SOUNDTRACK: FOXING-Tiny Desk Concert #857 (June 12, 2019).
I saw Foxing live and they were quite different from their recorded output–louder, more intense, a very physical band. I was curious if they would sound more like their records or more like their live selves.
They have chosen the album sound–quieter, more subtle with gorgeous orchestration.
But I wasn’t the only one to wonder this.
When we invited Foxing to NPR HQ, we wondered how the band’s big sound would translate to such a (forgive us) tiny space. Would Foxing bring a bagpiper to recreate the shrill accent it snuck onto its latest album, 2018’s Nearer My God, or try to replicate the cathartic energy of its live shows over the hum of computers and fluorescent lights?
I didn’t realize that Foxing was
at the forefront of what’s referred to as “emo revival,” a term for today’s crop of bands heavily influenced by late-’90s and early 2000s groups… But with each new LP, Foxing’s ambitions reach beyond the genre’s boundaries, incorporating broader inspiration.
When I saw them, the show was dominated by singer Conor Murphy and guitarist Eric Hudson. Interestingly, Hudson is on keys for this set. Caeleigh Featherstone was on keys for my show. She is on keys here, but her backing vocals are far more prominent here.
For this performance, Foxing expanded its numbers, bringing a saxophonist (Jordan Pettay) and a couple of string players (Gabriel Valle: violin; Nathan Sander: viola) to accompany the band’s touring lineup — and somehow, we managed to fit everyone behind Bob Boilen’s desk.
The first song, “Slapstick” features Conor’s falsetto and Caeleigh’s backing vocals. Hudson plays the single wobbly notes that float behind the vocals. The strings are quiet but fill in the silences really nicely. I love the gentle repeating guitar solo that Ricky Sampson plays through the middle. Sampson plays bass throughout the rest of the show and Brett Torrence plays it on this song. That sax solo at the end adds a nice touch to the emotional ending.
For its Tiny Desk, Foxing spotlighted three standout tracks from Nearer My God. The quieter instrumentation pushed singer Conor Murphy’s starkly confessional lyrics and shattering delivery to the forefront, especially on the set’s opening song, “Slapstick.”
And even with minimal amplification, the swelling chorus of the title cut “Nearer My God” is just as impressive as performed during the band’s explosive concerts.
“Nearer My God” accentuates Murphy’s falsetto even further and the harmonies sound truly wonderful. The opening is quiet but it builds really nicely to the middle section which features great drums from the almost never on camera Jon Hellwig.
The set ends with “Grand Paradise” the song that I think makes them sound most like TV on the Radio. It’s terrific the way the music counterpoints the vocals. The end section of the song just overwhelms with impassioned vocals. The ending sax solo is pretty cool too although there’ s a nice bass riff around 11 minutes and we don’t get to see Ricky do it.
This is a great set, although I have a little question over the filming–too much attention to the strings and not enough to the rest of the band.
[READ: June 5, 2019] “Conduction”
This is an incredibly powerful story of slavery and freedom.
The story opens with Hiram Walker departing Virginia. He is a slave with fake papers and a route to freedom. The writing is excellent. You can feel the tension, the fear and the sense that anything could go wrong at any second. Slave catchers, known as Ryland’s Hounds, were at every turn.
He saw the men who were supposed to help him but he couldn’t make eye contact. The conductor looked at his false ticket which stated that he had recently purchased his freedom. The conductor didn’t care and he was allowed on.
After two days, he met a contact whom he also did not know. After one more silent ride, he was in a house in Philadelphia with members of the Underground.
He explains how he knew the white man who helped him as well as the black man named Raymond White who also helped him. Raymond’s brother Otha was also there–he was more charming, more jovial than Raymond.
For the next few days he wandered the city of Philadelphia, a free man. Unused to and somewhat unhappy with this new burden. It was an unsettling feeling, one that carried great deal of responsibility.
A black man in a bakery offered him a free gingerbread and informed him that he was family. All Underground workers were family. Hiram takes the gingerbread outside and it immediately induces a flashback–what he calls a conduction–to him as a child sneaking a piece of gingerbread form his master’s kitchen. It’s an overwhelming memory and almost makes him have to sit down.
The next day Otha and Raymond tell Hi that he has to go with them. They have business to attend. And they explain the law:
The law of our state is quite clear. No man or woman can be held under bondage, even if brought here under bondage. Haven, once requested, must be granted. But it must be requested. We cannot induce them to freedom.
A woman on a ship was declaring her freedom. When the arrived at the docks, they saw Mary Bronson in the arm of a white man. Raymond stated that he understood Mary Bronson had made a request and they were there to fulfill that request.
This excerpted section was awesome:
“Raymond’s words went off like a bomb. And the white man who held Mary Bronson felt it.”
“Damn you,” the white man said, yanking at Mary Bronson’s hand so that she stumbled off balance a bit. “I mean to return to my home with my property.”
Raymond ignored him.
Finally the man said, “Boy …if I were home, I’d have you in your proper place, and break you good.”
There is a moment in the stormy lives of a few blessed colored people, a moment of revelation, when the sky opens up, the clouds part an a streak of sun cuts through, conveying some infinite wisdom from above, and this wisdom comes not from the Christian religion but from the sight of a colored man addressing a white one as Raymond White now did.
“But you are not home.”
Raymond looked around at the crowd, and the thin white man, following with his eyes, began to understand his predicament. Rage and determination fled from him. Fear and panic closed in. He seemed to grow paler and thinner by the second.
But it is only half way through a story which could never be that easy or that satisfying. For Mary Bronson, is happy to be free but knows she will never be fully free until all of her family–her husband and her sons–are with her.
Later Otha tells Hiram his own story of how he came to freedom. How he and his mother were separated and how he had blamed her for what she had done (she left Hiram and his younger brother in slavery while she fled to be with her husband and older son). What a decision!
His story of seeing her again will bring tears to your eyes,
This lay heavy on Hi’s head as he went to work. He was now employed at a woodworking shop and split his time with the Underground, He spent much of his down time walking through the city. One day he walked to the docks, hoping, maybe, that the sailors would invite him t be part of the camaraderie they had. But none did.
His mind was full. He was free but he could not escape.
And that’s when he was blindfolded and gagged and hauled into the back of a cart.
This story was really powerful.
I Just Read About That... 
Leave a comment