There’s no reason for me to go into a huge history of this band, because they’ve been all over the blogosphere lately, and if I remember correctly Pitchfork was all about their current EP “Wizard of Ahhhs”. In typical idiotic me fashion, for some reason, despite all the press, I wrote the band off and didn’t bother to give them a listen. It took, and this is sort of sad I guess, a Rolling Stone article about The Black Kids being one of the ten bands to watch in 2008 to get me to give them a chance. I can’t help it, they said they sounded like The Cure without the black lipstick plus a bit of teen spirit. With a Cure comparison I had to check them out. So I did.
“Hit the Heartbrakes,” is the lead-off track of their aforementioned EP and it’s a killer one. The opening riff that breaks into some sort of mutant fusion of Arcade Fire and 80s brit pop hooked me immediately. The production and mix is a bit messy but it works perfectly for what they’re doing here. This song has an undeniable groove. The synths are 80s gold, and the male vocalist sounds like Winn Butler channeling Robert Smith, while the female vocalist sounds like a long lost Motown girl group singer. The verses are huge, and the chorus is huge too. Hell the whole song is huge! Just listen to the “Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough” style synth string riff before the mid-song breakdown! This is another song I’d love to shake my ass to at a party. The rest of their EP hasn’t hit me quite yet, but it’s still quite boss, and I’m sure I’ll be addicted to it soon.
Okay, so now I’m truly going to destroy all my indie cred, but I can’t help it. “Famous Last Words” is one of the most emotionally draining songs I’ve ever heard. I know this record has been out for over a year, but who cares. Sure, My Chemical Romance is way too over theatrical, but sometimes it works, and on this track it works like a charm. The intro is sorta quiet, except for Gerard Way’s sneering vocals and those big guitar hits, before that nasty guitar riff comes in. The verses are all brash and in your face with some nice guitar riffage, nothing too complex but perfect for the song. The pre-chorus sweetens things up a little bit, and then comes the fucking huge chorus. It’s huge I tell you. “I am not afraid to keep on living. I am not afraid to walk this world alone. Honey if you stay you’ll be forgiven. Nothing you can say can stop me going home,” it goes. Then after another round of verse, pre-chorus, and chorus, we get a huge Queen-ish build-up replete with big arena rock guitar solos, before it quiets down again. Now all this is great in and of itself, but the real treat comes at the end of the song. When the gut wrenching chords come in, things start building, the synths start to kick in full force, the lyrics build to their climax, and Gerard Way shoots up an octave to sing “I sleep all days, cause I see you lying next to me, with words I thought I’d never speak awake and unafraid”, that’s when the orgasm begins. It reaches its totally satisfying conclusion when the vocal layers pile on the already huge musical canvas playing the aforementioned lyrics against the chorus lyrics. The song fades out with these dueling layers in the forefront making you want to hit previous on your mp3 player to do it alllll over again. I swear my heart breaks everytime i hear this song. I don’t know why I resonate emotionally so much with this song, but I just do. I think it’s the romanticism of those last lines. Eventhough the kid has cancer he feels all right because the one he loves is lying beside him. A hopeless romantic I admittedly am.
So once again this is old news, but I recently downloaded this album, so sue me. This will be the first post of two that will probably destroy all of my indie cred, however Pitchfork likes to gush all over Mr. Z, so I might be safe. When “The Black Album” came out and I finally got around to listening to it, I fell in love with it. Hell, I’ll admit it, I love Jay-Z. As everyone knows, after the album came out tons of remix albums came out including the infamous “Grey Album” which was a pairing of “The Black Album” with The Beatles “White Album”. Somewhere recently, I’m sure it was on Pitchfork I saw some gushing over 9th Wonder’s remix of the album called “Black is Back”. So I had to hear it. Unfortunately, the version I downloaded had some annoying mp3 encoding errors, so I need a new copy, but this song was error free. This is going to sound dumb, but this song came up on random while I playing Hexic, and I was immeadiately hooked.
This remix takes the bit of old school soul production that the original had and amps it up to the nth degree. The original version was rather joyous, but this song takes that joyous to a whole new level. This version is like a huge celebration, all in honor of how badass Jay-Z is. Starting off with a gorgeous soul sample, instead of the Gladiator sample of the original, it just gets better from there. If there’s one thing that I like about some of the current producers in rap these days, Kayne West and, apparently, 9th Wonder, is that they sample amazing old school soul songs. It never fails that I end up researching and downloading the sampled song. I haven’t done my research on this one, but it’s not far behind. So, the soul sample loops itself throughout the whole song, which may sound repetitive on paper, but the sample is so rad it just doesn’t matter. The beat is bangin’, and by the way that may be the only time you hear me say that phrase, and just adds to the celebratory feel of the song. The only thing I haven’t mentioned is Jay-Z’s rhymes which are top notch on this track. He sounds so confident that I can’t help but believe every bit of bragging he spits out. I just want to DJ a party and play this song, and get down in the crowd and dance with everyone! That’s one of the main points of rap right, to get people to shake their ass? Well this one definitely succeeds.
This is sort of “black market” album, considering it’s not an offically sanctioned remix album, so you won’t find it in stores, but if you go here you can you buy it. You might be able to find it cheaper somewhere else, but I’m not sure. If I find it for cheaper I’ll let you know. Hell, you might be able to find it on iTunes. I’ll admit, I need to quit being a pirate and buy it. It’s on my list, which is growing, yet decreasing at the same time as I finally buy albums I’ve loved for years. You didn’t hear me say this, but find it and hear it at any cost, but if you must pirate it, at least support 9th Wonder and buy the damn thing if you dig it. After all, piracy is wack, unless you’re stealing from Metallica, who deserve it for being pussies about Napster.
And I finally make my appearance on the blog. Jim is happy.
So this has been around for awhile, both the band and the video, but I doubt that anyone outside of the Joy Electric, Fine China, and Starflyer 59 etc fanbase knows about it. The Foxglove Hunt is Rob Withem, of the late great Fine China, writing the songs with Ronnie Martin, of the still going strong, Joy Electric doing all the programming and production.
So what do you get when add Fine China’s 80s pop with Joy Electric’s, for lack of better word, synth pop goodness? Pristine 80s synth pop, of course! I could go into a long history of both of those bands, but this is all about The Foxglove Hunt. It was early in ‘07 when news of The Foxglove Hunt surfaced. Joy Electric and Fine China fans rejoiced. I went ga-ga at the prospect. But two songwriting luminaries teaming up doesn’t mean shit if the songs aren’t there. Luckily they seem to be there.
“That’s Getting Personal” was the first song to show up on their myspace, and it was a killer. I’ve listened to it way too many times and still haven’t worn it out. Then “Business Casual” appeared which was good, but not necessarily as good as “That’s Getting Personal”. Time passed, and then The Foxglove Hunt played one of their first shows, if not their first show, at Autobahn 7, which is Ronnie Martin’s synth pop festival. Videos surfaced online. Most of the songs didn’t make me do cartwheels on first listen, which is okay cause Fine China’s last album “The Jaws of Life” took a long time to hit me, and they’re only live versions after all. Regardless, it was rad to watch Ronnie behind the drumset. Then, in clicking through all the videos, I found this song (the video of which is below), which no one knows the title of. I shot through the roof, as I usually do when i hear a song of this caliber. So let’s get to the song.
What we have here is classic Rob Withem songwriting with classic Ronnie Martin synth work. This is pure 80s gold, and I will swear, on whatever you consider holy, that this song would have torn up the airwaves in the 80s. The song starts off with Ronnie’s arpeggiated synth and a beautiful Rhodes-esque lead line, that comes in for a few seconds, before exploding into full on synth pop glory with a lead line that will not leave your head, even with the aid of a shotgun, and an ultra classy synth pad playing out the chords. Rob Withem’s fey vocals are in full effect, and his vocal line is spot on like his vocal lines always are. The lead line is tops, the chorus is huge, the song is the perfect length, and the lyrics seem to be that wonderful special kind of melancholy that Jason Martin, of Starflyer 59, Ronnie Martin, and Rob Withem execute so well. “Don’t go breaking my heart” (that’s the chorus), indeed. Throughout the whole performance Ronnie looks like he’s having a blast on the drums, and Rob looks very 80s wrapping his hands around that little synth and totally sexing up the microphone. The whole video and song is summed up perfectly at the end when someone in the audience yells out, best as I can tell, “That’s the bomb!” While I’m not one to the use that phrase anymore, it’s true. Whoever screamed that out isn’t bullshitting. Just listen and see.
Wanna hear more? Check out The Foxglove Hunt’s Myspace, or go here to see all the videos. Wanna support the band? Head to the distro section of the Velvet Blue Music website and buy their two song demo, for only $2.99, which features full quality versions of the two songs, “That’s Getting Personal” and “Business Casual”, that are streaming on their myspace. It’s cheap and worth a purchase. Here’s to hoping the full album comes out early next year!
justin | 
12.18.2007| 
