Despite possessing a decade long career and releasing an album on a major label, the simple truth is that not enough people know Foxy Shazam. Here’s where to start with the best band you’ve never heard of.
Beginners
In 2010, Foxy Shazam signed to major label Sire and released their self-titled record. Produced by Rob Cavallo (Green Day) and John Feldmann (5 Seconds of Summer), the record is slick arena pop rock, bursting with energy and featuring a surprising amount of lyrical depth. Lead single, "Wanna-Be Angel," finds vocalist Eric Nally taking criticism in stride and sounding all the better for it.
Foxy Shazam is the band’s third album, but their first with trumpeter Alex Nauth. On this album and those after it, Nauth puts on a stellar performance, best demonstrated on the beautiful opening passage from, "Oh Lord."
Unfortunately, the album only reached 151 on the Billboard Hot 200 and the band was dropped from Sire’s roster. Never a group to rest on their laurels, Foxy returned in 2012 with The Church of Rock and Roll. The record found the band exploring the genre glam rock, and the stellar production from Justin Hawkins of The Darkness makes the track listing a fun listen from front to back. Second single, "Holy Touch," may well be Eric Nally’s best vocal performance.
While some have accused the record of being derivative, the truth is that there are enough musical and lyrical quirks to distinguish it and the album is best viewed with a heavy dose of nostalgia. Though this song has never gotten its proper due outside of my family, "Last Chance At Love," could happily have a home right next to Summer Nights on the Grease Soundtrack.
Advanced
The rest of the band’s output is decidedly less polished, a draw for some fans and a turn off for others. In 2008, Foxy released their second album, Introducing, produced by scene legend Casey Bates (Forgive Durden). The music present is more complex than that on their newer albums, but there’s still a strong focus on melody.
This feature wouldn’t be complete without acknowledgement of Foxy Shazam’s secret weapon: pianist Sky Vaughn White. Time and time again, album after album, Sky puts in truly inventive and masterful performances. The production on Introducing highlights the piano in a way that no other Foxy Shazam album quite does.
Experts
The band’s next and final album is an anomaly in their catalog. With their aforementioned works, the band found success with a very polished, stadium-ready sound. For their 5th full length, they decided to buck tradition and record with Steve Albini, a stripped-down producer that helmed the boards for Nirvana and Fugazi, among others.
Gonzo was released for free on April 2nd, 2014 on Foxy’s website. At first listen, many fans were extremely confused by many items. Nally’s vocals, previously a selling-point of the band, sit extremely low in the mix and while previous albums found the band picking a musical style and exploring it, Gonzo never quite finds its groove. Nonetheless, it’s more of a confusing listen than a bad one.
The band toured exhaustively on the album, but later in the year announced their disbanding for an unspecified amount of time. And that’s part of Foxy Shazams’ biggest problem. They’re too quirky for the greater public to latch onto them. The band is exceptionally talented (another confusing moment on Gonzo, when guitarist Loren Turner and bassist Daisy Caplan switched roles for the entirety of the runtime), but the slightly edgy lyrics and flamboyancy of a whole prevented them from being liked by my grandma.
And in the end, I think that’s what they’d prefer. Yet I still feel that they are too talented and have too excellent a back catalog to be ignored. Since the band put themselves on indefinite hiatus, the members have continued to make music, though it certainly lacks the potency of Foxy’s best work. Vocalist Eric Nally can be heard on the hook of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’s Downtown, while trumpeter Alex Nauth formed The Skulx, whose full-length features the members of Foxy Shazam. I have hope that one day the band will return and claim the success they deserve, but for now, I hope this article can help spread the Foxy gospel. Here’s a deep cut from their bizarre debut, The Flamingo Trigger.
