"I was raised up believing I was somehow unique…"
Fleet Foxes are playing in San Diego this weekend. No I'm not going, and by looking at the tour, no one is unless they bought tickets within the first hour after they went on sale.
Usually, I choose my songs of the month (I couldn't keep up with week) by putting my itunes on shuffle and using the first song to come up. I choose to do a Fleet Foxes this week, however, since I featured the show on Weekend Preview (my weekly segment at KPBS) this week.
In high school I actually had the time to research music, though I was still usually behind and often researching random stuff no other 16-year-old cared to listen to, like Bluegrass. Now, I find out about bands even later.
One night, my friend Nicole and I were driving home from watching her little sister be crowned to Winter Formal court and our horrible high school basketball team be slaughtered by our biggest rival. In her CD player was Fleet Foxes first and (until this week) only album. Unlike many of her other CD's this one wasn't scratched.
I immediately fell in love with White Winter Hymnal. It's rare, at least for me, to pay to close attention to music with three other girls in the car––two of them engaging in high pitched high school girl gossip and laughter. Nicole listens to her music much louder than I do, and those hypnotic voices just grabbed me and swallowed me whole that winter night.
When we got home I uploaded the CD to my computer. I guess I wasn’t too far behind. That was January of 2009; the album had only been released 7 months earlier.
I started listening it to that weekend while I at home, without all the distractions of my apartment at school. The lead singers voice almost immediately reminded me of Neil Young, but I actually like his better than Young's.
Anytime I listen to them, which is usually when I'm in a very relaxed mood, doing homework, or writing, I always wonder why I don't listen to them more often. But with music that invokes them much feeling I prefer to save it for special occasions.
Today when our guest on Weekend Preview speculated why the band is so popular, she said Indie music can often times be identified by this lo-fi, computer generated, one man-band sort of sound, and Fleet Foxes bring back a rich studio sound with nostalgic (my wording) harmonizing. I agree with her 100 percent.
That's my opinion on them as a whole. I chose to a song from their new album "Helplessness Blues," The song has the same titled. featured song, I was introduced too by NPR's "All Songs Considered" a little over a month ago, and I think I've officially played it out as of Wednesday.
Pulling up to my apartment while hearing the song for the first time, I waited in the car until it was over, and then ran inside and bought it on itunes.
I have one qualm with the song. When it gets to that weird interlude in the middle, when the song gets to around the 3 minute, it loses me. However, I endure it for the rest of the brilliant song.
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