Research into a British band of general interest

Foals
Genre: Minimalist / Alternative / Pop

Basic Information
Foals are a 5 piece band from Oxford, England. They are currently signed to “Transgressive Records” in the UK and “Sub Pop” in the USA. They released their debut album “Antidotes “on 24 March 2008 in the UK, and 8 April 2008 in the USA.

Band Members
Yannis Philippakis (Vocals and guitar)
Jack Bevan (Drums)
Jimmy Smith (Guitar)
Edwin Congreave (Keyboard)
Walter Gervers (Bass)

The band Foals are marketed through different websites including their own (www.foals.co.uk). The other being the music and socializing site Myspace (www.myspace.com). The bands Myspace address is www.myspace.com/foals. Through both these sites fans are able to access the tracks. Other sites such video sharing sites such as Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/). Fans are able to access official music videos that have been released by the band. Tracks are available to download through a host of different websites. These include the bands own website, others may include ITunes (www.apple.com/itunes) for example.

The band’s songs are played on radio broadcasters such as BBC Radio 1. Their music was first played on a BBC introducing show, a timeslot where new music from all different genres’ can be heard. As well as being heard on the radio, music television channels such as NME Television via Sky broadcasting and occasionally on Sky channel MTV2.

Their debut album Antidotes was released on 24 March 2008 which was sold in record shops such HMV. Whilst online sales of the album through sites such as ITunes. Their next album “Total Life Forever” is due out on May 10th as the follow-up to “Antidotes”. Other formats their albums have been released on other than 6” inch Disc and Mp3 format include vinyl. To coincide with the release of their new album they have promoted their new album by launching an interactive website, which enables the user to sample the sound of the new album whilst making images. When the image is complete lyrics appear.

Antidotes was produced by Dave Sitek of TV On The Radio one of the bands influences.
Foals band members also citing minimal techno, Arthur Russell, Kraut rock bands such as Harmonia, Talking Heads and marijuana as their main sources of inspiration. Their musical style however, can be more directly linked to various genres such as indie rock, dance-punk, math rock, post-punk revival and techno.