Foxtails Brigade

San Francisco, CA's Laura Weinbach is the heart of Foxtails Brigade. A recent change in violinist, from original partner Sivan Sadeh to Anton Patzner (violinist for Bright Eyes and string metal band Judgement Day), won't lessen the impact of The Bread and the Bait on chamber folk fans yearning for fresh incarnations of Joanna Newsom. The luminous delicacy of Weinbach's sprightly guitar picking and her Victorian-parlour singing style, layered over intricately arranged, bowed strings, make her quirky lyrics (referring to Godzilla and Roboshark, for example) all the more amusing. Weinbach decorates The Bread and the Bait with ditties at once fanciful and childlike, but it's her propensity for sudden tantrums of discordance that prevents her songs from sounding precious. It may be an acquired taste, but then again, isn't that true for the better things in life?