Breathlessly banging on drums, violently humping their guitars from behind, and randomly hurling their skinny bodies around, Foals don’t just play live, they manage to pack an entire cardiovascular workout into their hour onstage. Arriving in America to spread the word about its excellent Sub Pop debut, Antidotes, the Oxford, England five-piece finds itself facing a capacity crowd of early adopters in San Francisco.
With sharp angular haircuts and tight-fitting plaid shirts, they look less like a band and more a punk-funk army. The obvious reference points are The Rapture and Bloc Party, but the band has more to offer than simply regurgitating ’80s influences, at least beyond the obvious ones. Antidotes was produced in Brooklyn by TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek, who injected the band’s knotty grooves with exhilarating blasts of Afrobeat. In San Francisco, the group stripped tunes like “Cassius” and “Balloons” down to elemental yelps, uptight rhythms and triumphant hooks.
Singer Yannis Philippakis is a wonder. Half the size of his nearest bandmate (guitarist Jimmy Smith), he works twice as hard at throwing himself into the songs, jerking out abstract sketches loaded with of emotion but totally devoid of meaning. He once claimed that his band’s intention was to destroy the music industry from the inside out. As unlikely as that is to happen, only a fool would completely write off a bunch of guys that take the stage with such conviction.
“Cassius”:
