Foilface - We're Like Salmon Moving Upstream

Last night heralded another top session down the Foilface bunker. Vocals were laid down for a new tune called, "A Fine Bromance" (think Field Music meets Polytechnic via Built To Spill and you're nine fifteenths of the way there) and a entirely new song was created from scratch called, "Like a Buffalo" (or maybe "The Proviso"). The latter tune is a pretty hard one to describe - the closest I can come up with is, The Beta Band meets The Flying Pickets via Folk Implosion - so mush that into a mental sonic meatball and digest.

In other Foilface news, the band are now just a few weeks away from a release date for the first EP, Jean-Claude Naive. The website is about to be updated and wonkified and the EP artwork is in production. Bookmark this page in your favourites and you'll be the first to find out when it's released (and you can find out how to download it for FREE). That's FREE music to download and it don't get better than that...

Who is Cubass?

I have a tune here, ready to be uncovered and swooned to. Its a lovely acoustic cover of Aha's seminal 80's track 'Take On Me' (no giggling, it's a top tune - yes it is! Stop pretending to be cool).

The question is - who is Cubass? All I know is that he's only ever recorded one tune, likes snickers and lives somewhere near Manchester. He's like the Lord Lucan of alt-acoustic loveliness. Here's the tune:-

(MP3) Cubass - Take On Me

Rumour has it, he's a big fan of Foilface. That said, he's also supposedly a big fan of Mama Mia and Mariah Carey, so there's no accounting for taste....

Fictional Albums

I totally understand how annoying social networking sites like Facebook can be. And as for all the applications - stuff like software that makes your nose wiggle on photos, people sending pictures of fruit-baskets to each other and setting up Lorraine Kelly Fan Groups - do people really need that kind of fluff in their lives?

That said, I have recently witnessed a mildly amusing new idea/trend on Facebook, namely the instant-fictional-album-cover fad. For those not in the know, you pick a random wikepedia page heading to use a your band name, then a random quote from a quotes website (the last four or five words generally). Then hop onto a photo hosting site like flickr and pick the first photo you stumble across. Piece them together in something like Photoshop and hey presto - fictional album cover

It's utter bobbins but mildly amusing (and kind of eerie) as my example here shows. That said, it really is much better to actually make a real album.

Which Foilface will endeavour to do once we've finished mixing our first few EPs. Watch this space...

Words, Words, sWord, Words

As Kilgore has splattered below, things are progressing nicely in Foilface world and in a few months time we should have a few EPs finished off.

Another tune was gently wafted out on Saturday and the current lack of a name for the track (I remember it as 'Sour City Gin Song' - but only because they're the first words sung) has got me to wondering about the naming of songs, EPs and album titles as a whole.

Probably my favourite album of all time, Love - Forever Changes, benefits from not only having great tunes but top song titles (The Good Humor Man He Sees Everything Like This, A House Is Not a Motel, Andmoreagain etc) and a great, mystical, late-60's sounding album title too. In my world (and in Google world too, I guess) a great title is a definite bonus.

For instance, I first listened to Gorky's Zygotic Mynki, not because someone had recommended them to me or because I'd stumbled across their sound in a record shop. No - they had a funny name and seemed worth a punt. I'd have discovered them at some point, but their name speeded up the process. And if this seems fickle I don't care, because it doesn't end there.

I first heard New York art-rockers, Liars after listening to one of their albums purely because it had a great name. The album in question was, 'They Threw Us All In A Trench And Stuck A Monument On Top' - it's a great album. The verbosity of their song and album titles (also see - They Were Wrong, So We Drowned and The Other Side of Mount Heart Attack) may not be intentionally designed to pull people in (is that naive?) but that's what happened with me.

Earlier, I briefly leafed through some of the albums and EPs I have on itunes and this love of EP and album titles had me relistening to treats by Gorky's Zygotic Mynki (Ambler Gambler EP), Why? (Elephant Eyelash), Edan (Beauty & the Beat), Stereolab (Emperor Tomato Ketchup), Pavement (Slanted & Enchanted) and Neon Neon (Stainless Style). My conclusion is that I seem to be drawn to inventive rhyming (see GZM and Pavement), quality puns (see Neon Neon and Edan) and the surreal (see Why? and Stereolab). Is it a coincidence that I also love their music?

The answer is probably a rather drab, 'a bit, yes - but not entirely'. I know that's a bit vague (defining why we love the bands we listen to is, a lot of the time) but in a world dominated by Google search engines, fast cut MTV videos, soundbites, tag lines and catchphrases, good titles (and as an extra bonus, 'appropriate' ones - 'Slanted & Enchanted' for instance pretty much sums up the whole Pavement sound in three words) certainly count a lot more than they used to.

