Last Friday's show at the Swedish American Hall in San Francisco (March 25th, 2016) was the album release for their new self-titled recording, Foxtails Brigade. The set featured all of the songs from the new album, plus a few from their excellent 2012 offering, Time is Passed.
Foxtails Brigade is categorized as indie pop, but they’re unique - a complex electro-acoustic alchemy crafted around Laura Weinbach's lovely voice and snappy, articulate acoustic guitar playing. Their music is at turns challenging, edgy, evocative, dense and loud, transparent and intimate, and sometimes heartbreakingly beautiful.
The band was tightly rehearsed. Tempo and meter changes were cohesive and seamless. Instrumental interludes built up into waves of psychedelic din, and disappeared into transparent song verses as if they never happened.
The writing is smart and literate. Lyrics are insightful and personal, convey vivid imagery, and artfully delve into subjects ranging from the struggle for self-awareness, longing and loss, the scrambled impressions of childhood...to perseverance in the music business. Smart, yes. But this band is also fun! They performed with a joyful intensity and humor that left an afterglow for days.
The show opened with a string of songs from the new album - beginning with "We Are Not Ourselves". The sound was muddy for the first few songs – more to do with the nature of the venue than the band – but even so, the tight and punchy rhythmic interplay between the bass, drums and acoustic guitar was immediately striking. Lyrics were difficult to understand early on, but Laura's agile voice still cut through as a strong and precise melodic lead.
Two songs in particular - "Don't Look Down" and "Nun But the Lost" - stood out as musical thrill rides. The compositions are surprising and inventive - full of sudden rhythmic and textural changes. The vocals were quick and precise, and often forcefully syncopated – but the intricate vocal melodies are well integrated with language, supporting lyric content, not distracting from it.
A gem of a different nature was "The Unloved" from Time Is Passed. This song is a slow waltz that begins with a clear, hammer-on ostinato from Anton Patzner's guitar. Laura's voice enters with a long, drawn-out cry: "How does it feel to be one of the unloved?" It's musically simple in comparison to many of the other songs, but the simplicity opens up space for the more subtle and psychotropic textures performed by Josh and Anton on guitar and violin.
There were no weak links on stage.
Anton Patzner is an accomplished violinist and guitarist. His use of both instruments covered just about every musical function: precise rhythm chops, arpeggiated harmonies, artful melodic counterpoints, spacey atmospheric textures, and tapestries of swirling, psychedelic noise. He is credited as co-writer of several songs, and plays a key role in Foxtails' rich, psychedelic production. My only complaint is that I left the show wishing I’d heard more of his unprocessed violin playing.
Josh Pollock's guitar playing and masterful effects processing bordered on mad science, and someday soon, I hope to hear his artistry deployed through a more sophisticated audio environment.
Dominic Mercurio (drums) and Joe Lewis (bass) formed the rock-solid rhythm section. They played like one mind. Again, the song forms are complex and challenging, and without these two guys laying down an absolutely solid foundation, the rest of the band could not take the risks they do.
Laura's unaccompanied performance of "Watch Me" from the new album was spellbinding. She stepped into the center aisle with her guitar and an old dynamic mic, and ran both through a small amp. I hear the song as a plaintive reflection on the universal human need to be seen and appreciated. But it's personal and intimate, and this performance was about as vulnerable as anything I've ever seen anyone do in front of an audience.
One moment of irony: just as she sang the words "Watch me playing to the crowd, Watch them quickly drown me out", a cluster of rude people in the audience cranked up a loud conversation they'd been having over the music all evening long. I’m tempted to rant about how oblivious and disrespectful it is to talk over a live music performance… But Laura seemed unperturbed, carried on with complete poise and somehow managed to weave the spell all over again before the song was over.
The band reached "Far Away and Long Ago,” near the end of their set. The final cut on the new album, the song is dreamlike and eerie – simple, and a little too pretty to be real in the beginning – with lyrics that build a fairytale world, knock it down, and raise a modern dystopia in its place. It was beautiful and disturbing at once – evoking alternating states of childlike sweetness and looming menace.
Foxtails Brigade puts on a memorable show, and I encourage anyone who enjoys great live music to go hear them in person.
Mountain Grass Unit
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