Fleet Foxes: Sun Giant EP

Label: Sub Pop

Feel free to chalk it up to the fact that I’m a Seattle native, but I’m telling you right now that this is your new favorite band. Hailing from the aforementioned city, the Fleet Foxes set the city’s famous music scene ablaze in buzz over the past several months and, in the process, landed themselves a nice deal with local stalwart Sub Pop. But, unlike so many buzz bands that come onto the scene like a comet and whose debuts end up a bit flaccid, the Sun Giant EP ranks up there as one of the best debuts of 2008. Frontman Robin Pecknold (a name you should get used to hearing) and the rest of the Fleet Foxes reach into the same well that My Morning Jacket and Band of Horses have, the reverb friendly reinvention of CSNY, the Band and more but end up bringing an entirely more artistic and beautiful creation to bare. (There’s much less frat-rock to be found in Sun Giant than either their previously mentioned peers, thankfully.) Perhaps the word “rural” or “organic” sums it up best. Woodsy, clean and swimmingly haunting, Sun Giant is supposedly a “tour only” EP and will likely be in limited release, so don’t miss out on it. Simply wonderful. (Grant)