Stocking Feet

Frightened Rabbit - Old Old Fashioned (live)

My relationship with Frightened Rabbit is a complicated and deep one. I remember first getting their album, Sings The Greys, in the mail in a hand-drawn paper sleeve and just being blown away. It was everything I wanted in an album at the time, with its familial urgency and foggy interludes. And combined with the first Twilight Sad ep it was just a one-two punch of scottish indie rock that the world didn’t know it desperately needed.

And then we had the second album, Midnight Organ Fight. My connection with that record was probably too personal, and that’s why I didn’t write about it. I loved it as a fan Not as a music fan, a writer or a critic, but just in the most general positive sense. It’s so easy to get jaded these days, with the constant influx of bands and music and singles and the rising stacks of cds on my desk. It’s hard to be a true fan and when I do find something I love I don’t always know what to do with it. In the case of Midnight Organ Fight I listened the shit out of it. I mean, every day, probably more than once a day. I got the record a little more than a year ago, in December of last year. I’d sit at home and pour myself a whiskey and listen to the brothers croon about their relationships and dancing and fucking and all that.

So I didn’t write about it, and I think the band was a little bummed out by that, because we were early supporters of theirs and were tangentially involved in their relationship with Fat Cat records (and in the interest of full disclosure, I worked on the press campaign for the first album and helped find a new publicist for the second record after I quit the business). So I never really gave up on the band and I’m sorry if there’s any hard feelings.

But here they just put out a live version of Midnight Organ Fight called Liver! Lung! FR!. It’s basically midnight organ fight in order performed live, which is sweet. If you haven’t seen them live you really should. They come to the states fairly often and man is it a good time. I’ve caught them a few times at sxsw and here in LA and I’ve never been disappointed. They have a relentless energy, especially in the rhythm section. It’s loud and raucous and fantastic. It’s captured well on the live album and it’s a great document of their recent touring.

So that’s the skinny on Frightened Rabbit. They’re on tour right now and we should all go and have a drink and dance and all that. It’ll be a good time, I promise. You can pick it up from our friends at insound for ten bucks. UK and Europe folks will have to wait until March of next year.