Foxhall Stacks are one of the newer super-groups in this town, with four members with impressive pedigrees: Jim Spellman (Velocity Girl, The High-Back Chairs), Bill Barbot (Jawbox, Burning Airlines), Peter Moffett (Government Issue, Wool, Burning Airlines), and the legendary Brian Baker (Minor Threat, Government Issue, Dag Nasty, The Meatmen). Those four guys dropped a rockin' debut album last year on Snappy Little Numbers. And The Coming Collapse was the kind of thing that guys like me just had to rave about. Thankfully, they had more music in 'em.
The band's newest release, The Half Stack EP, offers up four new cuts with all money beyond the price of the EP on Bandcamp going to We Are Family here in D.C. That fine organization has deep roots to the harDCore scene thanks to the good and hard work of Mark Andersen as co-director. So the charity is legit and well-worth supporting. Now, how about them new tunes?
Opener "Danish Movies" is as loud and crunchy as anything on The Coming Collapse, while "Surround" is more spacious, with hooks given room to breathe. Elsewhere, "Flanger on the Hi-Hat" is a bright instrumental, while the excellent "#1 Sounds" is a big slab of power-pop. I suppose it might go against everything that harDCore stands for to suggest that this song sounds a whole lot like early Oasis, or Slade, but that's what I'm saying. It's got some Stones and Faces in there too, but it's an epic stomper. A simpler review of this entire set would be to say that nothing here sounds too different from what was on the band's debut album. So if you liked that, buy this!
The Half Stack EP is out now via the link below and Snappy Little Numbers.
More details on Foxhall Stacks via the band's official Facebook page.
Give to We Are Family.