Foxing

Beneath the audible progress of Foxing's 13 year career - from the chamber emo of debut The Albatross to the art pop of 2021's Draw Down The Moon - has been a gradual movement towards self-sufficiency. Appropriately, the quartet of vocalist Conor Murphy, guitarist Eric Hudson, drummer Jon Hellwig, and bassist Brett Torrence (who recently joined after years as a touring hired gun) chose to self-title their fifth LP simply, Foxing. The album is due out on September 13th, 2024 and was entirely produced and mixed by Hudson. The cover art was created by Murphy and Torrence, and it is being released on the band's own Grand Paradise label. The band held a press conference in their hometown of St Louis to announce the new album, and shared its 8 minute long lead single, "Greyhound" accompanied by a video shot at that press conference which can be streamed below. There is a tension at the core of Foxing, an album that balances hopefulness and nihilism, the pastoral with the tumultuous. Whether oscillating between visceral noise rock and intimate bedroom cassette experiments on opener "Secret History" or cruising at the edge of collapse on "Barking," the dramatic dynamics that have long permeated Foxing's music have never felt so extreme. This is expressed neatly by "Greyhound", a song that ranges over a career's worth of sonic territory over its 8 minute run time, finding moments of beauty, anarchic intensity, and a dizzyingly diverse array of tones and textures. Five albums into a discography defined by its own restlessness, Foxing is a document of a band finding comfort in their own chaos, and in that context "Greyhound" is a fittingly ambitious first statement. The band also recently released the second single Hell 99, an aggressive and melodic angsty tune that has post-hardcore leanings with loud and choatic guitar riffs, screamed vocals, and their heaviest song to date.