Fleet Foxes

When Phil Ek works on your demo, that is a sign — not quite manna from heaven, but a clear indicator — that you are a new band with serious potential. Earlier this year, Ek, who as a producer helped refine the sounds of Modest Mouse and Built to Spill, mixed the six-song demo by new Seattle band Fleet Foxes. He said he was attracted by "the sophistication and complexity of the songwriting."

This young band is not just good, but different. Way, way off the beaten path.

"Folkedelic," you might call these distant relatives of psychedelic/folkers — whatever they are, they are not your typical indie rock or punk band.

How different? Well, at a recent Chop Suey show, keyboard player Casey Wescott used a tambourine on several songs — without a hint of irony. Later in that show, the band hinted at its roots, covering Neil Young's "Lotta Love."

Fleet Foxes' originals like "Anyone Who's Anyone," "Icicle Tusk" and "She Got Dressed" are seeped in a certain time period, far away from Lexus-and-condos Seattle. Instead, the Fleet Foxes seem to have stepped right out of San Francisco's Summer of Love, circa 1967.

"I grew up with absolutely hippie parents," says Robin Pecknold, the singer and songwriter. He's got a neo-hippie look himself, with shaggy, sandy hair, a string headband and scruffy beard.

"We want to be informed by the past — but not throwbacks ... We want to make sure what we do isn't reactionary."

Buy a round for the Fleet Foxes, and you might be purchasing a Kool-Aid, a green tea and a soda — that's what Pecknold, Skye Skjelset and Wescott sipped the other night at Capitol Hill's Bauhaus cafe. (Bass player Bryn Lumsden and drummer Nicholas Peterson were not present.)

Stick with nonalcoholic beverages if you're serving the Fleet Foxes, as Pecknold and Skjelset — friends since the seventh grade at Kirkland Junior High — are both 20.

The two are given to youthful, silly asides, yet they are musically mature, with a polish and confidence gained over long hours at a Belltown rehearsal studio. On the walls of a rented practice space, the band members glued records: Buffalo Springfield, Joni Mitchell, the Beach Boys, Mamas and Papas, Beatles ...

"I'll point at a Crosby, Stills & Nash record," Pecknold says, "and say, 'Can you be more like that?' "

The Fleet Foxes have a nice sound, to be sure, but there is more here than gently reverberating echoes of surf guitar and folk-rock arrangements. Singer Pecknold is also a surprisingly evolved writer, creating grab-you-by-the-throat imagery. Again, the emphasis on songwriting is what separates the Fleet Foxes from the pack (so many good-sounding bands around Seattle don't seem to have much to say).

Pecknold treats writing as a job, setting aside a few hours a day to do it: "I try to write a song, or at least part of a song, every day." He will sometimes shock his bandmates by showing up at a practice with three or four new, completed songs — polished material that flows easily.

He tends to write mysterious lyrics, a mixture of nostalgic, expressionistic portraits, interspersed with jaded, urban snapshots:

"I'm not responsible for

The reputation of

the neighborhood whore"

"I could never know what the dead man sees"

"it's so much better in the sunlight, I'm just a little mirage"

"Anyone Who's Anyone," in particular, underscores Pecknold's ability to change speeds, exploring several moods in close proximity; Fleet Foxes' songs often begin in one emotion, and end in another, leaving passion for depression, or starting in anger and ending in wistfulness.

Like Isaac Brock, Ben Gibbard, Damien Jurado, Jeremy Enigk and others who have gone before him, Pecknold is writing well-crafted pop songs at an early age. Will his potential develop, as that of the others has?

The challenge, Fleet Foxes recognize, is now to figure out how to record a first album that fully captures Pecknold's ideas. "We've got these great tunes from Robin," Wescott says, "now how are we going to maximize everyone to do them justice?"

Fleet Foxes perform at Fremont's Oktoberfest at 4 p.m. on Saturday.

With Crocodile Café booking man Pete Greenberg putting together the music, this Oktoberfest has an exciting lineup of Seattle/Northwest music: Portland psych-pop duo Viva Voce (8 p.m. Saturday), the rowdy pop girls of the Catch (2 p.m. Saturday), Aqueduct (9 p.m. Saturday), bluegrass diva Anna Coogan (7 p.m. today), local hip-hop act Cancer Rising (6 p.m. Saturday) and thundering duo the Helio Sequence (10 p.m. Saturday).

Viva Voce and Aqueduct are on Barsuk Records; Helio Sequence is a Sub Pop act — the two Seattle record labels may soon be battling to sign Fleet Foxes.

The music starts today (5 p.m. to midnight) and continues Saturday (11 a.m. to midnight) and Sunday (11 a.m. to 6 p.m.). The music is free, but there is a $15 charge to enter a beer garden. For full schedule and more info, visit www.fremontoktoberfest.com.

