Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
What a difference an album makes. Calcutta, the Foxymorons‚ last release, was a semi-remarkable entry into the 60's influenced indie-pop game. It yielded a few brilliant songs (Duke of Gloucester, Please Be Miranda) but didn't have the overall cohesion to make it a great album. Rodeo City marks a huge improvement. It's still got that lo-fi charm "Something out There" sounds like it was recorded on a broken boombox), but the songwriting and performances emit that easy confidence that lends itself to repeated listens.
Let's start with the songs: "Baby Blue" is just about the most mellow, beautiful thing you could listen to while driving in your car. Beatles-influenced chord structures meld with smooth, deep vocals in an organic balance. "Jakarta" doesn't have the most engaging lyrics in the world, but the melodies are addictive. "Summer Bummer" is the best song XTC that was never recorded during the 80's. The general juxtaposition of Jerry James and David Dewese's vocals provides a natural rhythm to the proceedings.
Despite the country theme (pictures of horses and cowboys, etc.) and the fact that these boys are from Texas, the music is too insanely poppy to bring anyone down. The occasional stolen riff or appropriated progression doesn't detract from the relaxed mood. If Elvis Costello, Guided By Voices and Big Star had a pool party, they'd hire the Foxymorons to play for them. And they'd be glad they did.
- Sponic
"F" is for the Foxymorons, a Dallas-area duo boasting remarkable songwriting breadth on Rodeo City (American Pop Project). Touches of Wilco, Pavement, Galaxie 500, the Velvets and Whiskeytown are woven into a lo-fi context that's charming, unpretentious and more tuneful than a barrel full of Tin Pan Alley songwriters. - Fred Mills
- Magnet
...This is getting ridiculous. I decide to browse the racks. Did you know there's a band called the Foxymorons?
(so this isn't really a review but it's national exposure!)
- Entertainment Weekly
The foxymorons, david dewese and jerry james, live hundreds of miles away from each other and construct their music via tapes sent by mail and answering machines. these childhood friends have uncovered an amazing synergy, however. radio city, the group's second lp, is a stirring collection of bright, catchy indie rock that, at various times, recalls the lo-fi magic of early pavement and sebadoh, the unabashed power pop glory of big star, and the stark, guitar-strummy appeal of the velvet underground. a tall order, but the group succeeds where other would-be cultish lo-fiers have stumbled. in many of the tracks on radio city (titled in tribute to both a big star album and the duo's native mesquite, texas), there's a sweet melodic hook that makes you catch your breath - like the way "summer bummer" bursts wide open two minutes in, with dewese singing desperately against a wall of guitars; or the loud peal of guitar that bursts through the innocuous opening rhythm of "ready to go," spurring james into the second verse. and then there's "baby blue," the most beautiful guitar-pop ditty you haven't heard yet. don't let the goofy name fool you, these guys write formidable, sun-baked guitar pop, and this album is pure clotted cream. highly recommended.
- Pop Culture Press
This blissful collection of lo-fi guitar pop evokes nostalgia for a time so nice it may have never existed. Or maybe it's a soundtrack to a teenager's dreams of timeless summers. It's also fairly derivative (eclectically and beautifully so), yet original enough in the sense that no other group could have made this album (in the same way that Guided By Voices transcends the various groups it's aping). "The Duke of Gloucester" evokes XTC, while "Going Down" is pure skinny-tie power pop. "Hands-On" is a Sebadoh sound-alike, while "Bombay: A Silver Anthem" and "Simply Enough" are gray album era Velvet Underground. There are even echoes of the upbeat, melodic brand of alt-country peddled by folks like Wilco and the Jayhawks ("Broken Heart," "Always," "Something New"). But then again, these two guys pull it off with enough panache to make you believe they've never heard those records. If only...
- All Music Guide
Discography
1998 - Silver Leaves EP (Foxyphton)
1999 - Calcutta (American Pop Project)
2001 - Rodeo City (American Pop Project)
2005 - Hesitation Eyes
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
It was an accident, actually. The band’s story began in the sun-baked suburbia of Mesquite, Texas way back in 1994. Our heroes, David Dewese and Jerry James, stumbled upon an abandoned drum kit in a Sunday School classroom while home on college holiday. The discovery sparked a fervent series of elegant experiments in life and literature, noise and nihilism, with the results self-published via their 7” single, the Silver Leaves e.p. (1998) and the subsequent full-length debut, Calcutta, released on the San Rafael, California label, American Pop Project. After a handful of terrible live shows, the duo made Rodeo City (AmPop 2001), a record of bright and catchy guitar rock that drew comparisons to Big Star and vintage Pavement.
After nearly three years, infrequent shows, and a cross-country line-up, our co-conspirators return with this, their stark and perfect 3rd long-player, Hesitation Eyes: 12 lonesome and fractured songs about heartbreak, library late fees, and Ivy League grade inflation. During the writing and recording of these songs, the Nashville-Mesquite band continued its ongoing tradition of long-distance composition via snail mail, telephone rehearsals, and morse code harmonies. The record was recorded by The Foxymorons and mixed by Matt Pence, of the Texas rock-and-roll band, Centro-matic. We hope you like it..............
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