So, musicians, artists and bands take note - words mean more than ever.

Which leads me onto the probable title for the first Foilface EP, namely, Traumatised Yacht Owners. Is it a good title?

To me, it conjures up amusing credit crunch images and the tears of the super wealthy blubbering their dreams away. It sounds like the cackle of slackers who may be about to have their day. I like it at the moment anyway, and it seems to fit.

Lori Capp

Another triumph at the bunker last night as one more delicious foilface song was burped into life. Things are shaping up nicely now and we've developed a bit of a rhythm in terms of writing and recording, what we really need to do now is start mixing and mastering these nuggets of insanity so they can be stuffed into a release-able format or two. To that end we've set a date of the first weekend in April for mixing the first EP, the idea being we mix the whole EP in one sitting.

The title of the first magical extended player is Traumatised Yacht Owner and I'm confident it'll be done and ready for free mp3 download from the foilface website from mid April. Tell your friends, your Dog, your mistress and yourself to be around for the release of this sidestep from banality, being the only member of the Golf Society without a copy on your iPod touch is simply too much of a risk and if you do find yourself in such a career threatening position, well, you can't say you weren't warned. Good day.

More Manchester music?!

Surely there can't be even more insanely talented, fresh-faced young men connected to the Foilface movement? Surely somebody somewhere should really be keeping tabs on all this amazing Manchester music?

Well luckily some of us are, wrap your ears around the sonic beauty of Audiopoesis, the core of which is two humble science nerds who get together sporadically to churn out some extremely high-quality ambient electronic instrumentals. Their unique and inspiring sound swings gently between brooding soundscapes, scattered twitchy electronic percussion moments to heart-rending live violin passages.

Now we've finally managed to get our shit together down at Foilface HQ there's a good chance that we'll be getting these boys involved with some musical sorcery at some point in the future. Check out their myspace for some excellent and absolutely free music, delicious, boom.

CCTV Soundtracks

Ever wondered how long it'll be until forests start having CCTV cameras on the boughs of their trees? Do you long for a song that brings together witches, eagles and vicars and asks them to gently gurgle harmonic sounds together? Then 'Happy Apocalypso' to you! For Foilface have the very remedy to cure your ailments.

'Cameras', is one of a batch of currently downloadable Foilface tracks available for free.

Think Smog mud wrestling Devendra Banhart in a hot tub owned by Dave Gilmour and your nine twelfths of the way there.

To find out what's next and hear about further downloadable tunes from the Foilface collective sign up to the free music mailing list.

Sad Music

Is your brain lost in memories? Are you lonely like the vulture? Do you enjoy a cheeky blub every now and again (when no-one's looking, of course)? Then (amongst other things) Foilface have conjured up a nice weepy little wonk-ballad for you in the shape of, 'Sad House'.

Download the free mp3. It's ready and waiting for your listening pleasure.

If Kate Bush were a fat Northern slacker with a penchant for fruit beers and sobbing she/he would happily put their name to this new blast of sad music. Plus it's free so there's nothing to lose. Have some lovely new manchester music on us.

It may need one final mix (maybe not - tell us what you think) but it balances quite nicely alongside some of the more joyously rabid tunes currently in the bag.

Go get some...

Foilface - Music Matters

Last night heralded another highly successful Foilface night down the studio. We are now two tunes to the greater and things are progressing nicely.

The first of our new (as yet unfinished) tunes is, 'Pill Drink'. A delighful ode to drinks that accompany the taking of medicine. In many ways it's the ballad of a disillusioned joe ('no-one famous ever came from Milton Keynes... no good stories ever came from Stoke-on-Trent and no-one erotic ever came from East Kilbride'). Which begs the question - Is it a slacker rock mockery of the UK's provincial towns? Answer - No, it's a rambling stare at 21st century consumerism as it thrashes about burning on the floor, crying for help and spitting at unhelpful strangers as it draws it's final breaths. Kind of.

The second tune (told you we're prolific!) is (probably) called, 'Last Bastions'. It's another Foilface 'wonky ballad' and I like to think it's an intergalactic love song involving space ravens (even though it's not really). I say the words ballad and love song with gritted teeth as they instantly make me think of Celine Dion, Enrique Inglesias, Mariah Carey and all those other plastic-faced, doggerel wafting clowns. Either way it's an ode to something beautiful and seemingly lost and it builds into a meaty mini-prog beast of a tune come the second half. Think Kings of Convenience meets early-Genesis and your three eighths of the way there.

