ASH TO ASH

J. Tillman - "Steel on Steel"

Your shirt as a pillow, the skin of your back touching the floor of the boat. A sky full of lion-clouds and a sun, our brightest star, in fact. You compare the different shades of red, eyes close and the sunglasses come off, then back on, things are darker again and this whole time, you haven't once noticed your breathing - the waves and the bobbing of the boat being more insistent, they tempt your interest. But you are neither here nor there. These strange things just pass right through you.

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Fleet Foxes - "Oliver James"

Here, Robin Pecknold doesn't need his bandmates - at 1:10, when his fingerpicking brings out a harmony above his vocal melody, and suddenly the hills come alive and the town is bustling with spirits. This, my friends, is a song: taking you through its own full day, like a mother would her child, singing to you until you're awake, singing you back to slumber.

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It was announced today that J. Tillman is the newest member of Fleet Foxes. What happens when one of your favorite songwriters for years teams up with one of your favorite new bands? (And by new, I mean to me.) The most gorgeous harmonies this side of CSN&Y / The Band / The Beach Boys / "Because"? I'm all excitement today.

Also - goddamnit if the tunes on Tillman's Myspace page aren't some of the best I've heard in a long, long time. I hope this Vacilando Territory Blues of his gets finished, released, whatever, and soon. So fucking great. In Robin's words, prepare to have yr mind blown -