In a landscape perpetually chasing the next fleeting trend, The Fishermen Three, led by erstwhile Wowz member Simon Beins and longtime collaborator Raphi Gottesman, offer a refreshingly unhurried counterpoint with their new single, “Out of Style” (ft. Jeff Moller). This initial taster from their forthcoming Royal Oakie Records album, Infinite Feeling (due August 29th), suggests a comfortable settling into their idiosyncratic groove, far from the madding crowd.
Having traversed a winding path from NYC’s anti-folk scene to Hawaii and Oakland, Beins and Gottesman have assembled a formidable roster of Bay Area stalwarts and surprising global collaborators (including Jack Johnson, Heidi Alexander of Earth Girl Helen Brown, Zach Gill of ALO, David Tattersall of The Wave Pictures, plus members of Herman Dune and The War On Drugs, and many more) to flesh out Beins’ backlog of songs. Recorded live to tape, “Out of Style” leans into a sun-faded retro-pop aesthetic, all gentle harmonies and an almost laconic charm. Beins tips his hat to ’60s schmaltz and slyly weaves in nods to Stephen Malkmus and Berlin. It’s a low-key, undeniable plea for authenticity, a soft-focus antidote to the digital churn. With Infinite Feeling promising a meditation on human emotion, splitting the difference between anti-folk’s earnestness and the haze of hypnagogic pop, The Fishermen Three are charting a course uniquely their own.
Out of Style is available to stream now: https://idm.fm/outofstyle
Pre-Order Infinite Feeling via Bandcamp (DL/CD/Cassette): https://thefishermenthree.bandcamp.com/album/infinite-feeling