Foxygen

I was going to post some political bullshit - some blistering, acerbic anti-Trump song as performed by some angry rocker or another, and then I saw that Foxygen is back with a new song, and this time with strings!

Fuck it, folks, be happy.  Election season's almost over and our side is winning.  We can enjoy us some Foxygen - we deserve it, we earned it. 

Foxygen at The Loft, October 1, 2014

Foxygen Video

Let's be honest, here.  The new Foxygen album, . . .And Star Power, is two good songs followed by 3 1/2 sides of filler.  Not that the filler doesn't have its moments of brilliance, but filler none the less.

Foxygen already released a video of the first of the two good songs.  Here's the new video for the second.

Foxygen at The Loft, Atlanta, October 1, 2014

After a long, hot summer, it seems that Rocktober is finally here.  Officially, the festivities kicked off last weekend with the East Atlanta Strut, but the schedule began in earnest last night with an exciting performance by Foxygen at The Loft.  Friends of the band Dub Thompson opened.

Dub Thonpson were garage-rock anarchists, 19-year-olds creating mayhem on stage just for the lulz and the sheer fun of it.  It was fun to watch too, even though the lead guitarist kept having problems with his amp shorting out.  It sounded to me like a loose wire or connection somewhere between his guitar and his amp,  and even though he and the soundman kept trying to change things up, it never really worked out.  Five seconds into a guitar solo, and then silence (at least from his guitar - the rest of the band kept going).  Jonathan Rado of Foxygen even came on stage to offer them his guitar, but it didn't improve things.  I felt bad for them, but they looked like they were taking it in stride, sort of like, "Cool another fucked up story to tell when we get back home."  Nothing like some cowbell to fill in for that guitar part you'd been practicing all month.

But the evening was really all about Foxygen.  We last saw the band early last year at 529 opening up for Unknown Mortal Orchestra (Wampire played that night, too), and since then, the band's gone through some pretty well chronicled ups and downs.  Frankly, I thought that they wouldn't have lasted long enough for us to ever see them again, but here they were back again, with a new, ambitious double album about to drop.

There have definitely been some changes since the 2013 version of Foxygen.  Back then, touring behind We Are the 21-Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic, they seemed to be either channeling or mocking (or both - your pick) late 60s psychedelic rock, even very specifically Satanic Majesties Request-era Rolling Stones.  Now they seem to be taking on 70s glam rock, and right from the very start singer Sam France rushed the stage (and jumped right into the audience) looking like a cross between a young Iggy Stooge, Hunky Dory-era Bowie, and 70s, Miss You-era Mick Jagger. The eight-person band also now includes three backup singers instead of just the one from 2013. In addition to singing backup, they danced to choreographed moves and significantly increased the energy level of the performance.  

It didn't take France long at all to take off his shirt, and he was constantly lunging at the audience, kicking his legs over the crowd, falling off the stage, and generally terrorizing the front row of the audience.  Since I was one of those in the front row, there were more than a few times when we were nose-to-nose, mere inches apart, as he sang his songs and danced his moves, which at times was frankly not a little terrifying.  The crowd was delirious, the sexual vibe was almost palpable, and in many ways this was one of the most exciting flat-out heart of rock 'n' roll shows I've seen in a long while.  It's hard to imagine trying to maintain the energy to do this night after night for an entire tour, and I wish them luck.

I can't remember the set list, but they opened (I think) with How Can You Really? from the new album, followed by On Blue Mountain from 21st Century Ambassadors.  They mixed old and new songs all night, and included most of my favorites including No Destruction and Shuggie, but interestingly they didn't play San Francisco, perhaps their best-known song.

KEXP has some really fine-sounding videos of a studio session by Foxygen, but they don't even begin to capture the anarchy and energy of their performance in front of an audience.  The band clearly wasn't interested in providing the audience with an evening of faithful reproductions of their albums, but in whipping themselves and the audience up into as much of a frenzy as they could.  This clip from Neumos' in Seattle gets a bit closer to what we experienced last night.

