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wednesday, june 23, 2010, 6:55 am saving the world from bad music since last wednesday. WEDNESDAY | ARCHIVE | PEP SQUAD | MAILING LIST | GEAR | REQUEST LINE | ROCK DOC | CONNECT |
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originally, oxford students yannis
philippakis (guitar) and jack bevan (drums) played in the cult math-rock band
the edmund fitzgerald. the group split after they claimed that things were “too
serious.” soon after, they formed foals along with jimmy smith (guitar) and
walter gervers (bass) who at the time both played in a local band called face meets
grill, and andrew mears (vocals). in 2006 andrew left foals to focus on his other band, youthmovies; at that point yannis took over on vocals. edwin congreave, a fellow oxford man, soon joined in on keyboards (even though he never played keyboard, or for that matter, played in a band). through 2007 they developed their “poppy, upbeat, math rock/post-punk sound” at local house parties. in march 2008, they finally released their debut lp, antidotes on sub pop records in the us. the album was originally produced by dave sitek of tv on the radio, however, the band remixed the album, because they thought that dave’s first master copy sound like “it was recorded in the grand canyon.” the album debuted at #3 in the uk albums charts. foals second album, total life forever, recorded in gothenburg, sweden was released june 15, 2010 and is described by the band as sounding like “tropical prog.” according to sub pop, "total life forever is the sound of a band settling into and surveying the decay of old protocols. the restless, woven guitar tattoos of their debut haunt its successor, remembered only in fragments. the pace is less breakneck. foals have relaxed the formulas and diagrams used to build their early identity and stretch out, instead, in the sad, quiet chaos of rot." click here for part one of a foals interview and here for part two. don't forget, the album cover image always links to sample songs and the band's image to their website. check here to see if foals have any gigs scheduled near you. as always, please buy this album from your local independent music store by people who know and love music and not from retailers like wal-mart (soulless, globally-homogenizing, community-killers) or i-tunes (albums should be listened to as an entire composition with album cover and liner notes in hand). incidentally, these two companies sell more music than any other retailer in the united states. that my friend, bites. foals are cooler than a pony at a preteen's birthday party. if you agree, please spread the word (about the band and this site). don't worry if you missed the crystal castles profile from last week: here it is.
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