The Foxymorons have been at it since the late ’90s but release albums pretty rarely, which leaves everyone with plenty of time (and good reason) to get excited by another record. Though the praise given to the band is frequently filtered through comparisons to other acts from the various heydays of power pop — the bandmembers themselves make it a point to note an affinity for Big Star and Pavement — on Bible Stories they craft a charmingly ramshackle collection of songs that render tracing steps in the annals of rock a moot point. The central duo of David Dewese and Jerry James trade off on the vocals and must attack their respective songs pretty differently: not that they specify who’s-who, but it’s clear that one is remarkably adept at delivering memorably conversational lines in raggedy, endearingly tossed-off little packages, and the other is more of a classicist in approach. This voice is the one responsible for the more lush and meticulous material, while the aforementioned occupies a comparatively ambiguous place, trading in the sort of substantive humor that may have given birth to the delightful absurdism of the album’s moniker, not to mention the band name itself. In songs of this persuasion, colorfully in-the-moment character encounters like “At the Dairy Queen you talk so obscene” strike a circuitous poeticism and fanciful interplay with the alternating instances where ever-active melodies take center stage. At the end of the day, they’re great as a collective, reveling in an outsider’s glory and bashing it out, and alternatively toning it down for high point after high point. The changing of the guards is used to maximum effect where the gorgeous lullaby “This Too Shall Pass” — echoing an Elliott Smith-by-way-of-Jeff Hanson quality in its disarming falsetto — is grounded by the ultra-satisfying guitar rock of “Say It Aloud.” Later, the amusing archetypical portraits of folks from the lateral opposites of Boston and Portland define dreams of escape on “Sick of California,” and the images are allegorical enough to offset the sobering narrative of a disenchanted band trying to make it in the modern-day climate. The joke, though, is really on the fair-weather friends who only “Tell you what you want to hear/’You’ll make the album of the year’”: the truth is, with this well-rounded stash of ten undeniably rousing Bible Stories, the Foxymorons have come awfully close.
Category Archives: Press
Americana UK
It’s easy to hear why Pavement crop up when talking about Foxymorons, everyone has at least heard of them (Pavement that is) if not actually heard them. So you can take ‘Skinny Cow Blues’ as an example, there’s the title, the lyrics, the vocal phrasing, the ramshackle guitar solo and that seemingly accidental grasp of what makes a song work. A lot of people miss or dismiss that essential skill of Pavement, it sounds like it is so easy to do things slightly wrong so that it sounds better then it would if it were right. It takes guts and it takes wiles, Foxymorons have both and an encyclopaedic knowledge of Indie-Rock.
The smarts allows them not to be tied down easily, ‘This Too Shall Pass’ mixes soft rock with Fleet Foxes style harmonies. ‘Say It Loud’ bursts into life like a Buffalo Tom song. Their stylistic shifts do lead one into just spotting the quotations and connections, it becomes an end in itself, I can even hear the Monochrome Set in ‘We All Crawl’ which probably reveals more about me than the Foxymorons. But then this is self-referential music about music so it’s not totally unfair to pin ‘Sick of California’ as Granddaddy. For those like myself who found their musical identity through Pavement, Dinosaur Jr in those halcyon times before major label feeding frenzies when ‘This Band Could Be Your Life’ was a life this record lights little Proustian beacons, those fading synapses suddenly fire again. I know what I’m going to be doing tonight, it will involve the Volcano Suns and maybe some Big Dipper, it will be loud. So thanks to the Foxymorons for returning me to the lessons I learned in the old testament of my personal musical bible.
Know More Beards
http://knowmorebeards.blogspot.com
Meet The Foxymorons, a duo based in Texas/Tennessee that have been producing great music since the mid-90′s… and their style & sound is very indicative of their roots.
Currently on their 5th release, Bible Stories, these fellas blend nearly everything I love about Wilco-ish and Robert Pollard-ish sounds… while putting out a great album with amazing songwriting and fervor.
Add to that, on top of marking really awesome music – they started a pretty nifty clothing company called American Viceroy that sells (what they call) a “uniform for creative living”.