The new album, titled  . . . And Star Power, doesn't drop for a couple more weeks, but they were selling advance copies at the merch table.   I bought one after the show, vinyl, and can already tell that I'll be unraveling its mysteries for some time.  

Foxygen

Foxygen at 529, 2/23/2013

You can preview Foxygen's forthcoming album, . . . And Star Power, over at NPR Music, or you can just listen to one cut from it below.  Your choice.

Foxygen

Foxygen at 529, 2013

According to KEXP, Foxygen "just announced the followup to their epic We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic with the even more epic 24-song, 4-suite, double LP ...And Star Power."   We here at the Water Dissolves media empire are anxiously looking forward to hearing the new record, some of which the band debuted in their KEXP studio set.

In related news, Foxygen will be kicking off Rocktober 2014 with a performance at The Loft.

Foxygen

Foxygen at 529, Winter 2013

New song from Foxygen, who will be returning to Atlanta on October 1 to play The Loft.

Top 10 Concerts of 2013

Okay, first of all, I acknowledge right up front that there's 12 shows in my list of Top 10 Concerts of 2013, but that's the kind of year it was.  While 2013 might have been merely so-so in its recorded output, the live shows this year were outstanding.  So without further ado, here are my choices of the best live shows of the year, presented in chronological order:

January 25 - Yo La Tengo & Calexico, Buckhead Theater

Not my first show of the year, but still a nice, early show in the year to get 2013 rolling.  After all this time, this was my first time seeing Yo La Tengo live, and I wasn't disappointed in the least.

February 23 - Unknown Mortal Orchestra & Foxygen, 529

This was a big year for UMO, who released a great album that made my Top 10.  I saw them three times this year, and this wasn't even their best show - that would be their incendiary performance during MFNW at Branx.  But this was still a fine performance, though, and what really put it into the Top 10 category was their opener, Foxygen, who suffered all sorts of major and minor calamities, mishaps, and internal strife this year, but still were able to deliver a thoroughly entertaining show to the packed house at 529.

August 31 - !!!, Bumbershoot (Seattle)

It's easy to slip into sensory overload at a three-day festival like Bumbershoot, and both get carried away in the excitement of the event over a so-so performance by a so-so band, as well as get so glazed over that you completely overlook an outstanding set by a great band.   !!! added some real excitement to the first day of Bumbershoot, and when I saw them the next week at MFNW, they confirmed that they really were that good - it wasn't all just festival overstimulation after all.   

September 6 - Radiation City, Mississippi Studios (Portland)

I also saw Radiation City several times this year - at The Earl back in June and then twice during MFNW. Although their performance at the totally radical Marmoset party left little to be desired, they really shined at Mississippi Studios during the OPB party and gave the best performance I've heard by them yet, all sweetness, harmony, and pop ecstasy - if you need proof, the entire set is posted on the OPB web site.

September 14 - Little 5 Fest

September 21 - Okkervil River & Torres, Variety Playhouse

Okkervil River's been around for a while now and I've enjoyed their records over the years, but like To La Tengo, it wasn't until this year that I finally got around to seeing them perform live. But mark my words - I will not purposely miss another live show by them again.  The evening was heightened by Torres, who was totally new to me, performing a spellbinding opening set. 

October 7 - Junip, Terminal West

As hypnotic and mesmerizing as an evening of gently psychedelic electronic folk-rock can get without the actual use of hallucinogens.  Wow, just wow!

October 9 - Savages, Vinyl

I don't have any photos to share of this show due to the band's strict no photography, cell-phone, or other mindless distraction policy, and since I was at the very front of the stage mere feet away from frontperson Jehnny Beth, I abided by their rules.  As promoter Alex Weiss tweeted after the show, "Just when I thought that it couldn't get any more intense, they brought it to another level entirely. Definitely one of the best shows I've ever seen. If you ever get a chance to see this band live, do it. That is all."  Transcendent post-punk from London.

