I'm a little behind the curve, but I just picked up the Fleet Foxes LP. brilliant vocal harmonies, broad arrangements, tight performance, and all from a bunch of teenagers (or at least they're still pretty young). if you haven't heard them yet, here's one of their songs from last Saturday's episode of Saturday Night Live.
typically, SNL performances stink. I mean, really really stink. to begin with, a TV studio has to be a tough place to play. I give it to the bands that it is hard to pop into the middle of sketch comedy show and play cold to an audience that isn't there just to see them perform. on top of that, the sound mixing is horrendous: typically the lead vocalist, guitarist, and drummer are the only audible musicians. (when I was in college, they released a series of CDs of SNL live performances, and a professor quipped about who would want to listen to recordings that were so poor to begin with!) I can count on one hand the number of good performances that I've seen on SNL (and U2 holds all of those positions). if you want a good example of a good recording artist gone bad on SNL, just check out this recent one from Kanye West.
but I have to say, this performance by Fleet Foxes was great! I could wax on more about this, but I'll let this clip speak for itself.
1 comment:
Luke, the Fleet Foxes have been on my constant play list for about a year now--fantastic musicianship with lots of nods to the Beach Boys, CSNY, and others. Plus, they're from Seattle, which immediately earns them points. Here's another clip that you may or may not have seen:
http://www.blogotheque.net/Fleet-Foxes,4532
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