Anyway, we've got lots of tunes in various stages of completion (plus some free ones available to download on this site) at the moment and the next task is mixing them and deciding on how we present things. A batch of 5-track EPs seems like a good idea. We'll keep you posted. In the meantime remember 'music matters'...

Testing, Testing (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)...

New songs 2009!!! That's what Foilface have got for you. It's 2009 and we've got new songs. Loads of them.

Not sure what we're all about? Well, here's an easy way to find out. Basically, if you like at least five out of the following eight things then you'll love Foilface -

1. Musical melodies that go well with fajitas, donkey rides, jagermeister and witchcraft

2. The understanding that everyone in the world occassionally wants to punch someone in the face and the joy you eventually receive from not following through with your thoughts

3. The after effects of weeping about something that wasn't worth weeping about

4. The sound of drunkards singing in tune

5. A hatred of over-plucked eyebrows

6. Vampire metaphors

7. The feeling you get when you've just finished painting a room really quickly (but expertly) and have a glass of warm cream soda in your hand

8. Perfect temperature pasties

Download a selection of our songs if your a fiver, sixer, sevener or a magic eighter. Treat your ears...

Vampires & Naked Women Covered in Toadstools

Remember that point in the 70's where everyone associated with rock started singing about wizards, witches and vampires (if you didn't, maybe you remember the pixies, fairies and toadstools from the 60's or the zombies, chainsaws and naked women covered in sauce in the 80's)? It was a bit shit most of the time wasn't it?

That's got certain members of Foilface thinking that maybe, just maybe, the shitness was down to the wrong combinations. At least two songs on the forthcoming album will therefore work off the new Foilface formula of vampires and naked women covered in toadstools. It's a winning formula, we promise.

If it doesn't rock you, you're probably Rick Wakeman....

What's the Concept?

Should albums tell stories? Or is it enough to just bang together a dozen great tunes and line them up so they sound good together? Should albums have a concept behind them or just act as a showcase?

I guess the obvious answers are no, probably and either, but it’s worth a thought. Concept albums like The Wall, Quadrophenia, Ege Bamyasi, Ok Computer and Sgt Pepper's sound much better when listened to as a whole and don’t really lend themselves well to the ipod shuffle. That in itself is a great argument for concept albums. In this day and age if the album is to survive as a workable format, surely a rise in concept albums is due.

Personally I (and Foilface) much prefer a bit of occasional indulgence over play it safe ‘meat and two veg’ pub-rock. And for me there’s too few albums containing song-cycles and multi-song plots and stories. Maybe bands are just scared. You only have to look at the state of Brian Wilson to see what creating albums like ‘Smile’ can do to a man.

I still find it baffling that post-Ok Computer the concept album still hasn’t really taken off (excluding the odd belting exception like the Liars’ ‘They Were Wrong So We Drowned’ and Neon Neon’s ‘Stainless Style’).

Whether or not the forthcoming Foilface album is a concept album remains to be seen. It could easily be an exploration of mankind’s battle with medieval nightmares, vampires, human heartbreak and the questionable optimism of 21st Century Western society. Or it could just as easily be about slags, whisky, street-fighting and monkeys.

I just want a world packed with great concept albums (however loosely that term is applied – a concept needn’t be strict – after all Sgt Pepper's is just costumes and a title track when all is said and done isn’t it?). Failing that, just a bit more originality would be nice (are you listening Blunt, Ronson, Borrell, et al?). Music packed with ideas and stories, hot new music, melodies that sizzle the ears and bake the soul. It’s what we all want, isn’t it? (Answer – 'Yes').

Do the Outburst

One of the potential contenders for album opener on the forthcoming (as yet unnamed) Foilface CD is a tune called, 'Pantry' (or maybe, 'Do the Outburst') we recorded in a drunken haze a few months ago.

It's basically a vaguely surreal David Icke-like take on 60's garage rock and has a mildly modish feel to it (and some lovely keyboards too).

The opening rant, "Bring out the sinners, they are nothing but lizards, they bring you down to their tables at breakfast time and make you sit through their prayers", could be interpreted in a number of ways. Are we really part of a world governed by huge shape-shifting reptilians? Or do the lizards represent the archaic elements of western society the protagonist wants to rebel against? Probably neither if the truth be told but it's a poser.

