February 2, 2009
Allow this to be the first tumblr post on the Kagga to be posted from a bus.  I’m just heading out of Oxford for Cambridge and am happy to discover that the new buses on my usual route, which I noticed the other day in Cambridge, have plug-ins and wireless t’internet.  This is a sort of inauguration for technology.  Either the recession is expected to help the bus industry or someone ordered some tight new buses before their investments in Iceland and Madoff Securities went bust. It’s also snowing.  This isn’t the prettiest bus ride in all the land, but with snow it’s much better.  I’m enjoying it while listening to White Winter Hymnal.  The above is a pic of snow, through the window of a bus, just a minute ago.  Whoa. Which brings up the next point.  Since the Prentice gave his synopsis of some new bands, I figured I had better.  So this is my review of Fleet Foxes. As most of you know, I’m pretty myopic (sup Prentice) in my musical tastes.  I’m not bigoted, I just have what I like to listen to regularly and only venture past that for educational reasons.  I tend not to explore lots of bands and music as a hobby.  Within that framework, there have been a few albums that hit me very strongly right off the bat:  August and Everything After, Strangers Almanac, The Trials of Van Occupanther.  Fleet Foxes can now be added to that group.  The first 2 of those opened up me listening to Counting Crows and Rydawg more generally, and I’ve enjoyed some of their albums probably in the same way, but those first 2 were gateway albums, I’d say. So for those initial, out of the blue, albums that captivate me I have this to offer.  Voices are crucial to me, and this is one of the things I like so much about the Fleet Foxes.  Their harmonies and the strong lead vocal, combined with some fresh melodies, really take songs to a new level that would have otherwise appeared to be good songs written by a 22 yr old.  The lyrics are good, but they remind me of some of the Whiskeytown stuff early on that involved a lot of repeated verses, etc.  This has been one of the challenges of Rydawg’s music over the years - the transition from those younger, simple but beautiful songs, to the older, more mature and developed songs.  He moved into an adulthood with more to say.  I’m sure it will be this way with Fleet Foxes if they manage to stay around, but I’m enjoying the youthful songs nonetheless. The second thing I’ve noticed is that I’ve got a liking for pastoral lyrics and this is definitely a characteristic of Fleet Foxes.  Midlake fits into this category as well.  And as for Rydawg or Counting Crows, both are serious lyricists that know how to tell a story, as opposed to just writing incomprehensible lyrics about some obscure emotional event in life - try Fionn Regan for that type of writing (though I like him generally).  And if a song like Carolina Rain isn’t necessarily pastoral, it’s modern pastoral, I would argue, in that it talks about the details of the lives of those who are the modern, American inheritors of the pastoral tradition:  the southern, Appalachian song writer.  With Fleet Foxes, the melodies, combined with lyrics that use place and nature make this a very modern, young folky musical experience.  And that, it seems, is something I like a lot. I realize they’ve got a lot of press - well, I realize that now - and that that has turned a few people off.  But these things dont get me down - possibly because I’m mostly ignorant of them.  Besides, the final characteristic that binds me to them is what appears to be a certain decency in the lyrics.  This is the final, and ultimate attribute for any band that’s going to grab my attention - though, admittedly, I’m not sure how some of Rydawg’s stuff fits into that (Halloween!, sheesh). There.  A music post.  From a bus.  Completely between Bicester and Buckingham. Wup?

Allow this to be the first tumblr post on the Kagga to be posted from a bus.  I’m just heading out of Oxford for Cambridge and am happy to discover that the new buses on my usual route, which I noticed the other day in Cambridge, have plug-ins and wireless t’internet.  This is a sort of inauguration for technology.  Either the recession is expected to help the bus industry or someone ordered some tight new buses before their investments in Iceland and Madoff Securities went bust.

It’s also snowing.  This isn’t the prettiest bus ride in all the land, but with snow it’s much better.  I’m enjoying it while listening to White Winter Hymnal.  The above is a pic of snow, through the window of a bus, just a minute ago.  Whoa.

Which brings up the next point.  Since the Prentice gave his synopsis of some new bands, I figured I had better.  So this is my review of Fleet Foxes.

As most of you know, I’m pretty myopic (sup Prentice) in my musical tastes.  I’m not bigoted, I just have what I like to listen to regularly and only venture past that for educational reasons.  I tend not to explore lots of bands and music as a hobby.  Within that framework, there have been a few albums that hit me very strongly right off the bat:  August and Everything After, Strangers Almanac, The Trials of Van Occupanther.  Fleet Foxes can now be added to that group.  The first 2 of those opened up me listening to Counting Crows and Rydawg more generally, and I’ve enjoyed some of their albums probably in the same way, but those first 2 were gateway albums, I’d say.

So for those initial, out of the blue, albums that captivate me I have this to offer.  Voices are crucial to me, and this is one of the things I like so much about the Fleet Foxes.  Their harmonies and the strong lead vocal, combined with some fresh melodies, really take songs to a new level that would have otherwise appeared to be good songs written by a 22 yr old.  The lyrics are good, but they remind me of some of the Whiskeytown stuff early on that involved a lot of repeated verses, etc.  This has been one of the challenges of Rydawg’s music over the years - the transition from those younger, simple but beautiful songs, to the older, more mature and developed songs.  He moved into an adulthood with more to say.  I’m sure it will be this way with Fleet Foxes if they manage to stay around, but I’m enjoying the youthful songs nonetheless.

The second thing I’ve noticed is that I’ve got a liking for pastoral lyrics and this is definitely a characteristic of Fleet Foxes.  Midlake fits into this category as well.  And as for Rydawg or Counting Crows, both are serious lyricists that know how to tell a story, as opposed to just writing incomprehensible lyrics about some obscure emotional event in life - try Fionn Regan for that type of writing (though I like him generally).  And if a song like Carolina Rain isn’t necessarily pastoral, it’s modern pastoral, I would argue, in that it talks about the details of the lives of those who are the modern, American inheritors of the pastoral tradition:  the southern, Appalachian song writer.  With Fleet Foxes, the melodies, combined with lyrics that use place and nature make this a very modern, young folky musical experience.  And that, it seems, is something I like a lot.

I realize they’ve got a lot of press - well, I realize that now - and that that has turned a few people off.  But these things dont get me down - possibly because I’m mostly ignorant of them.  Besides, the final characteristic that binds me to them is what appears to be a certain decency in the lyrics.  This is the final, and ultimate attribute for any band that’s going to grab my attention - though, admittedly, I’m not sure how some of Rydawg’s stuff fits into that (Halloween!, sheesh).

There.  A music post.  From a bus.  Completely between Bicester and Buckingham.

Wup?

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