Watch Fleet Foxes perform ‘Battery Kinzie’ with Father John Misty in 2011
Fleet Foxes don’t seem like a band that has too much internal drama. Maybe that’s because of the folky sounds and relaxing atmosphere that their music tends to conjure up. Maybe it’s because, by and large, the band is led exclusively by singer-songwriter Robin Pecknold. There’s also been surprisingly little turnover, with the group’s current iteration having been solidified for roughly a decade. In fact, founding members Skyler Skjelset and Casey Wescott have been there from the start, and bassist/harmony vocalist Christian Wargo has been on board since the band’s first album.
Of course, one major exception usually gets pointed out simply because of the magnitude of who it is. That would be former drummer Josh Tillman, better known today by his stage name Father John Misty. For exactly one album and tour, Tillman was the band’s drummer and co-harmony vocalist. Helplessness Blues doesn’t sound like it has a large amount of conflict in it, but according to Pecknold in a 2020 Reddit AMA, there was a fair amount of tension that Tillman spearheaded.
“[Tillman] ‘quit’ the band after recording drums for Helplessness, got into narcotics and made his first [Father John Misty] album while I was making Helplessness in Seattle,” Pecknold wrote. “Then Sub Pop offered to put out his album, but only if he delayed it for a year or so and toured Helplessness with us. Which we all weakly agreed to going through with, but it quickly became obvious he’d rather have just been doing that project instead, and I would have rathered that as well. So that tour I had to endure being around a lot of substance abuse, sabotaged shows, just general ill treatment, shit-talking, all while paying him for songs he didn’t have anything to do with. It sucked!”
That’s a bit damning, especially when you review some of the band’s live shows during the tour for Helplessness Blues. While Tillman doesn’t always look like the happiest camper, he’s giving his all to the intricate harmonies and dutifully bashing out the rhythms that the songs require. Maybe some superfans can point to specific shows where the sabotage occurred, but there are plenty of examples of transcendent shows where the band rises above their drama.
The band’s performance of ‘Battery Kinzie’ at the Haldern Pop Festival in August of 2011 is a great example of the group’s unity or at least the appearance of unity. The quick two-and-a-half-minute track requires the harmonies and rhythms to be on point – if any band member falters, the entire song loses its way. But everyone, including Pecknold and Tillman, is locked in, banging out the track with at least appears to be some potent enthusiasm. Obviously, these were some of Tillman’s final days in the band, but all seems OK from the outside looking in.
Check out the performance of ‘Battery Kinzie’ down below.
