Music:
Member Since: 25/09/2005
Band Website: http://foxjapan.net
Band Members: CHARLIE WILMOTH (vocals, guitar); ANDREW SLATER (guitar, vocals); SAM WILMOTH (bass, vocals); PETE WILMOTH (drums, vocals)
Influences: HELL (2008; $8 PPD)
1. Kill Them With Kindness
2. Divorce
3. In the Pines '08
4. People Who Solve Problems
5. Shut Up, Private
6. Throw Me in the Fire
7. Thank You
8. I Turn Republicans On
9. '91
The title Hell is disarmingly straightforward, and that’s typical of FOX Japan, an indie rock band that avoids the inscrutable metaphors of many indie rock lyrics and instead favors lucidity and directness. “Thank You†is a harrowing and specific story about getting mugged with a syringe by an AIDS patient, but it’s also about the nature of privilege. Earlier on the album, the repulsive narrator of “Divorce†gets hitched without being ready to accept the responsibilities of marriage, then leaves his wife and kids with a cloud of noxious self-absorption billowing behind him. And many of the songs throughout the album (like the pounding opener “Kill Them With Kindnessâ€) critique right-wing politics with streams of sarcasm and invective.
Musically, Hell is easily FOX Japan’s most accomplished release to date, and it harnesses the energy of their increasingly thunderous live shows, which now routinely bring in audiences of well over 100 in West Virginia and are starting to draw crowds on their tours as well. On past recordings, the band’s attention to lyrical detail earned comparisons to Pavement and Okkervil River. The country-ish elements of some of these songs – particularly Charlie’s viola on “’91†and “Thank You†– probably ensure that the latter comparison will keep coming, but there’s far more to FOX Japan. The melody to “Thank You†sounds a little like a sea shanty, “I Turn Republicans On†features melodies inspired by Middle Eastern music, and “Divorce†culminates in an epic sing-a-long.
"FOX Japan's press release labels this West Virginia/California band as 'indignant.' Upon listening to this, we couldn't muster up a better adjective. Musically, the album stays mostly within the indie-rock realm (with a few shades of folk and bluegrass that occasionally crop up), but it's the lyrics that make the biggest impression here. The band covers divorce, AIDS, murder, and other uplifting topics in the most direct manner we’ve seen in a long time. No room for poetry here." - XLR8R
AND NOW THIS! (2007; $7.50 PPD)
1. Brandi
2. A Nursing Home (or a Trailer Park)
3. Baptize Me
4. An Investigative Sentence
5. What Follows?
6. A Doctor Might Help You
7. PSH
8. And Jesus Spoke
9. Function Properly
Full lyric sheet
The title And Now This! comes from cultural critic Neil Postman, who used the phrase to illustrate the absurd juxtapositions of television, where a news report on a car bomb in Iraq might easily be followed by, say, a commercial for fabric softener. And Now This! isn't exactly a concept record about television, but many of the songs refer to TV in one way or another. In "A Nursing Home (or a Trailer Park)," the narrator imagines himself several decades in the future, waiting to die while watching a centenarian Bob Barker host The Price is Right. "Baptize Me" blasts Bill O'Reilly for blaming the victims of Hurricane Katrina. And the narrator of "PSH" loses the ability to tell the difference between television and real life.
"An Investigative Sentence" again nicks its title and premise from Postman, who predicted that TV news coverage would become so superficial that journalists would win awards for the best one-sentence report. The song begins with several such sentences, then breaks into a bridge in which three members of the band simultaneously scream mutated (and profane) advertising slogans - and then we're back to our news broadcast, just in time to hear the anchors shouting Republican talking points in unison.
It's intense, ambitious stuff, but And Now This! never gets turgid - the music is as catchy and quirky as ever. The arrangements are more complex than they were on the EP (several songs here are layered with viola, keyboard and vocal harmonies) but the songs remain crisply poppy, with big hooks that don't last a second longer than they need to, even if that means dropping a beat or two.
This album marks the recording debut of new bassist Sam Wilmoth, who's the twin brother of drummer Pete - former bassist Andrew Slater now plays guitar.
"A very promising band... biting and irreverent wordplay... peculiarly appealing" - Lost at Sea
"The band seems to stumble onto hooks without trying, or more accurately, despite trying not to... They pride themselves on the fact they have something to say" - Hero Hill
SELF-TITLED EP (2005; $6 PPD)
1. You Emasculate Me
2. In Four Letters
3. Sharks
4. Back in the Casket
5. Jesus Would be Ashamed of You People
"Built to Spill-meets-Weezer vibe" (San Diego CityBeat).
"Some really well-developed music with a melancholy, biting humor... The lyrics are all pretty intimate, dealing with loan sharks and over indulging in modern convenience and living needlessly complex lives, and taking on the corporate mono-culture and evangelical Christians... These guys are a blast" (Sceneless.com).
Sounds Like: Pixies, Okkervil River, Talking Heads, The Dismemberment Plan, Pavement.
Record Label: Small War Records
Type of Label: Indie
