The FCP Top Five - November

Here in the offices of Flagstaff Cultural Partners, we are obsessed with lists. We love to rank the things we love (and even the things we don't love so much). For over a year now, we have done informal staff "Top 5 Lists" of everything from our favorite lunch spots, to music we can't stop playing, to exhibitions we can't wait to see. These were once in our own little world - a way for us to break up a busy day and share with one another. But now, we have decided, for better or worse, to release one of our Top 5 Lists each month here in the Culture Club.

The topic for November's FCP Staff Top Five list is:

Music We are Playing Right Now

This includes, of course, more than what is playing on our speakers right this very second. These are the bands that we have been and are listening to now (in the last month) here in the Batcave-like offices at FCP. There was quite a bit of discussion on this topic ... including Jill's uncanny love of polka, Joe's over-use of the word "bomb" to describe music he likes, and April's worry that people reading this will think we're trying to be "hipsters." Whatever those are.

Anyhow, everyone had a few unique groups on their own personal lists, so we've decided to include each staff members' individual lists below. But for our Staff Top Five purposes, we mashed our lists together and came to mostly agree on these:

1. The Heartless Bastards. Pretty much all of us are digging this band right now. Robin gets credit for turning us all on to them. Pictured above.

2. She & Him. New find (for us) of a debut album that came out in early 2008. 'She' is Zooey Deschanel and 'Him' is M. Ward (see picture). Both talented in their own rights. I get the credit for bringing this one forward.

3. Fleet Foxes. Joe brought these guys to us, and wrote about them in this very blog, in his "The Goodness" entry. Check it.

4. The Arcade Fire. Perhaps my favorite band. Robin introduced us all to the Fire about eight months ago, and we're still listening (and anxiously awaiting a new album, their most recent is from 2007).

5. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. The 'wildcard' on our list that not everyone agreed should be included. Joe just started playing these guys in the last week or so, and we're all kind of perplexed, yet mesmerized and not sure what to think. It's compelling, good to listen to, and fun... but it's also from a bunch of hippies who look like the cast of Jesus Christ Superstar? (see picture) We're confused, but we're listening.



The Best of the Rest... here are our personal, individual lists that we brought to the group vetting process.

April's Top Five "I'm Listening To Right Now"

• VHS or Beta
• The Heartless Bastards
• Lynard Skynard
• Orbital
• Depeche Mode

Jillian's Top Five "I'm Listening To Right Now"

• Frank Sinatra
• She & Him
• Tony Bennett
• The Arcade Fire
• The Polka Legends

Joe's Top Five "I'm Listening To Right Now"

• Monsters of Folk
• Fleet Foxes
• Alberta Cross
• The Arcade Fire
• The Heartless Bastards

Robin's Top Five "I'm Listening To Right Now"

• The Heartless Bastards
• Fleet Foxes
• She & Him
• Devotchka
• Holly Golightly

JT's Top Five "I'm Listening To Right Now"

• MGMT
  (I hereby protest the Staff Top 5 because everyone is listening to MGMT in our office, but no one put them on their list but me.)
  
• The Dead Weather
• The Kills
• The Heartless Bastards
• Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

Fleet Foxes

This weeks Goodness comes to you in a form that I like to call, Aesthetic for your Ears. No photos this week, instead I bring you the music from the Seattle based band, Fleet Foxes. Signed to Sub Pop records in the winter of 2008, this 5 piece band brings a contemporary sound mixing all five members vocal harmonies with drifting guitar cords. Imagine a contemporary Beach Boys sound mixed Folk music and Neil Young. Their lyrics paint masterpieces in our heads and often take us to Greek islands, the quivering forests of the Blue Ridge Mountains or to the edge of a horizon as the winter sun comes up.

Fleet Foxes compliments most occasions, whether your lounging in a wool beanie near a fire in the winter or sipping a micro brewed summer seasonal under the warm sun.

Unlike a lot of music that is pushed out by the music industry factory, I believe that this band has longevity and will continue to produce quality music for quite some time. I highly recommend their self-titled album Fleet Foxes, released in 2008 as well as their EP titled Sun Giant. Rolling Stone gave their self-titled album Fleet Foxes four stars and Pitchfork rated it a 9 out of 10. Songs to pay attention to include White Winter Hymnal, Mykonos and Ragged Wood. Check out the Pitchfork Review of Fleet Foxes to hear samples of their music. Their videos are just as artistic as their music and can be found on YouTube or Pitchfork.

More Contemporary bands with Similar Sound: My Morning Jacket, Band of Horses, Bon Iver, Rogue Wave.