Music Blog

Kindred spirits along the etheral throwback folk road, Fleet Foxes and Joanna Newsom were a natural pairing for the most recent edition of PBS' long-running Austin City Limits program. With setlists comprised largely of work from their most recent releases (Helplessness Blues and Have One on Me, respectively), each showed why they're considered among the cream of the current crop.

Watch the full episode below (or at ACL's website), or wait a couple of days and watch it in high quality television format on OPB TV this Saturday night at 9, or next Monday morning at 5 (set your DVR!).

Of note, there are a couple of Portlanders to watch out for here-- Fleet Foxes frontman Robin Pecknold is kind of hard to miss, though we haven't seen him around town yet; Neal Morgan, himself with a release just out called In the Yard, is behind the drumkit for Joanna Newsom's set.

That's hardly all the Fleet Foxes news these days-- the man behind their drumkit will be there no more as of last week. In case you missed it, J. Tillman announced his return "into the gaping maw of obscurity" (that means he's leaving the band). As you'll note from the perfomance above, he's an important part of what the band does and won't necessarily be easy to replace on the vocal side of things, let alone his drumming.

On a brighter note, fans of long lost Seattle band Crystal Skulls (this writer included) will be excited by the prospect of Poor Moon. The band is fronted by former Skulls frontman Christian Wargo, better known these days as the bassist and backup vocalist for Fleet Foxes, and also includes fellow Skull and Fox Casey Wescott. Illusion is the title of the band's debut EP, which arrives March 27th via Sub Pop. Grab the first taste below:

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