October 26 - Neutral Milk Hotel, The Tabernacle

Another show with a pretty strict, "no pictures" policy, but I managed to snag a few that got posted on line. It's not like this comeback tour didn't have any hype surrounding it and it's not like the expectations weren't sky high, but they not only met those expectations, they elevated the breathtaking show into the pure realm of high art. 

November 2 - Thee Oh Sees, Terminal West

The best live band in the business proved once again why they're the best at what they do.  If you were there, you'd understand, and if you understood, you were there.  With great openers OBN III and The Blind Shake, the evening was a showcase for the state of 2013 punk, but no one whips a crowd up into more of a frenzy than John Dwyer and company.  Let's hope the rumors of their demise remain just rumors.

November 18 - Colin Meloy & Eleanor Friedberger, Variety Playhouse

Two master singer-songwriters, both unique in their idiosyncratic ways, gave the audience a totally charming set of songs and stories.  Added bonus points for Kinks covers. I still haven't had the chance to see The Decemberists perform, but between a composite of frontman Meloy's set and the October show by backing members Black Prairie (which very nearly made the Top 10 list - it came down to an elimination bout between this set and theirs), I feel like I can approximate the experience.   

December 11 - Joseph Arthur, Eddie's Attic

I said it before and  I'll say it again - why this man isn't a major star is beyond me.  He released one of the best records of the year, The Ballad of Boogie Christ, and I saw him perform at Criminal Records (where he briefly worked back in the 90s) during L5Fest with just a drummer and then at Eddie's Attic with bassist Mike Mills (REM), and both times he's rendered me speechless. And man, can he play guitar!  Let's hope that Mills' box office appeal brings Arthur some of the recognition he deserves.  

Top 10 Albums of 2013

I'm well aware that nobody cares what an old man thinks the best albums released in 2013 are - I'm not exactly any band's target audience or some sort of taste-maker - but 'tis the season for year-end lists and all that, so here I go anyway.  It may be self-indulgent, but it's certainly better than listing other people's favorite songs, n'est-ce pas?

All things taken into consideration, 2013 wasn't really all that great a year for album releases in my humble opinion, which isn't to say it was a bad year for music, it's just that so much amazing material was released the past couple of years and many bands spent much of this year still touring behind those previous releases. Some other bands put out some perfectly fine new albums this year that sounded perfectly in keeping with their prior output - no loss of quality at all, but didn't break any new ground or otherwise become the singular recording by which the bands will come to be identified by, which is fine - a band doesn't have to and shouldn't redefine itself with every new album, but those status quo releases, while still quite good, weren't satisfying enough to make a Top 10 list.  Or at least my Top 10 list.

It was a great year for concerts, so I'm not saying the year was without its merits, it's just that you might not know it from the recorded output.  Still, having said all that, there still were several great releases, both from new artists (Savages, Courtney Barnett) and established masters (Yo La Tengo, Joseph Arthur), and much in between.  

So here's my Top 10 list, presented in alphabetical order (it's really impossible for me to say any one of these is better or worse than any other).  It's a pretty predictable list and I don't think there's any surprises here, but here you go anyway:

C Is For Courtney Barnett - A Sea of Split Peas




F Is For Foxygen - We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors




J Is For Joseph Arthur - The Ballad of Boogie Christ




L Is For Local Natives - Hummingbird

M (or O) Is For of Montreal - Lousy with Sylvianbriar

P Is For Parquet Courts - Light Up Gold



P Is Also For Pickwick - Can't Talk Medicine




S Is For Savages - Silence Yourself

U Is For Unknown Mortal Orchestra - II

Y Is For Yo La Tengo - Fade

Hope you enjoy, and please don't be offended if I left out your favorite - it's not that I didn't like it, it's probably that I just forgot to include it! 

Best Songs of 2013

As for the best songs of 2013, far be it from me to try and pick them.  My favorites change day to day, mood to mood, and I'm psychologically and emotionally incapable of singling out the individual "best" songs of the year and saying, "Here, these songs are better than those songs."