The song also goes on to label everyone on earth 'molluscs' and 'war wounds', which as well as potentially tipping an ironic hat to Darwin and Dawkins could just as easily be a lovely little burst of surrealist-babble.

You'll get to hear it at some point if you stay tuned to these regular updates from the official udders of Manchester's new musical cow, Foilface. The place where UK slacker rock, meets mexican-psyche-seaside-folk and fights it to the death (or at least till someone cries a bit)... Don't be a stranger...

A Psychedelic Ponder

Look at the quizzical look on this small 1970's child's face. He isn't questioning his haircut. Nor is he questioning the early emergence of a double chin. No, this child is pondering the phrase 'Foilface'. Is it a state of mind? Or is is just a face covered in foil?

Five minutes after this photo was taken, the child realised he was asking the wrong questions. And many years later he just accepted the fact that Foilface was a part of his life, no matter how mysterious or vague that seemed.

Foilface is the psychedelic music that floats around inside his mind and occassionally escapes from his mouth ready to hook onto the beautiful music of others and create landscapes of sonic wonderment and babble. Foilface is the holy roasting of meats and the saviour of musical left-overs. A nonsense of wildly sensible proportions...

Broken Steeples

Another Foilface session came and went last night and another tune is in the can (but for the sake of a sensible polish). What fun this Saturday recording malarky is. I don't think I'll ever get tired of it. It certainly beats being squeezed into a bar somewhere, eating twiglets and sucking in my gut as I wink at ladies and pretend to be interesting to strangers.

Our latest opus is called 'We are the Broken Steeples' (or maybe just 'Broken Steeples' as it sounds a bit less like something a cheesy 1970's country and western band from Newcastle might holler as they step onto the stage of a spit and sawdust pub in Rochdale). After 20 or so listens it sounds a bit like Odelay-era Beck meets Gruff Rhys' solo stuff to me but it's tricky to pin down. The words sinister and perky spring to mind. Maybe we've created a new genre - 'Sinister-Perk'.

Anyway, at some point over the next few months you'll get the chance to hear it on this site if you fancy (there's already a couple of tunes on our mp3 page if your curious and fancy some free Manchester music for your ipod).

Pussyfoot! Your Mind is Diseased!

They said it couldn't be done. 'They' don't really exist of course and the things being done are all done in the dark with no-one watching. So scrap that. Let me start again...

No-one said things might or might not be done. AND guess what?! They have been.

So, who or what are Foilface? Well, have you ever drunk a tumbler of paed (the delightfully sub-human blend of Russia's finest ice-cold vodka and Britain's bollock-warm cream soda)? Have you ever danced with a bag of revels in the pale moonlight? Do you like bending, Focus's 'Hocus Pocus', McDonalds' Vanilla Milkshake enemas and whities? If the answer is 'yes', then there's a good chance you'll love Foilface even if you don't know who or what they are yet really (you will soon).

Focus - Hocus Pocus (Live '73) - Click here to watch flabbergastingly good Youtube clip

Imagine riding on the back of a huge wolf. You are a nomadic fighter but you have no idea what you are fighting or where you are heading. The desert you ride across is bare but for the random scatterings of angry cacti. Visions brew and vampires appear on the horizon of your memories, dribbling their sluicy madness across the dreams you scatter forth. Vague rumours of atrocities whisper across the sandy dunes, thoughts of love and betrayal sink into the dying sun and yet all you can do is laugh. You laugh until you pass out and then as you drift into dreams all you can hear is the sound of strange seaside organ, the cries of hungry gulls and the five words, "PUSSYFOOT - Your mind is diseased!" . The words echo beautifully like a perfectly blended mixture of fear and amusement. When you finally wake from your slumber, you are sat on a lazy-boy with a jotter pad in your hand and a peculiar sense of joy. The pad is almost entirely empty. Almost. All it says is, 'Foilface'.

Latest UK Songs?

You're unlikely to get any more 'hot off the press' music release action than Foilface.

We have been known to go into our Manchester studio, with no preparation (beyond a trip for generic essential supplies), then emerge an obscene amount of hours later with a finished tune – all mixed and everything – and bang it straight into the internet through the magic of the MP3... before even going to bed!

Eee, how times have changed, eh? It's not like them olden days when the latest UK songs available were actually finished a while back, but had only just become physically existent in the world. I bet there weren't many bands recording, producing and finishing a tune all in one night, then pressing a few thousand vinyls before going to bed...

That said, we'd be lying if we claimed they didn't usually need the odd tweak in the cold light of day, but that's a minor detail!