New “Slash” tee shirt design by Citizen Taylor-Fantastic.

Get one here: http://deathbombarc.bigcartel.com/product/foot-village-slash-tee-shirt

NO-CORE webzine review of ‘Anti-Magic’

The last time I wrote something about the infamous 4-drummer/vocalist band Foot Village, I said that they reminded me of one of those weekend project bands that would normally play one show and be forgotten. Somehow or other I had in fact forgotten that I actually WAS in a percussion-and-vocals-only band called The Old Joe Smiths. It was formed on a weekend and did play exactly one show.

But wait, this is not one of those self-absorbed reviews where I just talk about me, I have a point about Foot Village. As soon as the Old Joe Smiths band concept was born, it immediately expanded to include multiple odd percussion instruments, including glass bottles with varying amounts of water to make a crude xylophone. Foot Village on the other hand, has a much stronger purity of vision. If someone tells you that a band is made of 4 drummer/vocalists, you might picture some kind of world music group with bongos, bells, vocal harmonies, etc. Heck, even other multi-drummer noise-rock groups like Aa or current Boredoms go in for this stuff.

Foot Village? None of that. Four matching rock drum kits. Kick, tom, snare, hi-hat, crash. Times four. Pounding and screaming. That’s what you get. They allow themselves exactly one additional “instrument” – the megaphone. I suspect the tone in “Death of the Endless” is megaphone feedback and the sirens in “National Jamthum” and “Chicken & Cheese 2″ are a default sound created by the same megaphone. In addition to these restrictions, Foot Village also operate within an established concept – they are building their own nation. This album, “Anti-Magic,” is vaguely about their first war, with the forces of mysticism and magic. The album art shows Foot Village tribe members – all nude – fighting wizard types with sticks, spears, and bombs. I thought this concept might be about the battle between superstition and rationalism, but if so it comes across vague and playful, not political.

You might think the tight restrictions would make things boring, but no. It just forces Foot Village to push the creativity of their composition and interaction. There is one small deviation from this plan, the half-way point track “Grace’s Death” which is mostly vocal, then veers into some kind of remixed/electronic segment. A nice little break, then back to the drums. Also, the album closes with the track ”Chicken & Cheese 2,” which turns into a relay race of rad underground bands covering the song, one after the other. The results are extremely varied and it’s a super-fun way to close things out. In fact, each edition of the album: CD, vinyl, cassette, and digital – has a different collection of bands doing the covers.

One last thought: It is really hard to capture multiple drums in a recording. I don’t know if it always sounds like there are 4 drum kits here, but it almost always sounds like there’s more than one. The drum-layering works best when there are lots of fast rolls going on, like those in “Reggae War Zone.” The “heavy” all-together pounding moments sound much more impressive in a live setting, which is really how you ought to experience Foot Village. Still, none of that changes the fact that this is a great and super-entertaining album. (But maybe they should put out a Dolby 5.1 version too).

We are very happy to return to EU/UK! Detailed info on these shows are on our shows page, but the general schedule is:

5th – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Melkweg
6th – London, UK @ Barden’s Boudoir
7th – Brighton, UK @ Freebutt
8th – Cardiff, UK @ Buffalo Bar
9th – Manchester, UK @ Trof
10th – Glasgow, UK @ CCA
11th – Newcastle, UK @ Head Of Steam
12th – Leeds, UK, @ Cardigan Arms
13th – Liverpool, UK @ St Luke’s
14th – London, UK @ secret show
15th – off
16th – Paris, France @ Glazart
17th – Clermont-Ferrand, France @ Raymond Bar
18th – Düdingen, Switzerland @ Bad Bonn
19th – Lyon, France @ Grnd Zero Vaise / Rail Théâtre
20th – off
21st – Prague, Czech Republic @ 007
22nd – Berlin, German @ West Germany
23rd – Lille, France @ Malterie

We will have new teeshirts for these shows, along with most of our current releases.

All of us at Foot Village love to meet, party, and even work with other musicians. So, in an effort to find even more ways to work with YOU, we our very happy to give you complete remix kits for every song on our most recent album, ‘Anti-Magic’. Thats right, separation of all 4 different drum parts and all the vocal parts, plus some surprises! So download and remix away, or sample for your own songs, or whatever you want to do with these stems from our songs. All we ask is that you share the results with us!

Here it is, 6.5 gigs of data! Our gift to you!!! All files are zips.

Anti-Magic (335MB)
Chicken & Cheese 2 (621MB)
Crybaby (1.2Gig)
Death of the Endless (1.1Gig)
Energy Hunters (320MB)
Grace’s Death (143MB)
National Jamthum (1Gig)
Reggae War Zone (799MB)
T.A.K.E. (1.1Gig)

Thank you very much to Jonathan Snipes for his hours of help with getting this project together!!

Drop yr remix here!

Anti-Magic Remix Kit by http://footvillage.org/music/anti-magic-remix-kit is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at footvillage.org.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If the video stream keeps stalling, pause it and let it load all the way before playing. It’ll be much more enjoyable. There is also a lo-res version on vimeo.

Download the 800MB super-hi-res (and possibly seizure inducing) version of the video here.

