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Ford & Fitzroy: Piano’s, Tom Waits and Elsewhere

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By: Alibastard | in: Music |

Ford & Fitzroy

The opening of The Weatherman’s Refrain sounds like it could have rode in from the dream glitter of a Ventures tune, ready to pour into a near-surf sweetness, borrowed from 60s Billboard favorites and stripped to a six-string sentiment. And then, just as quickly, this New York covet of fevered youths spark into something propelled with the spirit of The Vapors, their singer Jay nearly Isaac Brock/ Doug Martsch in his broken vocals, carrying with their driving bellows an incensed caring, an absolute sympathy, a belief in the ridiculous and a vivid, shattered longing. (Also, he kind of looks like John Mayer, but that’s beside the point.) Meanwhile, those guitars trade off behind him, traversing sand and space, almost in single bounds, punching the up-tempo, and meanwhile, obliterating all that concise structure with Glenn’s wandering, wild psyched-out patterns on top.

Ford & Fitzroy - The Weatherman’s Refrain

Seeing them complete their Piano’s residency a week ago I felt no different than listening to their two song promo a week before. In fact, I only felt better. The brothers Scheider, on vocals and bass respectively, manned different helms of this emphatic dynamo called Ford & Fitzroy. Together the band is a surprisingly powerful, truly unique musical experience – alternating between melancholy melodics and fist throwing, rhythmic changes (the likes of which Buzzard Country is gleefully exemplar…”IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII’m graceful!”- out of some wildly incensed nowhere.) Their drummer, Tim, is the keystone that keeps them miles from the obligatory dance roboticism of the likes seems to drag millions of independently innovative bands into sudden conformity, and his close play with Scheider of the bass makes their live performance pop with supercharged fire. Then, the theatrics of Shneider vox and the twin guitars, both wailing and dreamily contained, are therefore a force that is pushed on, and never dulls in its emotive color. It just continues being heartbreaking, defiant and gorgeous.

Ford and Fitzroy: Handbags & Handgranades

I stood in the front with their Pitchfork PR girl, Danielle, and watched their killer set, their backdrop washed with video accompaniment in the Piano’s showroom. Afterwards Glenn, Tim, Jay and I went around the corner and had this conversation:

The Plugg: So, first up I just want to know particulars in terms of where you guys grew up, where you guys live. You seem like you’ve know each other for a while…

Jay: Well, Glenn, myself and Scotty, who’s my little brother, all grew up in Upstate New York in a town called Kinderhook.

The Plugg: Is that near Redhook?

Jay: Its about 30 minutes north of Redhook.

The Plugg: — because I went to Bard —

Jay: Okay. Yeah. Its about 45 minutes away from Bard. We grew up in that area and then, Scotty’s my little brother, Tim is his good friend from college – they went to Pratt – and the tall guy, the other guitarist Nate, is my college roommate.

The Plugg: Cool. What do you guys think are some of your most inspiring musical acts that are going on right now, that maybe have inspired your sound –

Glenn: — Tom Waits.

The Plugg: Hell yeah.

Jay: Glenn and I are both really big Tom Waits fans. You probably can’t hear it in the music, but we think he’s kind of incredible. Of course.

Glenn: Bands out now, though? I think the Black Lips put on a hell of a show. Who else have we seen recently? I really like Man Man. That’s a bit of a Tom Waits band, but it’s a great live performance which is really hard to come by these days.

Man Man - I’d Rather Go

The Black Lips - Boomerang

The Plugg: Well, with iTunes and the wide world of easily accessible internet culture, it seems like the live performance becomes more precious, and you’re at a different level if you not only have recorded music (which seems pretty easy to concoct these days) but can actually give people an exciting show, if you can actually connect with living people in the moment.

Jay: Yeah – it is definitely an important quality in a band. But, also, the accessibility of music is really great too, I mean it helps out really small bands and gets their name out there in a way that would be otherwise impossible.

The Plugg: What’s your future approach?

Jay: We’re recording an album in late August/September, so pretty much at the end of the summer we’re recording an album. Right now we’re just assembling the music and getting our ducks in a row with a producer, trying to find a right fit for a studio and all that.

The Plugg: In terms of your voice – this is a terrible question for any one in any band – but do you consciously link yourself to any vocalist or any specific sound –

Ford & Fitzroy

Jay: The funny thing is I’ve never been able to sing. I mean, and I’ve been in bands forever, but my voice has always kind of sucked – at least in a conventional way. But what I’ve done is just figured out a way – sat home with my guitar and recording myself – figured out a way that I could sing that my voice would sound cool – unique, you know, so that it would work, and that’s the only way I could do it, I couldn’t do it any other way.

Glenn: That’s maybe the Tom Waits connection.

Tim: Though he actually had a conventional voice way back in the day.

Jay: Yeah, right.

Tim: That’s like what David Byrne said –

The Plugg: I was just going to say that –

Tim: — the better the voice the less you can believe what they’re saying.

Glenn: Yeah I love that quote.

So do we.

If you can catch Ford & Fitzroy before they head into the recording studio, you’ll probably thank me for it after. Filled with fresh exuberance and ingenuity that isn’t above it all, the band is a driving, melodic force, full of shattered dreams that keep spinning their wheels and rocket riffs that still have their naïve moments, a quality which makes this sound feel riveting and new, despite its influences.

Ford & Fitzroy - Official Site
Ford & Fitzroy - MySpace


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Posted on August 8, 2007

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