Foxing - "Friendly Homes"

I first heard Foxing when my friend texted me a link to "Rory" on YouTube in college. Unbeknownst to me I was set to experience the worst Chicago-area winter in 30 years, which would be by default the coldest of my life before or since. I was smoking weed compulsively and still adjusting to life away from everyone I knew. I was pretty immediately hooked.

With "Rory," and subsequently their debut The Albatross, Foxing introduced themselves as a much more sophisticated group than many of their peers in the "emo revival." They pulled more from post-rock (This Will Destroy You-division) than standard touchstones like Braid or Weezer. They didn't really have riffs, at least not in the scrunched-face, throw the horns up, yell "fuck yeah" sense; the guitars were lithe and deliberate, like ballet dancers. Drummer Jon Hellwig could pound the hell out of the kit, but he often channeled bell chimes or timpani rolls, augmenting the band's already orchestral tendencies. They eschewed the diaristic lyrics of their contemporaries for something more gnarled and allusive.

And then there was Conor Murphy's voice, a warbling tenor capable of traversing the whisper-to-scream spectrum fast enough to merit mention in a car commercial. Whether or not you like Foxing probably hinges on whether you find him whiny or emotive. If you're in the former camp, Foxing are pretentious and indulgent; if you're in the latter, they're transcendent.

Foxing were also nakedly ambitious at a time when many bands of their ilk operated with more of an "aw, shucks" demeanor. They were restless shapeshifters, willing to burrow into willowy indie rock or embrace glitchy electronica. They were unafraid to attempt pop radio crossover. They spoke often of their desire to be regarded as a Great Band and their disappointment with how their music was received*. Foxing were a bit too nerdy to really carry themselves as rock stars, but they wrote unabashedly about sex and drugs and fame (or lack thereof). The title track to their third—and best—album is a naked plea for adoration, wherein Murphy offers to sell his soul for a chance at being "America's pool boy" over M83-inflected synth warbles.

But before all of this, before even "Rory," Foxing recorded a trio of songs with an older incarnation of the lineup, one without production maestro E.M. Hudson or former guitarist Ricky Sampson. These songs were released on an EP titled Old Songs in 2012, before the recording of The Albatross. That EP opens with "Friendly Homes," which remains a sneaky catalog highlight despite the heights that Foxing would reach on subsequent releases.

It's one of the more classically emo songs Foxing ever wrote, down to the opening reference to Bukowski's "For Jane."** It spins a loose narrative of wanting to leave your meager small town existence, to "break bonds and sail on to California." While the song is maybe more traditional than what came after, "Friendly Homes" is still propulsive, spurred forward by the band's clear chops. If anything, you could argue they overplay here, the bass weaving in and out with the guitars as the song builds to climax. By the time Foxing recorded The Albatross, they were more restrained, savvier about their arrangements and use of negative space.

**What was up with emo bands and Bukowski in the early 10s? I read several of his poems and purchased "Factotum" mostly because he kept getting referenced. I don't remember loving the book but I'd be interested in trying again now that I have a better grounding in literature than I did at 19.

Often what interests me about a band's early work are the seams, the way songs too clearly emulate their influences and feel stitched together, or are otherwise hindered by a lack of knowledge or ability. Foxing arrived fully formed, and so "Friendly Homes" represents less of a rawer version of the band and more of a road not taken, one where their virtuosic playing made them one of the great pure emo bands. Try as I might, I'm forcibly reminded of Bruce Springsteen's The Wild, The Innocent, and the E-Street Shuffle, similarly a demarcation line between early his band's early incarnation and the best understood version. With Bruce, pianist David Sancious and drummer "Mad Dog" Lopez gave the songs a jazzy, Van Morrison-style feel that was largely absent from the later recordings. Foxing's earliest configuration was showier and a bit less ornate, content to excel within genre borders rather than fighting to break them apart.

But "Friendly Homes" still hinges on Murphy's total commitment to performance, modulating his voice along with the spindly instrumental and roaring through it as needed. The desire to leave home for greener pastures is well-trodden ground, but when the song picks up a head of steam en route to its climax, I get chills. I'm not sure anybody has given a better scream-sung performance than "It's a mere mouth/In a Midwestern state," or when Murphy follows it up going for broke on "These hands are made of wood," stretching the final word across multiple syllables.

This week Foxing will play their final shows and hang it up. This is not particularly surprising; you couldn't throw a stone and hit an interview where they don't mention the physical, emotional and financial tolls that this career path has taken on all of them. The five piece group that recorded The Albatross slowly became three: Murphy, Hudson, and Hellwig. They ended their run on an album that—while I'm not sure tops Nearer My God—is clearly the stylistic culmination of everything that came before. And they were an absolutely electric live band, whom I was lucky enough to see at least four times, from a tiny Long Island DIY space to a packed Albatross anniversary tour in Williamsburg. I do think in five or ten years, kids will listen to Foxing and wonder how such a band could exist, and why they weren't much, much bigger.

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