FM One of the Most Influential Bands of 2013

[michelej1]

How Fleetwood Mac became one of the most influential bands of 2013

Haim, Ladies of the Canyon, Mumford and Sons and others referenced Fleetwood Mac, although the band’s own EP barely made a dent in public consciousness

By: John Sakamoto Staff Reporter, Tue Dec 24 2013 the Star (Canada)

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment...s_of_2013.html


A week after closing the annual mud bowl that is the Glastonbury Festival, Mumford and Sons surveyed the 60,000-strong throng at Olympic Park, the sporting complex built for the 2012 Summer Games, and proceeded to lead a couple of dozen musicians — every act on the bill that day — through an epic communal sing-along on Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain.”


Two months later, one of those acts, a trio of L.A. sisters collectively known by their surname, Haim (rhymes with “rhyme”), released Days Are Gone, one of the year’s most acclaimed and successful debuts.


Reaction to the album tended to be preoccupied with the band’s influences, which ranged from Motown to TLC but most often coalesced around Southern California rock in general and Fleetwood Mac in particular.


In Canada, at virtually the same time, Montreal band Ladies of the Canyon released a surprising sophomore album, Diamond Heart, which saw the one-time roots act writing an extended love letter to mid-’70s pop, again with particular attention to Fleetwood Mac. (They went so far as to hire Stevie Nicks’ percussionist, Jimmy Paxson, to play drums.)


Looking back on the year, those weren’t just isolated examples.


Type “Fleetwood Mac covers” into YouTube, and you’ll find 2013 performances by pop-metal act Paramore, country singer Brandi Carlile, Belgian rock band Deus, Scottish singer-songwriter Nina Nesbitt, Canada’s Besnard Lakes (with their slo-mo version of “You Make Loving Fun”), not to mention hundreds of fan covers of “Landslide,” “Dreams” and, of course, Nicks’s signature tune, “Rhiannon.”













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More than anyone else in Fleetwood Mac, Nicks is the focal point of the band’s image. Her renewed pop-cultural influence extends to the cult TV hit American Horror Story: Coven, which this year featured a subplot in which one of the characters idolizes the singer. Recognizing a no-brainer when she sees one, Nicks has agreed to guest star as herself in an episode titled “The Magical Delights of Stevie Nicks.” It’s set to air in mid-January.


A month or so after that, Beck will release Morning Phase, an album he described to Rolling Stone as coming from the tradition of “California music.”


In Beck’s universe, that genre has more to do with the Byrds and Neil Young than Fleetwood Mac, though it’s arguably more difficult to define the latter’s specific sound than the broader landscape of “California music.”


Meanwhile, when it comes to Haim and Days Are Gone, many critics drew parallels to Rumours, though a close listen to both albums bears out Brad Nelson’s astute analysis on DrownedInSound.com, in which he flagged 1987’s Tango in the Night as the more relevant source material.


“Lindsey Buckingham never played his guitar so elusively again,” Nelson writes, “particularly on ‘Everywhere’ where it settles like percussion around John McVie’s bass line. . . . This is how guitars function on Days Are Gone: like drums, but tuned, as if pulled through a kaleidoscope.”


For Torontonians, this whole loop is completed on May 15, when Haim plays Kool Haus.


Fleetwood Mac itself was especially active in 2013, but its presence on the road and on the record — with a four-song EP that barely dented the public consciousness and yet another reissue of Rumours — seemed coincidental to its new-found influence rather than responsible for it.


The fact that they’ll close out the year with a show in Las Vegas seems both fitting of their current status and a cautionary recalibration of the legacy so fervently evoked by so many others this year.


Since this is the only time of year when we spend our time looking both back and forward, we’ll close out 2013 by handicapping a short list of the vintage bands most likely to restart their futures in 2014.


Queen: Guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor have both been talking about a new trove of unreleased Freddie Mercury music that could be fashioned into the next Queen album. Add in the possibility of expanding American Idol alumnus Adam Lambert’s occasional performances with the band into a full tour and the announcement of a Freddie Mercury biopic, and conditions seem ripe, though you might have to add on a year to accommodate Queen’s famously deliberate decision-making process.


Led Zeppelin: The band’s entire catalogue is set to be reissued, with each of their studio albums being expanded to a box set. Though Robert Plant has already booked some solo dates in 2014, and John Paul Jones has announced his intention to spend the year adapting a 105-year-old Swedish play into an opera, the absence of unqualified denials is a start.