Clever dudes with clever music. Click the link below to here a few tracks courtesy of the bands website.
Fort Worth Weekly
The Foxymorons aren’t your typical band. It’s the songwriting vehicle for two guys from different cities, Fort Worth’s Jerry James and Nashville’s David Dewese, who nevertheless have spent the past decade –– not quietly –– crafting smart, wry indie-pop. They’ve released several albums and garnered laudatory reviews in Pitchfork, Paste, and SPIN. A couple of years ago, Dewese and James also started a clothing line, American Viceroy –– James describes the typical AV ensemble as “a schoolboy uniform crossed with pajamas.” The clothes were featured on the web site of GQ magazine a couple of years ago. Of the label and the band, James said, “To me it all feels like it’s coming from the same part of the same aesthetic and part of the same spirit of wanting to make something.”
music
Though separated by a few hundred miles, David Dewese (right) and Jerry James still get creative together.
American Viceroy is on the back burner now –– the clothes are not even available for purchase online (though they were carried in stores in New York City, Los Angeles, and Japan). Instead, Dewese and James are focusing on the band: They have just released a subtly brilliant and extremely catchy guitar-based album, Bible Stories. The goal now is to become a bona fide band, geography be damned. “We’re trying to book shows now, one thing we want to do a lot more of,” James said. “We want to make the band more of a living, breathing entity. It’s something to me that always feels alive, even if we’re long distance. But we’re planning on playing [more] shows and making more records.”
Dewese and James first met in high school in Mesquite in the early 1990s but didn’t become friends and collaborators until their college years, when Dewese was studying in Brownwood and James was at Southern Methodist University. They saw each other at home during breaks. The two were music aficionados and started mailing each other mix tapes. “The more obscure music, the better,” James said. Ultimately, music that Dewese and James wrote and performed separately began appearing on the tapes. “We didn’t necessarily think you had to be good at guitar [to write your own songs], and some of the songs that we knew and liked didn’t seem that hard to play,” James said. “That started it.”
With a friend, Dewese and James began performing and recording their material, using their church’s drum kit and recording equipment. “At some point,” James said, “I was like, ‘Why don’t we make a 7-inch single? It seems that all these other bands we like have done that.’ ”
Dewese eventually moved to Nashville, and James spent time in Los Angeles and Austin. (He received his MBA from the University of Texas.) But The Foxymorons never wavered. The band “just sort of evolved –– it’s just an aspect, an extension, of our friendship,” James said. “We meet up, hang out, we eat, and we mess around, and always at some point, somebody picks up a guitar and says, ‘I’ve got this song.’ ”
In the mid-’00s, Dewese and James added some players, put out a couple of albums, including the Pitchfork-approved Hesitation Eyes, and in ’06 played the SXSW Music Festival. “I thought we were going to put out [an album] the next year,” James said. “There was no intention to wait five years to put out a new album. But [Dewese] had been doing a lot of traveling … and then we started the clothing line. Our attentions had diverted to these other things. Life had sort of gotten in the way. Or just laziness.”
After the last shipment of American Viceroy clothing was made, Dewese and James both agreed that the time had come to make another record. “Songs had been stockpiling, and we weren’t doing anything with them,” James said. “I always knew we were going to make another record. We knew we weren’t over. We just didn’t know it was going to take so long.”
With help from some session players, including drummer Brian Fuzzell, pianist Chris Davis, and multi-instrumentalist Stephen Jerkins, Dewese and James holed up in Dewese’s home studio in Nashville and pumped out Bible Stories in a couple of weeks. “We have friends that spend a lot of time in the studio,” James said. “I don’t relate to it. We know the songs going in. They happen relatively fast. … I’m only there for three or four days, an extended weekend. A lot of that [time], we’re at the movies or at the bar or hanging out with our friends. Then it’s time to do work.”
