FOXYGEN at Wrongbar (1279 Queen West), tonight (Thursday, May 9), 8 pm. $13.50. EMB, RT, SS, TW. See listing.
In a sleepy suburb of Los Angeles, 14-year-olds Jonathan Rado and Sam France met in math class, self-released a bunch of albums filled with pubescent rapping and Flaming Lips-pilfered melodies and now, eight years later, Foxygen are signed to Jagjaguwar with two fantastic LPs under their belt.
On the phone from New York City, where he’s at home amid a string of tour dates, guitarist Rado sums it up: “We met in middle school. We started a band. And we just kept doing it.”
But Foxygen’s success has seen a few roadblocks, including a meltdown at SXSW when France stormed offstage after hecklers accused him of complaining too much, and a cancelled European tour, which the boys officially said was to preserve the band’s “creative health.” (According to Rado, the band never approved the tour and had planned to spend that time recording their next album.)
But they’re on the road again, and Foxygen’s current release, the loftily titled We Are The 21st Century Ambassadors Of Peace & Magic, is a mix of psychedelia and indie rock, and a salute to Foxygen’s record collection.
The duo’s idols – the Stones, the Kinks, Bob Dylan – make appearances: in Rado’s guitar pops, in the kooky roaming organ, in France’s somersaulting vocals that emulate Bob Dylan or Ray Davies, depending on the track.
“I think we were going through a phase,” says Rado. “We were obsessed with these certain sounds and really wanted to do it ourselves.”
This kind of retro referencing can get tiresome, but Foxygen does it with a sense of humour best seen in their dramatic performances. When the band’s not mocking Wes Anderson films (as in their music video for San Francisco), they’re hamming it up onstage, with France channelling a vaudevillian Mick Jagger.
That goofiness harkens back to their musical theatre roots. “Yeah, we were drama kids,” says Rado. “Me and Sam were on the same improv team.”
The boys could have been theatre stars – they were in Bubble Boy: The Musical, after all. But their psych-pop sound is better suited to house parties and coffee shops than Broadway.
music@nowtoronto.com
