Lollapalooza Spotlight: Battles

Battles is a quartet comprised of drummer John Stanier of Helmet and Tomahawk, guitarist/keyboardist Ian Williams of Don Caballero and Storm & Stress, guitarist David Konopka of Lynx, and avant solo musician Tyondai Braxton.

All members bring their honed-in angular math skills of past glory to Battles. The Tras and EP C EPs were both released in June 2004 on Cold Sweat and Monitor respectively. The B EP followed on Dim Mak in September 2004. The Atlas EP followed in early 2007, followed in turn by the band's proper full-length debut, Mirrored, in May 2007.

Battles at Lollapalooza
August 2nd (Saturday) 6:30 - 7:30 On the Citi Stage

Official After Show
August 2nd (Saturday)
Battles
w/ Foals and Magic Wands
Double Door
Ages 21+
Doors @ 10pm
tix thru www.doubledoor.com

Lollapalooza Spotlight: Foals

Foals is a band I have been wanting to write about for a while now. I have been listening to their album, Antidotes, since maybe March (got it early, but it was released April 8 via Sup Pop). It's a fun cd, really catchy, lots of spins on my iPod. Do yourself a favor and buy a copy. All my friends are probably tired of me talking about them (I know Richard is), so why not write about them, FINALLY? They are probably one of the bands I'm most excited to see, after of course, the BIG THREE at Lollapalooza. They are on my definitely must-see list after seeing video of their energy filled set at Glastonbury (I watched the whole set last month, but can't find it anywhere now).

Now a little more info on the band. Foals is a five-piece dance-rock band from Oxford, England. The band, all in their early twenties, is made up of Yannis Philippakis (vocals/guitar), Edwin Congreave (keyboards), Walter Gervers (bass), Jimmy Smith (guitar), and Jack Bevan (drums). The name Foals was inspired by Yannis' surname (which means "little lover of horses" in Greek).

[Foals at Glastonbury, photo by Guy Eppel]

Bored with the interchangeable electro records they heard at every party, they decided to make the kind of music they wanted to dance to. “We wanted to make music that was very technical, that wasn’t just party music, but at the same time you could dance to it,” explains lead singer/guitar Yannis Philippakis. Their music is a different sound from any other band and that's definitely rare nowadays.

Foals - Balloons (mp3)
Foals - Electric Bloom (mp3)

How lead singer Yannis describes the guitars:

“They’re meant to sound like insects,” says Yannis. “They’re played high on the fret board—we even hold our instruments up high. The result sounds like a cloud of insects forming these strange harmonies.

Here's the video for "Red Sock Pugie".



Foals at Lollapalooza
Saturday, August 2
Citi Stage 2:15 pm - 3:00 pm

Foals are also playing an Lollapalooza aftershow with Battles and Magic Wands at Double Door. You can buy tickets here for $15.