Mastered by Centro-matic’s Matt Pence, who also did Hesitation Eyes, the new CD moves through highs and lows and has an ironic sensibility like an indie film from indie-filmdom’s halcyon days of the late 1990s/early 2000s. Starring in The Foxymorons’ melodic bursts are a “passion shark,” an “incandescent man,” and a “teenage typing queen,” among many other characters. Dewese and James share singing duties –– Dewese’s voice is sweet, smooth, and masculine while James’ is nervous, tiny, and cute. Every song is tightly structured and highly melodious. The duo rocks reverb-laden riffs almost as often as gently strumming or finger-picking acoustic guitars. One standout track is “Say It Aloud,” a hard-charging rocker in the spirit of Soul Asylum and complete with honey-dripping vocal harmonies during the chorus. Another hit is “Out of Control,” a toe-tapper built around a simple staccato guitar riff, snappy snare, and tambourine, the bridge formed by a refrain of ba-ba-dada-da.
The rest of the album is equally winning. “Sick of California” is a slow burn, its heavy bass complementing Dewese’s dreamy delivery. “Skinny Cow Blues” comes on like an old C&W ballad, with James at his cutest singing, “We never connect just right / Like a clumsy high five … that dressing gown’s awful tight / That dressing gown’s tight / But it’s alright.” “This Too Shall Pass” is an acoustic-and-vocals lullaby that calls to mind nothing less than “Dust in the Wind” (though not as melancholy). Another softy is “Meskeeters (Sweet Sixteen),” one of several songs about awkward teenage years. “Your boyfriend’s broke, you think it’s a joke, now you’re looking for an older guy,” James sings, his voice soft and on the verge of cracking, “So at the Dairy Queen, you talk so obscene, and you leave without saying goodbye.” Bible Stories could be the soundtrack to a sequel to Napoleon Dynamite or Rushmore.
“We’re writing songs that we want to hear,” James said. “I’m writing songs that I think are cool, that are interesting to me, and we share a common sensibility and reference points. And so we have this distinct idea of what we think is cool or what we think is interesting, and I think that’s it. … We want to make music that’s exciting and interesting.”
Magnet
Returning with their first album in five years, the Foxymorons present Bible Stories, a 10-song collection of alt-country-inflected indie rock that marks the duo’s fourth release to date. Self-recorded during the freezing months of a recent Nashville winter and subsequently mixed by long-time collaborator Matt Pence (Centro-matic), the songs “revel in a certain scruffy, underdog status while emoting about ‘teenage typing queens’ and the meditative virtues of gardening.” Or so we’re told. Available below, “Say It Aloud” and “Skinny Cowboy Blues” deliver on that promise, the former maintaining an earnest, Lemonheads-like patter and the latter embodying their more beer-soaked, heartland influences. Bible Stories was released last month via Foxyphoton. Check out the mix tape the Foxymorons just made for MAGNET.
Magnet Mix Tape
Legend has it that the Foxymorons were born in a Sunday-school classroom when David Dewese and Jerry James (who hail from Tennessee and Texas, respectively) found an abandoned drum kit and started playing. Now, 16 years later, the duo has released its fourth full-length, Bible Stories (Foxyphoton), which is a rather fitting name given the band’s origins. However, instead of somber ballads about the New Testament, Bible Stories is actually a collection of infectious pop tunes on subject matters such as gardening. Here’s a mix tape James made especially for MAGNET.
Nirvana “On A Plain”
Maybe my favorite song of all time. Wry, funny, stream-of-consciousness and terribly sad. I played the Unplugged version of this song too many times in 1994-95. It’s just sort of a perfect song for me. Oh, and that bridge, that bridge! Video
Big Star “O, Dana”
“I’d rather shoot a woman than a man” What’s he singing about? One of my favorite songs from a favorite album. Video
Miley Cyrus “Party In The USA”
Sue us. It’s summer. We drive with the windows down. This song always fits the moment. Video
The Mother Hips “Third Floor Story”
Oh man, this song was kind of the epic jam of last fall, at least for our gang. It’s sort of over-the-top and funky in a way that we could never pull off. Hilarious riffs and falsettos, faux-bitter lyrics and classic-rock moves that feel totally great and sincere, although I can’t help but think they’re being a bit cheeky. Who knows, who cares? Video
The Velvet Underground “Who Loves The Sun”
I just heard it on the radio the other day. This song has always ruled me. I like the simple sentiment and direct language. This is my favorite kind of VU song. Video
The Raincoats “Fairytale In The Supermarket”
This song and recording sounds so alive in a way that thrills me. I completely love Ana da Silva’s voice and that shouted chorus. Beautiful. Video
Centro-matic “Picking Up Too Fast”
Truth be told, I could’ve picked any song from this Texas band’s 2003 album, Love You Just The Same. Oh, just get it already will you?
