No Recess!

There was something in the air last night if you happened to be at Boardner's for the latest installment of the Radio Free Silver Lake presented Let's Independent. Did you feel it? Some time before Fol Chen completed the first song of their set you could definitely sense that the majority of the people in the room had just realized they were watching their new favorite local band for the first time. I can't personally go so far as to declare them as such. My indiepop heart will still always default to the simpler pleasures of The Tartans, Princeton, or in an almost entirely unrelated way the all out bombast of Le Switch. That being said I admired the hell out of Fol Chen's ambitious equal parts weird/accessible ultra full sounding pop songs, and the outright commitment of everyone in the band to what they were doing. A trumpet created sounds I didn't realize a trumpet was capable of making due to the fact that it was played upside down, gloriously jangly noise was acheived by two of my favorite instruments being clapped together (sleigh bells in one hand, tambourine in the other,) and later those same sleigh bells were used as part of a drum pattern! Wow. They did a pretty fascinating cover/reinterpretation of the Nirvana song "School," as well. Oddly enough this was the second cover song off of Bleach that I've heard in less than a week. Again, there must be something in the air.

I would suggest that you prepare yourself for hearing a lot more about Fol Chen now because it's sure to be inevitable. You might want to make it a point to see their live show too because it's kind of amazing.

~sqg marion

Here's video proof! Notice the trumpet technique that I was referring to earlier...



Huge thanks to Mouse for posting this video by the way!