TV venues for live music and that fun that went with it.

I disagree. Part of the problem has to be the advent of the studio baby; people of mediocre talent who can be "ProTooled" into perfection (quotes intentional; today's Taylor Swift is directly analogous to Al B. Sure in the 80s). If you don't sound like you do on CD, but it comes across like you're trying to sound like you sound on CD but failing, and your CD performance is "flawless", people will think your live performance sucked.

which was the first song, dan?

(lol not so much "disagreeing" as "restating what you said with a slight expansion")

xp: I have no idea; it was slow and mopey and boring but they sounded great singing it.

"blue ridge mountains," probably? I don't actually think you'd dislike the album version. It's secretly an hommage to Billie Jean.

I wasn't referring so much to the performance's being weak (though it was a bit), rather to the lackluster sound the SNL space seems to serve up every time. It's just always attenuated and distant, and without emotional impact. I don't think it has to be that way. Would that we had more live TV music to compare by.

Of course, maybe SNL is apprehensive about tinkering with (read: "beefing up") the live sound given all the flak they took for the Ashlee lip-syncing fiasco a couple years ago.

so i really dug their demo CD in 2006 and kind of skipped their album in 2008 due to hype backlash i guess... then after hearing everyone say their performance on SNL was subpar i had to go download the episode myself and see.

turns out it kind of blew me away and i am now digging their LP/EP. i'm liking it even more than the demo and really getting a Morricone vibe on a lot of songs. sticking it on my 'pod next time i do a stagecoach holdup.

by the way, i'm pretty sure the first song they did on SNL was "Mykonos" from Sun Giant.

I saw them on SNl. I could hear the English folk-revival influence. A definite tendency towards prog-rock "song-shifting." Pretentious lyrics. A little bit of 70s yacht-rock and Doobie Brothers harmonizing. But (aside from lacking prog's bombastic noodling), they took like, the dullest elements of each of those things. Absolute shit, in my opinion.

After the show, according to an SNL cast member, Lorne Michaels asked the main guy how old everyone in the band was, and the main guy said, "Well, most of us are beardy-something.

Toothless hippie fucks.

You know, several years back, when I saw Tortoise (at their peak of fame) play the most tedious show I'd ever seen, without a spark of energy or personality, I thought about the music scene and realized we were in for brutal times. Iron & Wine is like Dan Fogelberg mixed with something even worse (three years ago, people got upset when I said this. Now look! They're on the "Twilight" soundtrack!) A whole bunch of bands are like the Eagles. It's sad, really.

heh I love the lyrics of White Winter Hymnal, though

I loved Iron + Wine live.

(I hated Band of Horses, tho, who opened for him.)

Deedee you are a wise wise soul.