Foxygen might be about to implode all over the place in a messy, gooey, Yoko-like mess. But of course, they swear that’s not happening.
Shit got all hot and heavy and serious when the only girl member, Fey, who dates co-founder Sam, got on Tumblr and exposed all the tension going on between the members. Via Tumblr
When I joined the band Sam called Jackie to talk to her to make her feel better about it all. Rado never could even call me or talk to me once after the UMO tour about his problems with me and thought he was just going to ignore me forever. Rado never once opened up to me or even tried to be my friend and didn’t talk to Sam either. IT was strange meeting him and knowing they were supposed to be a “duo” but there was no friendship at all, just contracts that needed to be fulfilled. Once Sam and I started dating in November, he never once wanted to accept I was Sams girlfriend or ANYTHING. During the whole European tour and Unknown Mortal Orchestra tour Rado never once asked me if I was doing okay, knowing that my best friend had died. He never once reached out to me. He is the kind of person who acts cold and unfriendly around most people until he meets someone “famous” or something and then he totally lights up and acts nice. It’s insane. At the end of the UMO tour Rado and Shaun blamed all the problems in Foxygen on me, I was the perfect scape goat: the only girl, a new member, a loud opinionated female. Rado said things like I was “unprofessional” which is just a joke. I am unprofessional while Shaun Fleming was/is hitting on girls all the time online, Joe just got jailed on the last tour for being drunk, and Rado couldn’t even tell me any of his problems himself. Instead he just threw them all on Sam and expected him to deal with it. Wrong. He tried to completely control Foxygen even though Sam wrote 95% of the last album. He came out with a solo album out of nowhere and didn’t even tell Sam about it. He made such a big deal about Sam releasing his album “Star Power” online a year ago and made him take it down but then he goes and releases a solo album behind his back. He was threatened by Sam and I, saying it was, “The Sam and Lizzie show”. Well we are going to start our own band (not saying it is replacing Foxygen). It sickens to me to see how Sam has been walked all over. He isn’t the type of person to plot out things or think about business, he is just a real musician who is an amazing songwriter. I don’t think he was ready for all the craziness that being a popular band gives you. It’s been hard for us as a couple facing al these trials and tribulations but ultimately it has made us stronger.
Sorry for the offensive wall of text, but the tl;dr is basically, Fey and Sam are together and Rado is pissed because his girlfriend got pushed out of the band, kind of on her own doing because she wanted to focus more on school. Everyone is pretty annoyed at each other all the time. Sam put out a solo album and was told to take it down by Rado, only to have watch helplessly as Rado suddenly announces his own solo album to be released. In the end, Sam and Fey are going to start their own band, but it’s not going to replace Foxygen.
And then there was this review of Foxygen’s performance at Pitchfork Festival, which just made them sound really, really sad. Via Noisey
Performing early in the afternoon band took the stage to a field of enthusiastic fans, and almost immediately one could tell that something was amiss. Foxygen was playing sloppily, sarcastically almost, as if they’d lived with their material so long that they were beginning to hate it. As the band flailed about, lead singer Sam France decided to climb the side of the stage, got halfway to the top, and as if his spirit had been broken, listlessly climbed down in time to continue singing. I have never been more sad to see a dude give up in the process of doing a dumb thing than ever before. However, this spirit of aimless frustration permeated Foxygen’s set. After a few minutes of his between-song banter falling flat, France started making sarcastic comments about Lil B, who was playing the same stage later that day. Things got worse, with dead silence between the band’s songs hitting upwards of two minutes. Frank and Jonathan Rado (Foxygen’s primary instrumentalist) then began testily snipping at each other, and then the all-seeing ire of Frank turned to the festival itself. I can’t recall his exact wording, but he said something to the effect of, “Red Bull can go fuck itself, American Apparel can go fuck itself, and Pitchfork can go fuck itself.” It was damn near a psychic break. I felt as if I’d been confronted with the portrait of Kramer in that one episode of Seinfeld. On that day, Foxygen was a loathsome, offensive brute of a band. And yet I couldn’t look away.
How long can this madness last? Reps for the band say there is nothing awful going on, and the band are set to release a new album quite soon. From Pitchfork:
Despite this, the band’s publicist confirms that Foxygen is not breaking up, and are currently recording a follow-up to We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic in Bloomington, Ind. They play New York City tonight and have shows scheduled through the fall. Fey is not currently on tour with them. The band just Tweeted, “ALWAYS, DEFINITELY, BELIEVE THE INTERNET.”
Oh, well, that settles that. Clearly, things are just fine.
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