- Seattle Times | September 22, 2006

BILLBOARD MAGAZINE
September 23, 2006
NOW HEAR THIS

>>>FLEET FOXES

Seattle's Fleet Foxes haven't played a gig outside the Pacific Northwest, but that hasn't stopped the quintet from pricking the ears of major-label A&R men, one of whom has already flown out to Seattle to see the Foxes live. The band is barely a year old, yet it never seems to have enough copies of its self-released debut EP to satisfy local demand.

The smoky '60s sound of Love and the amiable jangle of the Shins are clear touchstones, but the group strikes gold on cleverly constructed tracks like "Anyone Who's Anyone," "She Got Dressed" and "In the Hot Hot Rays," where the vocal and guitar melodies keep one-upping each other in a battle to see which can be catchier.

For now, frontman Robin Pecknold and his brother are silk-screening each EP themselves in their parents' basement and employing their sister, Aja, as their manager. But the band has benefited greatly from tapping into a supportive network of local record stores and radio stations, including the three-store Sonic Boom chain.

"We haven't had any [copies of the EP] in for a while because they sell so many at their shows, and they're always out," Sonic Boom co-owner Nabil Ayers says. "But people ask us for it literally every day."

Triple-A station KEXP Seattle-Tacoma has also been an early admirer, and Insound.com has offered national distribution for the EP. "Anything this catchy, well-written and -played deserves airplay immediately," says John Richards, who hosts KEXP's morning show.

Pecknold is thrilled with how quickly Fleet Foxes have caught on, but is primarily concerned about making the band's first album this fall. The Foxes have about 20 songs in consideration for the set and are hoping to reteam in the studio with Phil Ek (Built to Spill, Modest Mouse), who mixed the EP.

"I've been writing a lot of songs lately, which isn't always the case," says 20-year-old Pecknold, who has known guitarist Skyler Skjelse since seventh grade but only began playing with him late last year. "The record is going to be a little more cohesive than the EP and much more adventurous. Whether a label wants to license it or we put it out ourselves, it's more about the record and less about how it gets out there."

Contact: Aja Pecknold, aja@tartpr.com

—Jonathan Cohen - Billboard Magazine | Fleet Foxes

Rewriting the Past
The Fleet Foxes make vintage, open-air pop.
By Michael Alan Goldberg

Robin Pecknold has always appeared a lot older than he really is. At 10, he was playing Franklin Delano Roosevelt in a community theater production of Annie, putting talcum powder in his hair to look the part. "Whenever I'd move around the stage or take a bow at the end, it would send this huge white cloud into the air," he laughed the other night during a break from his cashiering job at Bimbo's. Now 20, the singer-guitarist is fronting one of Seattle's most promising new bands, the Fleet Foxes, and displaying a songwriting acumen far more sophisticated than you might expect from someone his age.

Weaned on Bob Dylan and Neil Young, Pecknold says that by his midteens he was gravitating toward the baroque pop of the Zombies, late-period Beatles, and Pet Sounds–era Beach Boys. "I loved how they had every instrument making a melody and that it all combined into something that sounded pretty adventurous."

The Foxes' best song, "Anyone Who's Anyone"—a sumptuous, three-minute pop gem—reworks those influences much the same way XTC did on Oranges & Lemons (in fact, Pecknold's warm, exuberant tenor bears an uncanny resemblance to Andy Partridge). The jazzy guitars and swingin' rhythm of "In the Hot Hot Rays," meanwhile, plant vintage Britpop on the Pacific Coast Highway while Pecknold's croon crosses Morrissey melodrama with the breathy beauty of Colin Blunstone.

For Pecknold, who began writing in earnest last June, working at Bimbo's (conveniently adjacent to Seattle musicians' haven the Cha Cha) has been a networking boon—his songs caught the ear of local producer Phil Ek (Built to Spill, the Shins), who offered to mix six of the tracks for a self-pressed EP the Foxes are selling at shows.

"I knew Robin was into all of that late-'60s pop, so I figured it was gonna be like a Beach Boys–y thing," says Ek. "It ended up being even better than I thought. There's not a whole lotta bands doing what they're doing, and his music is really amazing, so I wanted to help him out for sure."

Despite having played less than a dozen gigs so far, the Foxes have already generated interest from several labels, including at least one New York–based major. But, says Pecknold, "I definitely wanna write enough songs for a full-length and then go make a cool record with Phil before I even start thinking about anything to do with a label. Honestly, I've always been more concerned with my songwriting rather than, like, 'How are we gonna sell this band? How are we gonna get it out there and be successful?'" Given the charm of the former, the latter seems only a matter of time.

Extra Info
The Fleet Foxes With Panda & Angel and Tiny Vipers. War Room, 722 E. Pike St., 206-328-7666, www.thewarroomseattle.com. $5. 9 p.m. Wed., May 10.

info@seattleweekly.com - Seattle Weekly, May 10, 2006