So instead I'll leave it up to the KEXP Seattle DJs, who know a thing or two about music, to pick out the favorites.  Above is a podcast of DJ Kevin Cole's "Greatest F'ing Songs" of 2013. Cole's picks, and the tracklist to his podcast, are:

1. John Grant - GMF 
2. Phosphorescent - Song For Zula
3. Sin Fang - Look At The Light
4. Thee Oh Sees - I Come From The Mountain 
5. Mind Spiders - Inside You 
6. Parquet Courts - Borrowed Time 
7. Lucius - Turn It Around 
8. The Dirtbombs - Jump And Shout 
9. Cloud Cult - Good Friend 
10. Courtney Barnett - History Eraser 
11. Foxygen - No Destruction 
12. Volcano Choir - Byegone 
13. Laura Marling - Where Can I Go?
14. Julianna Barwick - One Half

I've got no quarrels with that list, but if your taste runs more to blues and traditional American roots rock, here's DJ Greg Vandy's "favorite things" from 2013, which includes some bona fide rockers, some blues, some folk, and even a few murder ballads:

1. Preservation Hall Jazz Band - That's It!
2. Courtney Barnett - Avant Gardener
3. Case Studies - Driving East, and Through Her
4. Parquet Courts - Stoned and Starving
5. La Luz - Morning High
6. Foxygen - No Destruction
7. The Foghorns - Ain't I A Man
8. Banditos - Lone Gone, Anyway
9. The Crow Quill Night Owls - On The Road Again
10. Deer Tick - In Our Time
11. Los Colognes - My Doorway's Open
12. Andrew Combs - Emily
13. Cass McCombs - There Can Be Only One
14. Laura Marling - Master Hunter
15. Phosphorescent - Muchacho's Tune
16. Valerie June - Twisted & Twined
17. Luke Winslow King - Ella Speed
18. Kacy & Clayton - Henry Martin
19. The Deep Dark Woods - A Voice Is Calling
20. The Moondoggies - One More Chance

Foxygen

Foxygen at 529, February 23, 2013

Since appearing at Atlanta's 529 late last winter, Foxygen have had their fair share of trials and tribulations, including an apparent meltdown at SXSW, reported tensions among band members in social media, altercations with concert security, and lots of cancelled dates.  Now frontman Sam France has broken a leg falling off stage, requiring surgery, a metal rod, and physical therapy.

Any of this is enough to break up lesser bands, and I hope all this doesn't mean last winter marked Foxygen's last and only appearance in Atlanta.  Here's hoping they hold it together and keep on recording and touring.

Paris

San Francisco's Foxygen, who put on a great show at 529 opening for Unknown Mortal Orchestra, have a new Takeaway Show over at La Blogotheque.  If you didn't care form them before, prepare to be won over, and if you liked them before, you better take a seat before watching this.

It's fun to see Foxygen's Sam France scaring random crowds of kids.  It's good to see Foxygen. It's good to see. It's good.

But, yeah, this is great stuff.  Enjoy.

Pickathon

So the questions here is how do I get to Happy Valley, Oregon on August 2 through 4 for this festival?  It's too far from Bumbershoot (August 31 - September 2) to fly out and stay, and yet it's too close for two separate trips.

I need sponsorship, or a job out west to tide me over.  Anyone need a Zen Buddhist environmental consultant anywhere in the Pacific Northwest for the month of August?  We can work out reasonable rates.

(In case you're wondering, the song is Foxygen's On Blue Mountain.)

Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Foxygen, and Wampire at 529 Atlanta, 2/23/13

Last night's show at The 529 was sold out and the club was packed.  The performance-room wall on the far side from the bar, which had been torn down when I went to see Om and Daniel Higgs there last November but had mysteriously reappeared for Lonesome Leash and Iron Jayne in January, was once again gone, effectively doubling the size of the tiny club but still offering no more room in front of the narrow stage.  Only about five or six people at a time can stand in front of the stage and everyone else has to stand behind them, and since the stage is elevated by only about six inches, if some tall people are at the front, the rest of the audience's view is blocked.  As a result, the extra room due to the absent wall offered more elbow room but no more sight lines, and a group of bros had clustered at the front of the stage.  

