a quick overview of one night in redding california on our way back home from seattle. thanks to everybody who came out to the shows- let there be more!

:::
the swerve festival in barnsdall park was the perfect golden orange california dream of a grassy hill- like the vague memory of some cover art for a lost beach boys album circa 1971 or maybe 1921?
we're grateful to ASCAP and FUELtv for inviting us to take part.




p.s.: not to mention how sweet it was to play next to frank lloyd wright's 'hollyhock house':::::

::
one day till Swerve.
we play saturday at 4:30.
it's totally free man.
look, they're setting it up---->

::::
only today, tuesday the 25th!-
freely and legally download 'Into your Dream' from our myspace page or from this link in celebration of officially representing to the infinite world of network television, one possible simulacrum of everyday life in our neighborhood of Echo Park, Los Angeles. we, FB, are happy to give away, if only for one day, the official soundtrack to what just might be the most pivotal moment of Chuck's whole fuckin' life!

foreign born jam with 'Chuck'...

Monday, Sept. 24:
whoa, you'll never believe it, but a few months back while we were playing a show at the ex-plex here in echo park, right towards the beginning of our set while we were playing 'into yr dream' outta nowhere some ninja chick totally got into a fight with some cia agents while dancing with some chump. i guess somehow it got filmed (?) and it's gonna be on TV (??)- we've been told it's called 'Chuck' and it's gonna premiere on NBC on Sept. 24 at 8pm/7c.

Saturday, Sept. 29th:
FB plays the first ever Swerve Festival in LA! We play at 4:30 at the great lawn stage in Barnsdall Park! It's FREE!!! Check their website for all the details.

October 2nd-7th:
Tour up the west coast with DataRock, look here for details.

October 16th-21st:
New York/CMJ- we'll be in NY playing some shows, more news as it comes.

listen to a recent interview we did with KUSF at 4 PM this Sunday Sept. 16th! dig it live on 90.3 fm in the bay area or on the intra-web here.

Here is a visual record of our set at last month's Fuck Yeah Fest..

ok, ok- if you haven't guessed already, the above virtual simulation totally sums up what our next album's gonna sound like. we're thinking about calling it "Don't Give Up (Africa)"- awesome title or what!?

Thanks to everybody who made it out to our record release party last night, 'twas a long time coming! Check LA Times music columnist, Kevin Bronson's take on the show here.

To celebrate the official birth of our debut album 'On the Wing Now', we're hosting a free show featuring old pals, In Waves, and some new, old world pals, Nevenka, (LA based woman's choir who sing traditional dramatic adaptations of Bulgarian and other eastern/central European folk styles- music marked by alarming and mysterious harmonies, punctuated by yips, yelps, yowls, wails and whoops.)

Please check this chat, both parts 1 & 2, which Matt recently had with local LA music enthusiast Nik Mercer on BIBABIDI.net. Thanks Nik!

FB would just like to thank all of the nice individuals who came out to see us in support of the Rapture last week! We realize we have a largely broke fan base and that sure was a steep ticket! But at least the drinks were cheap.. ha! I was personally scolded for stealing a bottle of water from the bar when it was sans bartender.. he told me The Mayan Theater was "not my home," I'll never forget him and the advice he gave me.
On the upside, we met an FB fan from France! who had everything we'd ever done! That's a hard thing to do even in California. I think most of the band doesn't even have that much. So thankyou Foreign friend!

In other news we recently taped a perfomance for The Daily Habbit on FUEL TV to air on August 7th. We played "Union Hall" and "Into Your Dream" on a stage with a skate board ramp.. If you get this channel (we don't know anybody who does..) then watch us on TV! We'd like to thank everyone over at FUEL for all the support..You can follow this link to find out exactly what time it airs and so forth.
http://fuel.cablesource.net/
mp

anybody lucky enough to catch the new Sigmar Polke pieces at the Venice Biennale?

FB are way grateful to Mark Needham for his incredible job on the dense mixage of our disparate collage of good and sometimes not so good musical ideas...Thank you kindly Mark, with no help from Will Brierre of course.
-fb

oh giulietta!

this :

or that:

A funny thing happened to us in our own neighborhood.. They put us on a TV show! Playing at a local club to a "local" crowd with massive Coldplay lights behind us. Just a regular day in Echo Park. But the funniest part (beside our minds being altered by a bottle of Jim Beam) was that guy in the very front row with his fist in the air, screaming and staring into my eyes like a raving lunatic! It was hard to concentrate. This might have been the director's fault of course, explaing to the crowd of extras that "this was their favorite band" and that they should "go nuts". But it was a good time for all in the end.
This show, as I've forgotten to mention, is called "Chuck" and will hit the air in September. The show, from the creators of "The O.C.", is primarily about government secrets inside a slacker's mind, which a handful of Matrix-like CIA agents are trying to uncover or protect.. not sure, as we were confused by a group of strangers being paid to dance to our music.. and we were wasted. In this episode he dates an assasin who displays some "deadly" moves on the dance floor, but the crowd doesn't notice anything because they're watching their favorite band! it was the best gig we've ever played.

Holy SHIT! Foreign Born signed a record deal! Yes, it's happened folks, meaning that the self-releasing days of hanging out at Kinko's are over (hopefully), but you never know, that place has a strange, time-sucking magnetism about it..
As of a day or two ago, not long before going on stage in support of the Walkmen, we signed with Dim Mak, for an August 21st release date of "On the Wing Now". I personally signed it on the hood of my car (every contract I've signed (2) has been on a car somehow) and the rest of the guys, I think signed on a bar..
anyway, so that's that. We added a song to the mix - "Don't Take Back Your Time", for those of you who got the advanced copy, and took one off - "We Had Pleasure".
For the art, we found this painter named Paul Urich, who's currently showing at the Eleanor Harwood Gallery in San Francisco, who let us use his painting "Together". It looks great, thanks again Paul!
Other than that, we won't be playing too many shows until our record comes out. Maybe a few shows here and there, but we'll resume touring in August around it's release, including a cool record release show of some kind.
hope you're well out there,
MP