Foxtails Brigade

Time is Passed CD Release Show

For every innocent child eagerly awaiting the season of Christmas lights, ornaments, and candy canes there is at least one jaded soul dreading the dirge of shopping lines, forced family gatherings and the same mind-numbing songs on constant repeat. Cynics feeling the latter will likely find a lot to identify with on Foxtails Brigade’s Time Is Passed. It’s not a holiday album per se, but the sardonic tone of yuletide bemoaners “Unfairness Awareness” and “I’m Not Really In The Christmas Mood This Year” is a theme that runs throughout almost every other song.

“I used to genuinely look forward to the holidays”, says front-girl Laura Weinbach, “but when you see the seemingly endless shelves at Walgreens and Rite Aid change to “Christmas” on cue every November 1st it just kind of kills it for me.
 

This isn’t to say that Time Is Passed won’t appeal to happy people as well. Any indie music fan will find a lot to like in the dreamy textures of songs such as “The Unloved” and “Afterglow”, thanks in part to the lush production by band-member Anton Patzner, a multi-instrumentalist who has worked with the likes of Bright Eyes, Mates of State, and Pinback. Fans of classic American jazz standards will also undoubtedly turn their heads on tracks like “We’ll Always Have The Moon” and “Lost”.
 

“Jazz tapes were my punishments growing up”, says Weinbach who’s father, cult filmmaker Robert Weinbach (Freakmaker, Shiver) would force her to learn songs whenever she would get in trouble. “I didn’t really appreciate it at the time but now all those singers (Billie Holiday, Blossom Dearie, June Christie, Edith Piaf) are undeniably a part of my musical psyche and for that, I am thankful.”
 

Whether or not you’re “in the Christmas mood this year”, Foxtails Brigade will certainly put some kind of a smile on your face. Bay Area music fans are already widely familiar with the bands eclectic “chamber-pop” live shows which include violin, vibraphone and a kitchenware drum kit. Fans on Youtube have a lot to keep them busy as well, including the already-released music video for “I’m Not Really In The Christmas Mood This Year” and the quirky, animated Kickstarter video that helped the band release Time Is Passed on their own, newly-formed label Actual Independent Records. The band’s best videos are conveniently on display at Foxtailsbrigade.com.