Foals (band): Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 00:51, 4 December 2010
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Foals are a Mercury Prize nominated[1] 5-piece band from Oxford, England. They are currently signed to Transgressive Records in the UK and Sub Pop in the USA. They released their debut album Antidotes on 24 March 2008 in the UK, and 8 April 2008 in the USA.[2] The band's second album, Total Life Forever, was released on the 10th of May, 2010.
History
Antidotes
Jack Bevan and Yannis Philippakis were originally in cult math rock band The Edmund Fitzgerald, which did not gain much media interest. The group was disbanded after they claimed that things had become “too serious” and they wanted to have more “fun making their music”.
Walter and Jimmy were part of a small Oxford band called Face Meets Grill. They met at and were formed from members of Abingdon Boys School. They played gigs in and around Oxford and recording a debut EP in Hull. After playing Truck Festival in 2004 they separated to follow different paths and careers.
Guitarist Jimmy Smith is the only one of the band members to have completed his degree, at Hull University: each of the band members quit their respective universities including Yannis and Edwin leaving their English courses at Oxford University, when the band signed to Transgressive Records by Ben Mackereth.
The lead singer of Youthmovies, Andrew Mears, originally formed the band Foals, playing as guitarist and lead vocalist. He was present on the band's debut 7” single “Try This On Your Piano/Look At My Furrows Of Worry”, but left shortly afterwards to concentrate on Youthmovies debut album Good Nature.
The band’s musical influences are varied, with the band members citing minimal techno, Arthur Russell, Krautrock bands such as Harmonia, and Talking Heads as well The Jester People as their main sources of inspiration. Their musical style however, can be more directly linked to various genres such as indie rock, dance-punk, math rock, post-punk and techno.
In early Summer 2007, the band began work on their debut album. It was produced by Dave Sitek of TV On The Radio. The band, however, decided to mix the album themselves in the end, stating that Sitek made the first master copy of the album sound like “it was recorded in the Grand Canyon”. Yannis has stated multiple times during various interviews that Foals and Dave Sitek are on good terms, even when the copy by Sitek was rejected by the band. Foals released their debut album, entitled Antidotes on 24 March 2008 in the UK and 8 April 2008 in the USA. The album was a commercial success in the United Kingdom, debuting at #3 in the UK Albums Charts.[3] The album was a minor success in other countries, charting in Japan, France and the Netherlands.
Total Life Forever
 | This section needs to be updated. (November 2010) |
The band's second album, Total Life Forever, has been described by the band members as sounding like “tropical prog” and “like the dream of an eagle dying”.[4] In August 2009, Foals started recording their album at Svenska Grammofon Studion in Gothenburg, Sweden. The band have described the album as being “a lot less funk” than they had originally planned. A number of new songs have been debuted at recent concerts including “Total Life Forever”, "Alabaster", “O-Funk" and “Spanish Sahara". The album was produced by Luke Smith, formely of Clor.
The album's title is named after an element of Ray Kurzweil’s Theory of Singularity. The band's frontman Yannis Philippakis has stated a long time interest in Futurology with it informing numerous songs on Total Life Forever.[5]
According to Play.com and zavvi.co.uk, Total Life Forever will be released on May 10, 2010.[6][7] This was confirmed by the band on their Facebook and MySpace blogs where they also mentioned a new song from the forthcoming album being played on the radio. On March 1, 2010, the promotional single "Spanish Sahara" was first played on Zane Lowe's show Radio 1 at 7:30pm (GMT). Foals' new website was updated that night with the release of a video for the track.
On March 6, the Total Life Forever site was officially launched. Puzzles revealed images, lyrics and sound clips of songs from the album,which was all set up by Yannis' close friend Gary Gunn. The last clip appeared on Friday, March 12, and resulted with a password entry for the Foals' new website. The site was opened on March 13 and presented the whole new art concept and media including samples of songs, photos and videos. The album was nominated for the 2010 Mercury Music Prize.
Lead single "This Orient" was released on May 3, 2010.[8]
The single "Spanish Sahara" is featured in Entourage Season 7 Trailer as well as featuring in Skins Season 4 Finale Trailer. The track has been chosen for a full physical single release in September, featuring an edited remix starring the strings of London Contemporary Orchestra. "Spanish Sahara" was also used as a soundtrack in the second series of the E4 hit-drama Misfits_(TV_series).
Discography
Studio Albums
| Year | Album details | Peak chart positions | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UK | IRL [9] |
AUS | NZ | FRA | |||
| 2008 | Antidotes
|
3 | 20 | – | 99 | 94 | |
| 2010 | Total Life Forever
|
8 | 25 | 79 | – | 38 | |
Singles
| Year | Title | Chart Positions | Album |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK [11] | |||
| 2006 | "Try This On Your Piano / Look At My Furrows of Worry" | – | Non-album single |
| 2007 | "Hummer" [A] | – | Antidotes |
| "Mathletics" [A] | 109 | ||
| "Balloons" | 39 | ||
| 2008 | "Cassius" | 26 | |
| "Red Socks Pugie" | 89 | ||
| "Olympic Airways" | – | ||
| 2010 | "Spanish Sahara" | 148 | Total Life Forever |
| "This Orient" | 97 | ||
| "Miami" | 127 | ||
| "Spanish Sahara" (re-release) | – | ||
| "Blue Blood" | – |
Notes:
- A - The singles were originally released without an album, but were later added as bonus tracks for the album "Antidotes".
References
- ^ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-10685005
- ^ Lindsay, Cam."Foals’ Sound of Music ", Exclaim!, May 2008.
- ^ http://www.theofficialcharts.com/top40_albums_last.php?week=88&end=30/03/2008%20-%2005/04/2008
- ^ http://www.nme.com/news/foals/38547
- ^ http://www.clashmusic.com/feature/blood-sweat-and-fears-foals-interview
- ^ http://www.play.com/Music/CD/4-/13653023/Total-Life-Forever/Product.html?source=9593
- ^ http://www.radio1.gr/music/forthcoming_uk_albums.htm
- ^ http://angryape.com/news/foals-announce-uk-ireland-tour
- ^ http://www.irish-charts.com/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Foals
- ^ http://www.bpi.co.uk/certifiedawards/Search.aspx
- ^ http://www.zobbel.de/cluk/100626cluk.txt