Totes Ma Goats

Mad Magazine once wrote that Saturday Night Live always features an obscure artist playing a popular song, or a popular artist playing an obscure song. But the first time our ears were filled with haunting baroque-style harmonies of the Fleet Foxes, it seemed that both the band and their songs were reaching out to us from obscurity and beyond. Their music sounds like it has travelled from another time, totally a 1960's throwback.

Upon doing a lil' research, it blew me away to learn that these guys were actually only in their early 20's! You'll notice that the 22 year old lead singer (who still lives in his parents' basement, btw) hides his baby face behind long hair and a full beard.

While Jim n' I love all their beautiful melodies and mellow lyrics, we often joke that their songs are always about his brother who lives on the mountain. Every song includes some sort of natural imagery, like mountains or hillsides, squirrels or birds, etc. The lyric we get the biggest kick out of is, "I hold a cornucopia and a golden crown for you to wear upon your fleece'd gown." Oh, those silly hippies!

Anyhow, this evening Jim pointed me to one of their music videos and I had a good laugh. While I'm sure it's not getting any kind of play on Much Music or MTV, (then again, what band is?! Aren't those so-called music channels now all shitty reality television?), it's definitely an interesting change of pace from what you might expect to see in a video these days.

I think I like this video because I love the Fleet Foxes (of course), and I love goats. And this video looks like they're putting on a concert for goats. Ha. Awesome! My favourite part is during those brief moments when the one goat looks like he's singing. Oh, I want a pet goat that sings!

When we have this song playing around the house, Jim n' I sometimes act out parts of it, like pretending to be the vagrant brother who is holding on to his last twenty dollars so tight. We always make serious faces and emphasize that line, "so TIGHT!"

Yeah, so we do kooky things for fun... at least we have fun! ;P

Anyhow, enough about us. Now, just sit back, relax and enjoy these talented young hippies and their goats. (I also encourage you to check out some of their other stuff as all of their music is really quite lovely. Mykonos and White Winter Hymnal are great 'starter' songs. I actually blogged about WWH last year.)




Penniless and tired, with your hair grown long
I was looking at you there and your face looked wrong
Memory is a fickle siren song
I didn't understand

In the gentle light as the morning nears
You don't say a single word of your last two years
Well you will be, you've reached the frontier
I didn't understand, no

See your rugged hands and a silver knife
Twenty dollars in your hand makes you hold so tight
All the evidence of your vacant life
My brother you were born

And you will try to do what you did before
Pull the wool over your eyes
For a week or more
Let your family take you back to your original mind

There's nothing I can do
There's nothing I can do
There's nothing I can say
There's nothing I can say
I can say