Genesis: Phil Collins is working toward unretiring. “I have started thinking about doing new stuff,” the Guardian reported him saying. “Some shows again, even with Genesis. Everything is possible.”


Oasis: 2014 is the 20th anniversary of the band’s debut album, Definitely Maybe. However, half of the perennially feuding Gallagher brothers, Noel, claims he turned down a $35-million offer for an Oasis world tour. For now, blood is thicker than money.


OutKast: The one closest to a lock to happen in 2014. Big Boi and Andre 3000 will reportedly launch a tour by headlining Coachella in April.


jsakamoto@thestar.ca

[RockawayBlind]

I've seen the HAIM comparison before, but for the life of me, I don't hear it. I definitely hear it in Ladies of the Canyon. They wear the Stevie Nicks influence on their sleeve.

Brandi Carlile a country singer? Not even close. Who writes this stuff?

[Macfanforever]

I always say Highway 101 was the country FM.Paulette Carlson looks.dress and sounds like Stevie.


Drummer "Cactus" Moser is Wynonna Judd's husband .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highway_101

[moon]

Agree with RockawayBlind, I can't hear the FM sound on HAIM. I'm starting to listen them, and maybe it's too soon to say something, but I think they have their own style, or maybe closer to SN than FM.
Regards!

[Dex]

Originally Posted by moon

Agree with RockawayBlind, I can't hear the FM sound on HAIM. I'm starting to listen them, and maybe it's too soon to say something, but I think they have their own style, or maybe closer to SN than FM.
Regards!

I think the Haim comparison is specifically regarding the TITN album. From that perspective, I can hear it. I guess it depends on what "sounds like Fleetwood Mac" means to you, given the band's diverse body of work. Certainly I do not hear Stevie Nicks in there at all. Really, the comparison isn't one I'd have drawn of my own accord. But it is certainly one my friends have mentioned noticing, on several occasions.

[gssmith]

I don't see the Stevie/FWM connection at all with Haim. They sound like an 80s band. More like Wilson-Philips or Bangles or something. I'm not a big fan of that. In the one music video I just watched, the one girl did have a Stevie like outfit on. Thats all the similarities I saw so that ain't saying much.
I thought The Chain sing a long by Mumford and Sons was interesting. They all looked goofy doing it, but they were very enthusiastic about it. Not a fan of covers anyway music or movies. I usually hate them. The 60s Planet of the Apes was great, why couldn't have Marky Mark left it alone?

[WildHearted]

Originally Posted by gssmith

I don't see the Stevie/FWM connection at all with Haim. They sound like an 80s band. More like Wilson-Philips or Bangles or something. I'm not a big fan of that. In the one music video I just watched, the one girl did have a Stevie like outfit on. Thats all the similarities I saw so that ain't saying much.

While I don't hear Stevie at all, a lot of their songs (and especially Danielle's vocals) are very Christine-y imo. And I can definitely hear the Tango influence in a lot of their production elements.

This is their most Fleetwood Mac sounding song, to me.

[moon]

Dear Dex, for me, the FM sound is just like...mmmmm...Rhiannon, Landslide, GYOW, Don't Stop, The Chain...well, maybe the whole Rumours!! Including some tunes like Big Love, Everywhere, Little Lies...and is not like the HAIM's sound. I listened to their album Days Are Gone, and first, sometimes I think I'm listening to the same song again and again, and then, I think their music is more similar to the last Stevie albums, but not with Rumours or FM '75, or even the other three albums of the Rumours era. Anyway, they are new and they're not bad, I like a few songs and I know they will grow quickly.

Dear gssmith, I don't think HAIM is like The Bangles, even when is a band with sisters too (I know is not what you were talking about!). About FM, yes, they can't deny the Stevie's influence, but I don't think they're copying. I've watched some pictures of them and it's obvious that they really like the 70s clothes and stuff, especially the singer and guitarist.
I don't know about the covers, I'm working on a few FM songs, but I know I won't sound like them, and I really don't need to do it. I watched the Haim's live version of Oh Well, and yes, maybe was not the best, but was something new for me, especially because one girl was singing, the other girl was on guitar and the other girl played percussion.
About the whole FM sound, maybe in a live performance we can see the differences or similarities...

Regards!!