So, Fleet Foxes...

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.

I stand by this:

ban Seattle

― Ringtone Tycoon (The Reverend), Tuesday, December 2, 2008 3:14 AM Bookmark

This is confusing: I thought they sounded better than anyone usually sounds on that stage, and their harmonies on "Mykonos" came across really well.

I also feel weird that I keep repping for them on this thread despite not being hugely attached to their music -- it's just that they do strike me as ... I was going to say "competent," but it's well beyond that -- I think they're pretty great at what they do, even thought What They Do isn't usually likely to be something I fall head-over-heels in love with.

dude, competent would be otm for me. they're excellent singers, as someone noted upthread or maybe another thread. but that's all i can really get behind for these guys. there's certainly an audience for this, but as long as there are 100x more creative and visionary artists out there, i'm just not going to be among them, thanks

them = the aforementioned audience

So funny. I watched the SNL last night and had the exact opposite reaction after the first song. I turned to my wife and said "they probably sold so many fucking records after that." I thought it was really pretty, and different-sounding from most of the indie schlock on SNL.

I though "Mykonos" was really good on SNL. It made me want to try to listen to them again. My girlfriend said she had to avert her eyes because of the beards. I don't recall the second song at all, so it was either really boring or I had fallen asleep because of the general lameness of the show.

remember hataz, this band currently helps pay for Pissed Jeans and Obits. it's a living.

This is confusing: I thought they sounded better than anyone usually sounds on that stage, and their harmonies on "Mykonos" came across really well.

Agreed. I thought they sounded better than any live-on-TV band has in a long time. The only weird thing was the number of close-ups on every single member of the band. These guys aren't pretty enough to warrant so many close-ups. But I thought they turned in two really outstanding performances.

otm. listening to them >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> looking at them.

I feel exactly the same way about their album as I did about the Magic Numbers - nice melodies n all, but get more than one choooon plz. White Winter Hymnal is gorgeous, nothing else comes close.

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 disagree. The more intricate performances actually work better and seem more authentic on the small screen than the big loud bands. Think about Radiohead's performance of "The National Anthem" (10/4/00) compared to a wall-of-sound band like P.O.D. (4/20/02) who seem stifled by the room around them. Yet artists like Rickie Lee Jones (4/7/79) and Cowboy Junkies (2/18/89) seem set free.

And as noted with Kanye West, rap artists have always had a tough time on SNL. Think back to L.L. Cool J (10/24/87) trying to get everyone to put their hands in the air, resulting in five very awkward rows of white people, trying to get "with it" with their waves.

Are you guys really hating on Fleet Foxes looks?

well, their "look" is pretty damn deliberate. no one's making them grow those hideous beards and dress like they just stepped out of an ironic chow line. add this to the fact that they have zero stage presence or charisma and i don't find a fucking thing about them endearing.

ironic chow line

this dance craze is sweeping the nation btw

haha

In their defense, when I saw them in LA a few months back they had a ton of charisma and stage presence. They were really an entertaining band to watch. Every single guy with a mic--i.e., all but the guitarist--were super chatty throughout. It was a really wonderful show.

SNL, on the other hand... they just looked like they didn't want to fuck it up.

can hear my roommate listening in his bedroom and ive realized that idk if ive ever felt such a discrepancy between how much i enjoy a band when i hear them peripherally than when i'm actually trying to 'listen' to them

Wait, which do you like more?

peripherally

It is good housework music.