But one of the odd things about 529's layout is that the entrance to the performance room is near the stage, so that latecomers, instead of approaching from the back and having to worm their way through the crowd up to the front like at most clubs, actually squeeze into the room at the front of the crowd.  

Portland's Wampire were already on stage when I arrived uncharacteristically late last night (it seems that I usually can't help myself and typically arrive for a show in time to be the first and only person at the club).  But I still managed to squeeze into the performance room only about two or three rows back from the stage due to the club's odd entrance. However, during the course of the evening, as more and more people squeezed in after me, I found myself further and further back, although the bros tenaciously held their position  at the front of the stage.

Anyhow, although Wampire sounded crisp and good and satisfyingly loud, I really don't have much to say about them as I had barely got settled in before their set was over.  My loss.

Until I saw them perform last night, I've really had a hard time getting a handle on Los Angeles-based Foxygen.  The band is primarily the songwriting duo of 22-year-olds Sam France (vocals, Olympia, Washington) and Jonathan Rado (guitar/keyboards, NYC), and their touring band includes a backup vocalist, a bassist, and a drummer.  But what is that music they're playing? Glam-folk?  Psych-pop?  Sixties cabaret on acid?

They sound all over the place on records, but now I understand that's the point.  Seeing them perform and clown around on stage (Sam France must have declared "I don't care" at least a half dozen times to as many situations), I get it now - they're simultaneously musical archivists and ironists - archironists, if you will.  They reverently channel 60s-era flower-power folk-pop while skewering the genre at the same time, as you can hear on their song San Francisco, which is actually one of their more cohesive songs - most other songs turn and bend at unexpected moments, frequently morphing into something altogether unexpected.

San Francisco is from their recent album, the aptly named We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic, which was produced by Richard Swift (Damien Jurado, The Mynabirds) and is currently tracking at Number 3 on the College Radio Top 10 Albums list.

Wearing a black-and-red velvet cape on stage, Sam France was the very personification of the rock star.  Depending on how he wore his shades, he was able to channel Joey Ramone, Mick Jagger, Robert Smith, or Ray Davies, all of whom also have had obvious influences on Foxygen's music.

The crowd of bros at the front of the stage enthusiastically greeted each song with fist pumping, pogo dancing and sing-alongs.  In all, it looked like everybody, band and audience alike, had a lot of fun.

Headliners were Portland's Unknown Mortal Orchestra. We last saw UMO perform at the Doug Fir during  MFNW 2011 

Unknown Mortal Orchestra at MFNW, September  8, 2011

Since that time, the band got a new drummer and released a fine new album with the sequel-y title, II.  The epic cover photo from II hung as a backdrop behind the bands during last night's show.

UMO's music has been described as "funky psych-pop future-breakbeats that sound like the product of a group that ate a bunch of acid, turned on the four-track and tried to copy a Meters record" (Willamette Weekly).  Led by the extraordinary guitarist and New Zealand ex-pat Ruban Nielson, UMO are riding the current popular wave of psych-rock enthusiasm, a wave they started in part with songs like Thought Balune, Ffunny Ffrends, and How Can U Luv Me.

The band lists Syd Barrett, Love, Wu Tang Clan, Captain Beefheart, the Mothers of Invention, Soft Machine, Jimi Hendrix, Ariel Pink, Os Mutantes, J Dilla, Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Miles Davis, Al Green, The Zombies, King Tubby, and Prince among their influences, and their current sound includes even more doses of soul than before, as evident in So Good At Being in Trouble from the new album, II.



The set was terrific, covering songs both new and old, with lots of guitar exploration and feedback thrown in for good measure.  The band of bros lapped it all up with every bit as much enthusiasm as they had for Foxygen.  They even hung in for one of the longest encore calls I can remember in a long time.

I don't know of any of these bands ever playing Atlanta before, but I find it encouraging to see such enthusiastic reception here for them.  Their sound may be slightly or majorly on the fringe of popular taste,  but Unknown Mortal Orchestra will be on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon tomorrow (Monday, February 25, 2013).