Fleet Foxes "Will Never, Ever Sign To A Major Label"
1/30/2009 By Brock Thiessen

There’s no denying Fleet Foxes ruled 2008, critically and in the marketplace. Along with topping countless 2008 best-of lists, (like ours), the sun-dazed Seattle harmonizers have sold roughly 211,000 copies of their self-titled Sub Pop debut full-length in North America (and 40,000 of their Sun Giant EP), went gold in the UK and even recently popped up on Saturday Night Live. And considering all this success happened with the band singed to an indie, it was only a matter of time before the majors came a knockin’.

Well, front-man Robin Pecknold has now sent out a message to the Big Four: “Fleet Foxes will never, ever, under no circumstances, from now until the world chokes on gas fumes, sign to a major label.”

Pecknold’s words come in the wake of false reports that Fleet Foxes had inked a deal with Virgin, something that’s now led him over to the band’s MySpace blog to set the record straight.

His message reads:

So, I went to the (truly insane and heart-swelling) Dept of Eagles show at Neumo's tonight (sang along and bought a Tee) and a couple people said something about hearing we signed to Virgin Records and they are reissuing a "special edition" of the CD LP. This is false. I think a Seattle Weekly blog post started this fire, which I will now extinguish, with this statement — “Fleet Foxes will never, ever, under no circumstances, from now until the world chokes on gas fumes, sign to a major label. This includes all subsidiaries or permutations thereunder. Till we die.”

I just don't see the point. Most major labels seem anti-music. We've pursued no such deal with Virgin (or been pursued to my knowledge, I think it was just a bit of news they reported) and would be idiots to be unhappy with our fam of label folks. It is true though that all copies of the CD LP will now include a free copy of the EP (like it is currently with the vinyl), but that's not a 'special limited edition,' it'll be that way in perpetuity, no extra cost or packaging change.

That's all! Also I cut all my hair off.

To check out that offending Seattle Weekly blog post, you can click here, or here to see that Virgin “announcement,” which actually never says anything specific about Fleet Foxes signing to the label.

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