My Spilt Milk Presents Foxygen at One Eyed Jacks

The indie glam/psych rock band will play One Eyed Jacks on September 29 and we'll be there.

The opening chords of “How Can You Really,” the first release from the upcoming Foxygen album …and Star Power, sound like a half-remembered song from Todd Rundgren’s pop rock masterpiece Something/Anything?. Rundgren’s a fitting reference point—someone who loved rock ’n’ roll, but not so much that he couldn’t fuck with it. Foxygen plays with rock 'n' roll's rambunctious potential and sexy energy while making cool pop songs and ragged rock sound.

The video riffs of the band’s love of rock ’n’ roll’s ‘70s style as singer Sam France shimmies Jagger style through a maze of cubicles, turning every space he enters into a rock ’n’ roll place. France’s partner in the band Jonathan Rado sits in his cubicle and behind his keyboard in the same psychedelic finery looking implacably into the camera. In the song and the video, they love the sound and style of the time, but they’re aware of how alien it seems anywhere in 2014. That knowledge frees them up to be as weird as they want to be.

Jayson Green of Pitchfork heard a similar dynamic on their previous album, We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic:

We Are ... has more poise, rifling with effortless cool through retro-rock quotes and mannerisms-- France's gulps and sobs draw directly from the Mick Jagger of "Let's Spend the Night Together" at one moment and channel the thousand-ton boredom of Lou Reed the next. Meandering organ pokes through on "No Destruction"; flecks of "Under My Thumb"-style guitars pop up on "On Blue Mountain". In the lovely "San Francisco", France paints the city as a place where "the forest meets the bridge," and the grass scent of the Kinks' We Are the Village Green Preservation Society wafts by (even their album title is an echo of that one). Having a great record collection and having some idea what to do with it are two different things, and on We Are The Ambassadors Foxygen have internalized enough of the music they love to start toying with it.

My Spilt Milk is pleased to present Foxygen at One Eyed Jacks on September 29 with Dub Thompson opening. We’re looking forward to the show and will give away tickets as the show gets closer.