No Age “Ripped Knees”
Two dudes who make a lot of cool racket. I like the spirit of the band, and this record really cooks. Video
Yo La Tengo “You Tore Me Down”
This album is perfect, and this Flamin’ Groovies cover is a highlight. Audio
The Nobility “Hallelujah Chorus”
Pop greatness from Nashville-based, analog-loving, tour-trekking underdogs.
You Set the Scene
http://yousetthescene.blogspot.com/
Going on over a decade as a band, the Foxymorons are set to release their fourth long player next Tuesday. Their last record got positive reviews from All Music and Pitchfork and regular play on Morning Becomes Eclectic. The new record’s already getting tons of spins on KEXP (song of the day) and gotten a video premiere on Pop Matters.
You Set the Scene: What’s going on in Ft. Worth?
Jerry James: Man, every morning the weatherperson on the radio tells me it’s going to be 105 with a heat index of 110. I’m over the summer. It’s mostly movie theaters and frozen yogurt for me until the fall.
YSTS: We’ve had an incredibly mild summer; it’s just finally starting to heat up. People are predicting an Indian summer. First off, love the album cover – where’d the photo come from?
JJ: Thanks! I took it while on a houseboat in Kerala, India about ten years ago. Somehow it seemed to be right for the cover.
YSTS: Tell me how you got started playing music.
JJ: I had always felt too uncool for rock. In middle school, the older tough dudes in my shop class were into rock and I felt like I’d get laughed out of the room if I tried to engrave the name of a rock band into a class project. It was all hair metal or whatever, but still. So that left me with Top 40. But eventually, I remember my dad handing me a twenty and asking me to take his car to the gas station for a fill-up. I saw a copy of Rolling Stone with Nirvana on the cover at the gas station and used the change to buy it. Dad wasn’t happy. Anyhow that sparked an interest in Nirvana and eventually I found myself at the used CD bins buying Dinosaur Jr, Pavement, and Gram Parsons albums. It happened really quickly – from Boyz II Men to Pavement in the span of 18 months. How did it happen? Somehow the ethos of punk rock and indie rock made it seem possible to make up songs. I felt like I was sneaking in through the back door.
YSTS: Were your parents really strict and did they immigrate from India or were they born here?
JJ: My parents immigrated to the US from India in the early 70’s. Oh yeah, they were pretty strict by American standards but it could’ve been worse. Some of my Indian friends had super-strict parents. I used to attribute my parents’ weird idiosyncrasies to being Indian but I’ve come to realize that everyone’s parents are weird.
YSTS: So, when did you finally pick an instrument?
JJ: Around that time, I picked up a crummy acoustic guitar, which is still the primary guitar I used to write songs. My band mate David showed me a few chords and pretty soon I was trying to make up songs. Every time I’ve thought about upgrading from the cheap-o guitar, David’s like “don’t bother.” I’m not sure what he means by that.
YSTS: Your band mate, David, lives in Nashville. Tell me a little bit about how the writing/recording process takes place.
JJ: We like each other in small doses – I’m being facetious here, sort of – so it works out to make music long-distance. We used to mail each other 4-track tapes or I’d find a song strummed into my voicemail at work. Lately I’ve been sending him songs I record into the voice memo function of my phone. At some point, we’d work out the arrangements, try to muck up the other person’s songs, and record it cheap and fast at a studio in Nashville or Dallas. This last record was recorded at David’s house in Nashville.
