By Bro. Jo Stern, on February 9th, 2009
 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….
By Bro. Jo Stern, on February 7th, 2009
 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’).
By Bro. Jo Stern, on February 6th, 2009
 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…
By Bro. Jo Stern, on February 3rd, 2009
 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…
By Bro. Jo Stern, on February 2nd, 2009
 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).
By Bro. Jo Stern, on January 28th, 2009
 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‘.
By Bro. Jo Stern, on January 28th, 2009
 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!
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