Fleet Foxes’ self-titled LP, released on Sub Pop in June, is wise beyond its years. Produced but not overproduced, the Seattle five-piece drops a unique sound – rural mountain folk with Sergeant Pepper-ish harmonies – and hinting an ever-coveted timelessness.

I won’t do a song-by-song breakdown, but I’ll just share a few initial thoughts I had during first couple of go’s at this album.

This album has a ‘70s Godspell Garfunkel grain. Lyrically, a story is told in every song, carrying nostalgic, reverb-ridden production in which the vocals are more part of the music than an entity that stands out in the mix. The vocal harmonies are comparable to the parts people love about the Everly Brothers and the parts people hated about Tears for Fears (not me, though; I love everything about Tears for Fears!).

I’m not going to say Fleet Foxes is a ground-breaking band or that this album will be around 30 years down the road. But I will say Fleet Foxes is a diamond in indie music’s rough, selecting rarely used styles from music’s vintage smorgasbord.

And it’s not like you don’t know all of this. These guys aren’t doing too bad for themselves. August brings a performance on The Late Show with David Letterman (performing “Blue Ridge Mountains”, one of my personal favorites from the release), tour dates in Europe and several large shows with modern folk grandfathers Wilco. Not too bad at all.

Pick it up if you’re into timeless folk. Honestly, I don’t really know anyone who isn’t.

-Mitch Holt

Good friend of mine Sarah Jaffe performed as a “faux Denton” artist (event was hosted by Dan’s Silverleaf of Denton) but there wasn’t anything faux about her voice or some of the new material she played. Surely the world is going to be set a fire when she drops her debut record.

The Fader/Levi Fort off  of 4^th Street was really just an implant of New York City inside of Austin. Literally after walking through the Hipster Foot Clan Layer I made my way out to a very large tent in the Fort’s courtyard where blab la and blab la of YACHT were already doing there overtly excited live set. Don’t get me wrong I made it a point to see this show because I’ve been sucked into all this guy’s (what I believe as just) hype. His recordings are great but there really wasn’t anything to take away from this show (hope you’re listening la blogoteque). Sure, this wasn’t a boat or actually New York but I was still expecting more.

So I don’t feel like I have to say much else other than that I shook the hand and had a brief conversation with a true musical legend. Yes I met Steve Reich. On this night he did not perform himself but I’ve seen him do his thing in NY so that wasn’t a big deal. During some of the interviews conducted with Reich during the event he explained how he doesn’t believe what he has done is completely foreign to pop music. He told stories of electronic musicians sampling his work without permission and how he chose not to sue – due to it’s quality and about a long haired kid with lipstick who waited to speak with him after one of his concerts who just so happened to be Brian Eno. Every musician who performed some of his work were terrific but So Percussion were the ones who truly stood out. Performing “Music for Pieces of Wood,” “Drumming (part 1),” “Clapping Music,” and “Two Marimbas,” It was a mesmerizing night. Did I tell that I met Steve Reich?

Balmorhea just booked a show at our venue Monks here in Abilene so I was glad to have the chance to preview them here. Complete with a four piece ensemble of cello, violin, guitar, piano, banjo and the occasional melodica, Balmorhea really made an impression when they used their god-given instruments to create some truly transcendent vocal harmonies. Plus, pianist Rob Lowe (who had a beautiful baby grand to play on), has a striking resemblance to Waldo from “Where’s Waldo,” exactly what I suspect a lot of people will begin saying in the near future about Balmorhea.