YSTS: LA seems to play a big part in the lyrics on this record, both in the songs David sings and the songs you sing. Do some of these songs date back to when you were living here? Or do you just get musically inspired by the idea of Los Angeles?
JJ: We’re both kind of fascinated with the idea of California. In fact, he’s somewhere out there right now on a solo trip in a rented car driving around soaking up beach vibes. I think living in Los Angeles subconsciously influenced the record: the old Largo, browsing at Skylight books, Sunday afternoons at Amoeba, almost getting hit by a pool cue at Little Joy…I miss it.
YSTS: Why five years between records? What have you been up to?
JJ: We never intended to take that long. David transitioned to a freelance day job and did a lot of international traveling. Plus, our creative energies were directed to a new project, a clothing line that we started, so we put our songs on the backburner. I’m hoping the next record comes out much faster.
YSTS: Is there much of a scene in Ft. Worth? Or does most of the action take place in Dallas and Denton?
JJ: A friend made me a mix of primarily Fort Worth bands that seemed pretty cool although I’m not really too knowledgeable about the scene. People here seem to talk about Telegraph Canyon a lot though.
YSTS: Who are some of the local bands you’re into?
JJ: Around North Texas, people talk about Telegraph Canyon or Sarah Jaffe, although I don’t keep up too well. I’m sure there are lots of smaller, exciting bands but I’m not sure.
YSTS: What about Centro-matic and all the Will Johnson/Matt Pence projects?
JJ: Oh yeah, don’t get me started. Not only do they make great records and play awesome live shows, but they’re really nice people as well. Will was super-encouraging when we were making 4-track recordings around ‘97/’98. He also sat in on drums on an earlier record, Rodeo City. And we’ve been collaborating with Matt Pence in some capacity for a few records now.
YSTS: Any local blogs or music publications that you can share with my readers?
JJ: We Shot JR is a blog with a distinctive voice and a pretty well-informed underground/independent sensibility, although I’d advise you not to read the comments.
YSTS: I know you’re a breakfast freak. What’s your favorite local breakfast spot?
JJ: There’s a place called Paris Coffee Shop that’s been around since the 1920’s. It’s got a really comfortable, friendly vibe and the food is delicious. My favorites in the morning are the pancakes and biscuits. The pies are also awesome. There’s usually a line of regular ol’ timers but it’s worth the wait. I’d also recommend the Montgomery Street Café which is really tiny so I usually sit at the counter. It’s got pictures of Annie Oakley and Wyatt Earp on the walls and breakfast is inexpensive and good.
YSTS: And any favorites from your time in LA?
JJ: Oh man, Los Angeles has some great breakfast places but my favorite is The Griddle on Sunset. Hands down. I feel like everything they serve is as good as it gets. I lived within walking distance of it at one time, but convenience has little to do why it’s my favorite. I recommend just buying a single pancake, though, because they’re huge. The plates of left-over pancakes that I’d see get taken back to the kitchen could feed a family for weeks.
YSTS: Best barbecue spot?
JJ: There’s a family-run place called Angelo’s near where I live. It’s been around forever and I always see the same guys behind the counter and the same woman at the register. It looks like it’s right out of the 60’s. Lots of dudes in cowboy hats and boots and the beers are served in giant frozen schooners. People rave about the brisket but I get the ribs. Oh yeah, I should mention all the massive “hunting trophies”, i.e. taxidermy on the walls.
YSTS: Best burger?
JJ: I was just at Kincaid’s a few days ago. Awesome burgers and milkshakes and the meat is cut and ground in the store daily. It’s another place that’s been at its location for decades. Its claim to fame is that it served thousands of burgers in a single day after it was voted the best burger in the country by some publication. But the thing that makes it for me is that no matter how long it’s been since I’ve been in, the smiling lady at the counter, Lynette, always greets me by name. How do you like that?!
YSTS: How’s it compare to your beloved In-N-Out?
JJ: Ha! Don’t put me in that position. I love them both. The rumor is that one’s about to open in Garland, near Dallas. I bet it’ll be mobbed all the time, though.
YSTS: Best tex-mex?
