Fleet Foxes

At the risk of severing the last thread that binds us to the world of well adjusted non-hipsters, this is the newest addition to our blog: Vinyl Finds.

To be honest, on the rest of this blog Jordan just tells me where and what to write, and I comply. But I do love writing, and I think I may have found a way to actually contribute to June Hymn. Jordan bought me a record player for my birthday this year so we've been not-so-slowly gathering records since then. In this section of the blog, I'll post a record review and any interesting tidbits about how we came to possess it here periodically. 

Without further ado, let me break into this thing with one of our favorite new finds: 

Artist - Fleet Foxes

Album - Fleet Foxes, 2008

Source - Rise Records

Cost - $18

The Vinyl

Grooveshark has opened my eyes to a great array of music. If you know anything about me you know that I'm no illegal downloader (I love rules), nor am I on the cutting edge of music tech (haven't figured out Spotify/don't trust Spotify). But Grooveshark gives me the ability to actually listen to albums all the way through before I buy. My Pandora/Grooveshark tandem has proved most useful recently, and Fleet Foxes is one of the first bands to which my streaming duo introduced me. When we saw their debut album for $18 at Rise, we couldn't leave without it. 

Now obviously Fleet Foxes are no new discovery, but they're new to me, and you've made it this far in the post, so curb the criticism. My barometer is probably pretty ill-calibrated, having spent no time in the northwest, but I assume that this album captures the essence of sitting on top of some fog-covered Cascades mountain wearing a flannel shirt, reveling in the dew dripping from one's unkempt, chest length beard. My personal favorite, "Blue Ridge Mountains," is brilliantly woven, incessant and melodic, but is by no means lyrically inaccessible. The harmonies remind me of a more full-bodied Simon and Garfunkel.

The Sun Giant EP was included in the purchase, making this an even better deal. "Mykonos" is one of my very favorite Fleet Foxes songs; check out the alternative version for a change of pace.

The Find
I can't lie, sometimes this section will simply read: "Amazon..."

But this time we do have a little bit more of a story. We got into this stuff right as The Vinyl Countdown was closing their doors. However, they left a tip to check out Rise Records, who had apparently bought out much of their stock. I looked Rise up and saw that we drive past their location several times a week. It puzzled me that we had never seen this place.

So we set out to check the new place out a few weekends ago, only to drive aimlessly around the 15th and BA area while Siri kept barking at us to make a U-Turn. You can only hear "Destination" while sitting in front of a nondescript, badly kept apartment building so many times before you start to lose hope. After some deeper research it became apparent that Rise was inside another store. A store called Bubble. I will limit myself to saying that Bubble is not a place I hope to visit again soon. We have it under pretty good intelligence that the store caters mostly to the roller derby community. I am still ignorant as to exactly who such a community comprises. But the vinyl part of the store is in a back room, and with no sales people, or other customers for that matter, we were free to comb through the entire stock. You'll see a few more of our Rise finds if you happen to ever want to read this section of the blog again. And no, Jordan was not interested in the black leather, steel-spike studded bomber jacket the Bubble sales person was pubbing. It just wouldn't bring out her eyes.

Thanks for reading. Hope you don't abandon June Hymn as a result of my attempts to join in on the fun.