Live Review: Fleet Foxes w/ The Walkmen @ Raleigh Amphitheater 9/21

Fleet Foxes (pictured above) performed live at the
Raleigh Amphitheater on September 21st with The Walkmen.

Since the release of their eponymous debut album in 2008, the Seattle-based Fleet Foxes have easily become one of the most talked-about bands in the independent music scene, and with good reason. Their dreamlike folk tunes and intricately crafted vocal harmonies combine for a truly original and inspiring sound which was perfected with the release of their second full length, Helplessness Blues, earlier this year (and each member of the Myxem staff found a place in the top three for it on their "Best of 2011 So Far" lists). This was a show I had been looking forward to for quite some time, and what could have easily gone down as a huge disappointment ended up becoming a pretty memorable experience.

The reason I say this was a potential disappointment was because it rained. I suppose that may be an understatement; the skies opened up and absolutely poured. It was bearable at first. We arrived at the venue in time to get seated before it started sprinkling. The rain remained light but steady until about halfway through the opening act. Maybe I was just impatient due to the inclement weather, but the Walkmen failed to hold my attention. I'd heard great things from friends, but really there wasn't a whole lot that stood out to me. It was some fun, danceable, vaguely garage-y pop rock which might have been enjoyable at a smaller club, but in a rainy amphitheater in the middle of downtown, it really didn't do the trick.

"Within and Without" by Washed Out

Within and Without by Washed Out was released on
July 12, 2011 on Sub Pop

Washed Out's Ernest Green was thrust into indie stardom with his debut effort of Life of Leisure, an EP released in 2009 that picked up a lot of steam thanks to favorable reviews from across the board.  Washed Out jumped right into the top-tier of chillwave musicians like Toro y Moi and Neon Indian and now he's right back at it with an even bigger and more aurally adventurous project, his first full length Within and Without.  Released on Sub Pop, Within and Without shows that Ernest Green continues to grow musically along with the rest of his early front running peers in the chillwave movement.

It's easy to just fall into habit and keep making the same records over and over, especially in a genre as subversive as chillwave where if you're not paying attention to the subtle nuances of the music then one could easily get lost in the sounds and simply dismiss it as 'another generic chillwave song'.  I've heard it before as a complaint and it can be deemed as legitimate amongst the majority of the artists in that genre, there's many who simply believe reverberated vocals and catchy synth lines can equal good and entertaining music, but what truly makes artists like Ernest Green stick out from the crowd are the unique changes to his sounds from Life of Leisure, he's added a plethora of live instruments and has toned down the focus on making catchy and vibrant pop songs in favor of slow-brooding sonic landscapes that can leave the listener floating through this forty-minute album in seemingly no time.