JJ: This is a tough one. I always take people to a place called Joe T Garcia’s near the stockyards. People argue the merits of the food – although, for the record I think the fajitas are great – but what’s not up for debate is the amazing vast outdoor patio, which is actually more like a massive garden with a decorative swimming pool, fountains, and connecting courtyards. Somehow I feel like I’m vacation in California when I’m there. I heard a rumor that Fleetwood Mac would fly out to Texas just for a meal there. I don’t know if that true, but it’s a good story.
YSTS: Drink of choice?
JJ: I’ll answer by category: Guinness, gin-and-tonic, vanilla milkshake.
YSTS: Favorite thing about living in Ft. Worth?
JJ: People are totally friendly and I live near the FW Modern which is a fantastic museum.
YSTS: Least favorite thing about living in Ft. Worth?
JJ: Honestly, I can’t find a bad thing to say about it. Oh, well it’s absurdly hot right now.
YSTS: Your favorite book?
JJ: I’m glad you didn’t say novel. I’ll pick Franny and Zooey. Short stories are my favorite format and these are both good. I was just at the doctor’s office and saw Jonathan Franzen on the cover of Time. I’ll probably pick up his new book, although I never got around to The Corrections.
YSTS: The Corrections is great. One of my cousin’s a book scout and she was right when she said every Midwestern son should read it. Favorite film about Texas?
JJ: Patricia Neal just died so I’ve been thinking about Hud lately. She’s so good in it and Paul Newman plays such a great and despicable character. I really love that movie. I know Dazed and Confused was filmed in Austin, but does it count as a Texas movie? I don’t know, it makes me think of Texas.
YSTS: Two great choices. And yes, I’d definitely consider Dazed and Confused a Texas film. Favorite film about LA or set in LA?
JJ: I’d like to think of something less obvious, but Swingers is such a Los Angeles movie to me. I always liked driving past the Los Feliz 9-hole golf course because of it.
YSTS: Yeah, that came out right around the time I originally moved to LA. I remember the only guy I knew dragging me around to all the spots, The Dresden, 3 of Clubs, Derby. Any must see TV?
JJ: I probably can’t suggest anything most people don’t already know about. Mad Men and Curb Your Enthusiasm are about it for me these days. I watch almost no television, unless it’s on Netflix. I’ve added Breaking Bad to the Netflix queue.
YSTS: All great shows, but that’s a lot of uncomfortable TV. Five desert island records?
JJ: These could change anytime.
Pavement – Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Wilco – Summerteeth
Nirvana – In Utero
Big Star – 3rd / Sister Lovers
Neil Young – On the Beach
YSTS: Interesting. I think I’d pick different records from the last three. Last question – any plans for a tour this time around? How about another LA show [they played Spaceland and Sea Level when their last album came out]?
JJ: Nothing planned yet. We’d love to tour. I’m glad we got to play Los Angeles at the time of our last album and I’d be thrilled if we could make it happen again.
YSTS: Thanks for the time.
DFW Quick
The Foxymorons aren’t exactly local, or a band. Sure, half the duo – Jerry James – calls Mesquite home. James’ collaborator, David Dewese, lives in Nashville. And the two release albums and perform live. But they do these things only sporadically.
Bible Stories is their first record in five years. Considering the music, though, it’s difficult to fault their approach. The Foxymorons have been playing together since 1994, and their hook-laden, witty power-pop reflects more than just years of experience.
James and Dewese clearly have an intimate knowledge of one another’s playing styles; they sound more like old friends with a natural knack for songwriting than a formal band. It’s a playful, casual feeling that pervades Bible Stories. Both trade off vocal duties and guitar from song to song, enlisting friends to fill out their lineup with drums and piano. Yet the back-and-forth never sounds like two different voices.
Big Star, Nilsson Schmilsson-era Harry Nilsson, Dinosaur Jr., Pavement – the Foxymorons coalesce every hint of their influences seamlessly, expertly referencing a broad swath of ’90s indie rock and ’70s alt-country while remaining distinctive, and adding their own flavor.
