The Fleet Foxes Dude Seriously Needs To Check His Label’s Wikipedia Entry Before Going All Blog-Crazy

I was all set to take Robin Pecknold of CSNoozY Seattle outfit Fleet Foxes to task for getting his stream-washed knickers in a twist and somewhat erroneously declaring on his band’s blog that “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.” (Alas, no pinky swear.) But I guess a member of his drum circle who appreciates technology that was birthed after the 1970s tipped him off to Google, which could tell him that his current benefactor Sub Pop is 49% owned by Warner Music Group at present, as The Peck has since taken MySpace’s “you can delete whatever you post” suggestion to heart. (So let’s not even mention that his little band of brothers benefited greatly last week from exposure on Saturday Night Live, which airs on NBC, which just so happens to be owned by the big, bad behemoth known as General Electric! But I guess 30 Rock is funny enough for it to be OK?)

Anyway, I was all set to go off on a rant about how it’s not necessarily bad to have ideals—even the most grizzled blogger-type has them, even if her heart is as hardened as a skipping-stone—but it’s probably a good idea to check your own balance sheet, and the sources of the numbers in said sheet’s plus column, before you go off spouting absolutist rhetoric lifted wholesale from one of those special The Nation issues about the media oligopoly on your personal Internet Web site; after all, even if the harmonies accompanying your bluster are pretty enough to lull some people into a “you’re so anti-corporately dreamy” reverie, there’s something to be said for actually, y’know, getting your facts straight. But then I got kinda tired, and started wondering when The Nation last put out one of those issues (I had a poster from the 1996 edition on my wall when I was in college!) since my subscription lapsed years ago. 2006, it looks like! My, how things have changed since then.

Fleet Foxes Hate Major Labels [Pitchfork]