Austin TX music: Music listings, bands, music news, reviews, SXSW and ACL

ACL review: Fleet Foxes

May 2012

Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2008 > September > 27 > Entry

More archives...

By Joe Gross | Saturday, September 27, 2008, 01:39 PM

Come on, guys, admit it: Someone in Fleet Foxes was in a college a capella group. That love of close vocal harmony must come from somewhere. Surely a band member has belted out a carefully arranged version of “I Want It That Way” or “Karma Chameleon” in front of worshipful sorority girls. Nobody is that big a Crosby, Stills and Nash fan, no matter how long their hair or virile their beards. Fleet Foxes’ sun dappled harmonies, so unlike the vibe of the quintet’s Seattle home, were in full effect early Saturday afternoon at the massive AMD stage, where they drew a huge early crowd. That said, there was a nagging sameness to the Foxes music that was tough to ignore. Every song seemed to have the same gauzy vibe - rolling, often-mallet-smacked drums, laid back, Byrdsy guitar riffs (that were bowed now and then) and, of course, close harmonies. Lead singer Robin Pecknold, still too young to rent a car, was in an awfully chatty mood, joking with the crowd about the band being “picked off one by one.” Sometimes the summer harmonies didn’t’ match the lyrics: “I was following the pack/ all swallowed in their coats/ with scarves of red tied ’round their throats/ to keep their little heads/ from fallin’ in the snow,” they sang on “White Winter Hymnal” which officially made them the only people in Austin thinking about cold weather. And loathe as I am to say it, the band could have used a little more jam, a little more instrumental flesh on those close-harmonied bones. For guys who looked like they could be in a Stillwater cover band (“Almost Famous” joke anyone? Anyone?) there simply isn’t all that much vintage songcraft to their songs. “I just don’t know how to communicate on this scale,” Pecknold said at one point. Hey, man, you said it, not us. Photo: Jay Janner AMERICAN-STATESMAN

Follow Austin Music Source on Facebook and Twitter.

Permalink | | Categories: ACL 2008: Saturday, ACL Festival