Bible Stories was recorded by the Foxymorons in a Nashville basement last winter. Perhaps the duo’s radiating confidence stems from having such firm control over the material. Most of the music is ostensibly conventional, direct pop-rock. The guys use traditional instrumentation and the melodies are immediately captivating.
But like Austin’s Spoon, James and Dewese have a talent for subtlety, making music that is often deceptively simple because it’s almost too catchy at times. They can create a lot out of nothing, using perfectly timed bridges to transcend their choruses.
Often, the duo interrupts a track’s progressive drive to pull back layers, focusing on a stark, ethereal harmonization, spare percussion or the striking of a lone piano key. Similarly, on the countrified Beach Boys tune, “Mesketeers,” it’s the least forceful element in the track that’s ultimately the most rewarding. Placed at the bottom of the mix, a droning organ hums purely, majestically, slyly driving the entire song.
Trafficking in equally sentimental and self-deprecating reflections on youth, it’s the sort of music only aging hipsters could produce. Not that I’m complaining. There’s more swimming beneath the surface of the record than the music lets on. Bible Stories might not change your life, but it could very well – and unexpectedly – brighten your mood.
Absolute Punk
http://www.absolutepunk.net/showthread.php?t=1851352
The Foxymorons are an indie rock band consisting of Jerry James and David Dewese. They formed in Mesquite, TX in 1995. Since 1998, they have been a duo and have released three critically lauded albums to date. Their latest Bible Stories, might just be their best. Though it’s far from cohesive, linear or congruous, the nine songs (the album’s penultimate cut is 49 seconds of ambient noise) that dot the landscape of Bible Stories veer from mid-tempo roots-rock to sun-drenched California pop with the greatest of ease. Specializing in vibrant lo-fi guitar-based pop, The Foxymorons are definitively eclectic and creatively brilliant.
Recorded after a five-year hiatus, the disc was recorded in a creaky basement during a freezing Nashville winter. The need for vernal days is most readily apparent in the rousing, sun-kissed opener “Out of Control,” a shuffling, cut of near-perfect pop bliss. Unpredictably, the disc softens up on the mid-tempo “Skinny Cow Blues,” a dulcet and forlorn cut, bolstered by quavering vocals, lilting piano and a plaintive melody that’s both indelible and infectious.
The quiet, acoustic grace of “This Too Shall Pass,” offers up the album’s first glimpse at ruminative, intimate musings and winsome falsetto. It’s a sentiment repeated in the Jayhawks-esque “Mesketeers (Sweet Sixteen).” The rest of the four remaining cuts are a veritable thrill ride. The caffeinated energy of the snappy “Say it Aloud,” and the jangly “We All Crawl,” brings to mind 90s pop purveyors Dillon Fence, while the languorous “Big Decision,” and album closer “Bible Stories,” slither and sprawl across the landscape like a long lost REM b-side. But for all the amiable moments, none are better than the Brian Wilson send-up “Sick of California,” a timeless, buoyant ode to homesickness that’s infectious, harmonic and downright perfect. If there is one song to remember from Bible Stories, it is most assuredly this one.
More than a decade into an oft-overlooked career, The Foxymorons have penned an engaging and unpredictable master class in the charms of quirky, lo-fi indie pop. Those looking to chase down similar sounds, would be wise to use Bible Stories as a textbook. 83%
Under The Radar
http://www.undertheradarmag.com/media/skinny_cow_blues_mp3/
Mesquite, Tx./Nashville, Tenn. pop-rockers The Foxymorons have mined the ’90s in some damn catchy ways for three albums, and on August 24 they’ll issue their fourth long-player, Bible Stories, via Foxyphoton. It’s been five years since the release of Hesitation Eyes. It’s nice to know high school BFFs/co-band leaders, David Dewese and Jerry James, can still kick out a jangly-as-hell, Pavement-esque rocker like “Skinny Cow Blues.” The piano-led cut builds into something quite extraordinary.
(Trivia: Dewese & James started their own boutique clothing line, American Viceroy.) Catch this midtempo groove, dudes.