Title track from our 3rd album.
Released on CD and Vinyl by Upset the Rhythm. Cassette by Rock is Hell.
Directed by Cristopher Cichocki
Available soon on dvd from Table of Contents

cristophersea.com
thetableofcontents.com
upsettherhythm.co.uk
rockishell.com

If you want to embed this video, use this code:
<object width=”400″ height=”267″><param name=”allowfullscreen” value=”true” /><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always” /><param name=”movie” value=”http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=6630618&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1″ /><embed src=”http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=6630618&amp;server=vimeo.com&amp;show_title=1&amp;show_byline=1&amp;show_portrait=0&amp;color=&amp;fullscreen=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowfullscreen=”true” allowscriptaccess=”always” width=”400″ height=”267″></embed></object><p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/6630618″>FOOT VILLAGE “ANTI-MAGIC”</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/user1005916″>Deathbomb Arc</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>

WFMU’s Free Music Archive has added the rest of the “Chicken & Cheese 2″ covers we received for the massive audio collage project on our latest album “Anti-Magic”. The submissions we recieved can be heard in full in the player below. The new additions to their library are the last 11 tracks.
To hear how the submissions were edited together for our album, please pick up a cover of Anti-Magic. The CD, vinyl, cassette, and iTunes versions all contain alternate edits/bands since we received so many amazing versions! Get it here: http://deathbombarc.bigcartel.com/product/foot-village-anti-magic-cd-lp

Visit the library here.

AB079 (on Absolutely Kosher)

The Foot Village song is a cover of IE’s “Kim ILL”. 60 Watt Kid is cali superstar Kevin Litrow (from Dance Disaster Movement) and crew. Full color art (one side done by none other than Jen Ray!) and the Foot Village side begins with a very insane and special surprise before the song begins! Hope you like structuralist art?!!?!?!?!?

Get it from us here: Deathbomb Arc Webstore
From Absolutely Kosher here: AK Webstore
and from iTunes here: Click here to load iTunes webstore

All of us in Foot Village love D&D. All of us. Especially Citizen Lee. Nerds we are. So, when it comes to music listening, we try to represent our nerdy taste in the most shallow way possible. So here is a mix dedicated to to the letters D&D. A Doom & Disco mix. From the 20,000-leagues-under-the-sea melodies of Clipd Beaks to the staccato static beats of Big Digits to bands that seemlessly blend the genres of dronemetal and dancefloor like Captain Ahab and Pictureplane. We also love chanting, so you get lots of it in here — especially of the Lost Boys OST sort. So, open up an animated GIF of a Warcraft Orc doing the Soulja Boy Tell ’Em dance and enjoy. We’re here in LA, sucking up the smoke while the hills burn like the chimneys of Apokolips. Hope you forgive us if this summer is more about zone-trooping and reading Ziggy comics for us than the beach-bashes you are used to.

01. XBXRX – “Curso e Famine” (Un Usper)
Start time: 0:00; Links: XBXRX
02. Big Digits – “Making Progress” (TBA)
Start time: 2:01; Links: Big Digits
03. Fartbarf – “Play the Game” (Self-titled)
Start time: 4:08; Links: Fartbarf
04. Clipd Beaks – “Dust” (To Realize)
Start time: 6:43; Links: Clipd Beaks
05. Alaskas – “Unshackled” (Set Yourself Free)
Start time: 10:20; Links: Highfives & Handshakes – Alaskas
06. TITS – “Cheap Echoes” (Second Base)
Start time: 11:30; Links: Upset the Rhythm – TITS
07. Kinit Her – “Nagas Litany” (Glyms or Beame of Radicall Truthes)
Start time: 15:20; Links: Living Tapes – Kinit Her
08. Thee Oh Sees – “Go Meet the Seed” (Help)
Start time: 19:06; Links: In the Red – Thee Oh Sees
09. Pictureplane – “Tance Doll” (Dark Rift)
Start time: 24:40; Links: Lovepump United – Pictureplante
10. Captain Ahab – “Feel Anymore” (The End of Irony)
Start time: 28:19; Links: Deathbomb Arc – Captain Ahab

[Artwork: Keith Kawaii]

Cold Hands Video has released a dvd of live performances filmed at the Smell. It features The Mae Shi, Foot Village, Ponytail, Abe Vigoda, High Places, Gowns, BARR, No Age, HEALTH, and Captain Ahab.

Outtake of from the Foot Village performance (unmastered):

Click here to view the embedded video.

Trailer:

Click here to view the embedded video.

“Featuring over 2 hours of live bands from Los Angeles and beyond, “Live at The Smell” captures the live energy that pumps through LA’s legendary independent DIY all-ages venue. Recorded in high-quality audio and video over a month period in Fall 2008, the DVD gives you the feeling of being immersed in one of the many gigs presented there each week for over 10 years. The music is clean and powerful, the footage is raw and wild, and the energy is LIVE.

“Presented on a gorgeous 6-panel Digipak with superb all-mural photographs by Wild Don Lewis and liner notes by Jim Smith (owner / operator of The Smell), “Live at The Smell” is a collector’s document, something you won’t want to miss. Even if it gets on NetFlix, even when you find it on your favorite torrent site, it won’t be the same as holding it in your hand. 6 murals are represented – featuring artists Cali deWitt, Jesse Spears, and some unknown dude from the 80s when it was a caballero bar.

“The bands featured on this movie are the cream of the indie-alt-rock / experimental bands that play the club on a regular basis: Mae Shi, Foot Village, Ponytail, Abe Vigoda, High Places, Gowns, BARR, No Age, HEALTH, Captain Ahab (in order of appearance). Culled from 20 hours of live concerts, the movie is at times slick broadcast-quality so to speak, and othertimes fuzzy and blown out, all the while with clean and loud audio, mastered by Mike Lastra. We harnessed the sun and the moon for a little while with all our mighty little cameras, and we bring you their shining lights and their madness in all our audiophonic fidelity.

“Proceeds from the sale of this DVD will help support The Smell’s operations, so buy them while you can. The Smell is a money-losing for-profit venture; its profit is in the heart of the LA freak-noise-punk-art-music scene.” – Cold Hands Video

Available from Cold Hand Video here.
Available from us here.