So, Fleet Foxes...

Wait, which do you like more?

peripherally

It is good housework music.

Listened to Yellow House the other day. Knocks this into a cocked-hat.

righto, so this 2CD version: worth it?

Or, too much of a.

Help me sick m, you'd know...

I didn't even know there was a 2CD version? What's on the second disk?

apparently, now it contains "everything that's been recorded and released up to date"

Which is damn good of them, I have to say. Moreso than some extra DVD of a short documentary of larking around, 1 video and a screensaver...

Looking at it, the second CD is the Sun Giant EP plus a cover of a trad song that Steeleye Span made more widely known (False Knight On The Road - interesting choice cos for me it's the Brit folk-rock influence and the whole wide-eyed nature of a lot of that music that differentiates Fleet Foxes from Grizzly Bear). Haven't actually heard the cover, but the EP was good with some stronger tracks than some of those that made the album proper. It is just more of the same though basically.

Aye, I'd say just pick up the EP; it's more consistent and upbeat than the album proper.

apparently the dude has a solo project called "white antelope". the name alone boils my blood

Dude, it's a unicorn thing, you wouldn't understand.

http://i.imgur.com/SnftV.jpg

I'm a big fan of these guys. Follow them very closely.

Therefore, I speculate after this last album and tour (and the subsequent happenings), that they're probably done for good. They will all probably continue to make music, but not as a group. I just hope Robin Pecknold has the good sense not to use the name Fleet Foxes anymore.

(unless, of course, I'm wrong and everyone's back on board for another album and tour)

I never understood the Beach Boys comparisons either. I have a theory that it all stems back to one Beach Boys song, to which a rather well-known Fleet Foxes song bares a strong resemblance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UzIuEC_N58

For other Fleet ephemera, I'm really pleased with Poor Moon thus far. Already have seen them live (blew me away — all brand new material). Not crazy about the J. Tillman/Father John Misty stuff, though I never really have been.

I have a theory that it all stems back to one Beach Boys song,

nah it's not just that. The breakdown in Quiet Houses (around 2:31) is a really blatant Smile/Pet Sounds pastiche - the plunking 1/4 piano, the ascending plucked guitar countermelody. There are a bunch of moments like this in their catalog.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugxXqqGepCU

Right, but I meant without that one big significance, stuff like you pointed out on 'Quiet Houses' may have gone otherwise unnoticed.

That stuff is definitely there, but the similarities between Fleet Foxes and, say, CSN+Y or early America are much more prevalent.

yeah they're definitely more of a early 70s folkie thing to my ears too. And I think they arrange their melodies more like Simon & Garfunkel than the Beach Boys lol

I never understood the Beach Boys comparisons either. I have a theory that it all stems back to one Beach Boys song, to which a rather well-known Fleet Foxes song bares a strong resemblance.

I have a theory that many critics were trained by Pavlov himself to shout 'Beach Boys!' whenever a human voice harmonised with another human voice.

An aside: speaking of 60's group harmonies that were possibly influential on the Fleet boys — what about the Association?

turns out i like a fleet foxes song. who knew?

are you okay? you should sit down, elevate your legs, maybe take a sedative.

wait, sedative + fleet-foxes song might be a bad combination.

which song

I think there was one I liked, but then there was a grizzly bear song that sounded very similar to it but better and then I forgot about the fleet foxes song

Oh yeah it was this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afRPnsncupg

fleet foxes are okay. bon iver can be okay. sufjan stevens is okay. many indie bands that are pilloried endlessly are okay. if people can listen appreciatively to seals & crofts songs, they can hardly complain much about fleet foxes.

I think those are all examples of people that are pretty damned good at their craft, and all have a certain kind of tender yet grand style that can get very cloying in more than a small dose.

i think you can say that about a lot of pop stars, too.

and hey, i like beyonce a lot.

(in relatively small doses).

(apologies for the snark; by-product of late-night document review. i think you're exactly right)

Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes especially seem to have discovered this certain sound that is very pleasing and sweet and emotional but just over-relied on it to the point of it becoming maddening. It's like watching a movie where the Maurice Jarre theme is playing the whole time instead of just at key moments.

i get that. still, while it may be a reflection of my age or a desire to revisit my youth, if bon iver wants to record a dozen more albums that sound like toto, i'd be fine with it.

i remember that fleet foxes song (english house). it's good.

I don't think I've really listened to the Bon Iver album that sounds like toto. That sounds different than what I'm thinking of.

best example, iirc

From FB today:

For anyone who's curious, this is a short Fleet Foxes update - been a while! So, after the last round of touring, I decided to go back to school. I never got an undergraduate degree, and this felt like the right time to both see what that was about and to try something new after a while in the touring / recording lifestyle. I moved to New York and enrolled at Columbia, and I've mostly been doing that, but I'm working on songs and excited for whatever happens next musically, even if it's down the line. Hope all is well out there.

Best,
Robin

he should've stayed silent

I don't listen to this band but I think that's kind of rad, that he just went and got a degree

totally 100% agree with this ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Next he's going to start making meta-art, acting in indies, doing installations, writing books, acting in soaps..

I still maintain that they're done. He will do music again in some capacity, but Fleet Foxes burned him out big time.

FB today

Hey

We have two shows happening next year that are ready to announce - the BBK Live festival in Bilbao, Spain, and the Vida Festival in Barcelona. Late June / early July. Many more to come worldwide, our third album is almost done and we're very... very... very excited

FF

sweet!

new one is very good

best band going, Pecknold is a visionary

History still out on that one but dude does harmonize well withhimsrkf

* well with himself

New songs so far don't exactly sound like a big evolution from the old stuff, but also I really liked the old stuff and I like the new songs too.

Dude has a very nice voice

I am very nonplussed by this new material. I'll still get the album and give it my undivided attention, as it's been one of my anticipated releases since Robin started to indicate he was doing music again, roughly sixteen months ago.

But, I dunno, all those accusations thrown at the last two albums of being needlessly complicated and too self-referential never made sense to me. But, unfortunately, it's starting to ring true with this new material. It just feels so overthought and too self-conscious. Helplessness Blues, in particular, had such a free-flowing, organic vibe to it, but so far this new stuff feels very stiff, contrived, and unnatural.

I really like the new album but I also think that ^^ is a fair observation\

i am all for Robin exploring whatever he wants to explore, but i'd be lying if i said i wouldn't play an album full of "Third of May"s over and over again until the end of time