Austin Sound

It’s no secret that Fleet Foxes have been jockeying for position against Vampire Weekend for “most blogged about in 2008.” While I’m starting to tire of reading about Vampire Weekend, I can’t really get enough of Fleet Foxes. They somehow feel more deserving of the constant praise. For those of you who don’t know much about The Fleet, I’ll give you the summary: Internet loved their debut EP Sun Giant that came out earlier this year. They sound good live and people have noticed. Their self-titled LP is out next week on Sub Pop. They’re good.

“White Winter Hymnal” hit the interweb a few months ago, and I don’t think I’ve stopped singing it since. The lyrics are more or less meaningless, placing emphasis on the melody that will, if you’re not careful, consume you. The song is drenched in reverb, making the already intoxicating harmonies sound bigger and everywhere at once.

A single voice begins the song, soon joined by the voices of the remaining members and supplemented with tambourine and acoustic guitar. As the first verse comes to an end, its last lyrical phrase is drowned by the boom of a floor tom that drives what is left of the painfully brief track. A bright lead guitar line joins as well and is followed closely by more vocals as the song continues much like the first verse but bigger.

I was skimming the internet for news today, and look at what I found: a new Band of Horses music video. Hey-o! Then I was reading Stereogum, and in their post about the video, I came across this sentence: “No, we didn’t think Cease To Begin was the greatest album of all time, but it definitely has plenty of beauty tucked in that underwhelming shell[...].” Really Stereogum? Really? Something you may have not picked up on when Cease To Begin first came out last year: it’s the best album of all time. Revolver be damned. Highway 61 can kiss my ass. This is it, man.

Actually, that’s not true, Cease To Begin is probably not the best album of all time, but it was easily one of my favorite albums of 2007. It had Southern Rock tendencies placed in large spacey soundscapes, extremely catchy melodies sung in the band’s doubled-up vocals, and has generally provided the soundtrack to most of the roadtrips I’ve made since.

Somewhere down the line, indie bands forgot how to use amplifiers. Bands like The Replacements and Sonic Youth made it fucking cool to be loud, fast, and messy, but lately, our musical world is dominated by glossy keyboard-pop and idyllic twee. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy these bands immensely, but sometimes I just want to get loose and cold-rock it.

Ladyhawk is playing at Emo’s Inside tonight. They’re not loud, fast, and messy to the extent that the great indie bands of the 80’s were, but they are surely a rock n’ roll band in a twee-pop world. Their second album Shots came out this year on Jagjaguwar, and it’s somewhere between Wolf Parade and Guided By Voices.