I went along to ULU to see two of the best new bands around on Wednesday 11th. Seattle band Fleet Foxes specialise in harmony-laden, baroque alt-folk whilst Beach House hail from Maryland and purvey a more textured, shimmering, hazy guitar pop.
First up were Beach House. Victoria Legrand's slightly raw, arresting voice comes across even better live than on record. They played from both of their excellent albums and also included a nice Daniel Johnston cover ('Some Things Last A Long Time'). They remind me a little bit of Broadcast which is not a bad thing.
Headliners Fleet Foxes are amazingly accomplished for such a young band. What they do is not fantastically original but they have brilliant songs and do all the good things really, really well. Beautiful melodies, note-perfect harmonies, nice lyrics and proficient playing. They played mostly from their new eponymous album but also threw in some from their debut EP 'Sun Giant'. Prolonged applause followed almost every song which seemed to surprise them a little.
'White Winter Hymnal' is being relaesed as their next single and you really should try to listen to it. They are playing Shepherd's Bush Empire in November and I may well be going along.
As an aside they also covered 'Crayon Angels' by the brilliant Judee Sill (if you don't know her music please try to listen - she was a genius and has arguably one of the most interesting stories in the history of folk music).
All in all - a great gig. My first trip to ULU for over 4 years as well which reminded me what a great little venue it is.
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