Red Fox Grey Fox - Bear-sides and Rarities (2009)

I've been holding out on sharing one of the best albums to materialize since I started Wilfully Obscure, namely Red Fox Grey Fox's epic, 2007 emo barnburner From the Land of Bears, Ice and Rock.  Sadly, today is not that day, nor shall it be for awhile, since that album is readily available on iTunes, Bandcamp and Amazon.  In lieu of it, I am offering a companion CD of demos, acoustic versions, side-project experiments (e.g. We Are the Willows), and the like, that has only been available in the merch den of RFGF concerts.  It's packaged in a hand-screened, chipboard sleeve, and is furnished with a handsome page of liner notes.

Thought it's virtually been bastardized into a pejorative at this point, the "emo" handle is unshakable in defining the strenuous and sheer naked vulnerability RFGF are wont to throw down like a raging beer keg at a frat party.  The aforementioned, From the Land... triples down on the angst Sunny Day Real Estate and Mineral emanated in their heyday, piling on heaps of melody and demonstrably more technical arrangements.  The group's secret weapon is frontman Peter Miller, whose androgynously deceiving falsetto croon, typically culminates into a glorious cathartic wail.  Get acquainted with this assemblage of alternate versions and other material that fell by the wayside, but regard it as merely an appetizer (or perhaps dessert) belonging to the main course - which in itself was the best thing to come out of this genre in ages.  I should also mention that a follow-up ep, A Snake, a Scoundrel, This Man is Cursed was released digitally in 2009.  Red Fox Grey Fox is currently on semi-hiatus. The best place to keep tabs on them is FB. 

01. A Sketch Of A Sketch Of A Drawing I Once Drew (acoustic)
02. Building A Building (acoustic)
03. Up With Mittens, Down With Gloves (acoustic)
04. Oh Man, Oh Man, The Madman!
05. The Doves That Quietly Coo
06. These Heavenly Heights
07. Wait For Me Abby Bernstein
08. Shit bag
09. It's Finally Here! But I'm Staying Inside (by of Yesteryears)
10. Bravery (We Are The Willows)
11. The Windows (We are the Willows demo)
12. Dinosaurs

Hear