Photo by Debi Del Grande
Ohio native Mark Foster has been playing around Los Angeles for some time, genre-weaving and building a following among friends and other musicians. He built this band slowly at the end of 2009; first with drummer Mark Pontius, then bassist and back-up vocalist Cubbie Fink. Finally adding Zach “Reazon” Heiligman, an MC and songwriter who Mark had been writing hip hop tracks with for about a year, Mark Foster’s band became Foster the People and started playing out in Los Angeles in January 2010.
Quickly gaining attention, and support from influential locals like SUPERGOODMUSIC’S Brandon Dorsky, Foster the People entered the industry zeitgeist, becoming a band to watch out for at SXSW. Their sure-to-get-stuck-in-your-head “Pumped Up Kicks” is everyone’s best guess for the song of this summer.
Foster The People - Pumped Up Kicks.mp3
Foster The People – Pumped Up Kicks [MP3]
Foster the People’s first show back from Austin was at Spaceland on Wednesday night, playing before The Fling and Deep Sea Diver. They opened with their song “Love” and its opening line, “Hello, my name is Mark.” Mark’s boyish charm grabs you immediately, his smile infectious as he eases through the first of their catchy tracks. He’s a theatrical front man with a serious voice, but the whole band carries a huge amount of enthusiasm. On the MPC and minimal vocal backing, Reazon was especially fun to watch as he showed off his dance moves, asserting his presence without drawing attention away from the music. An established MC out of Minneapolis, it will be cool to see how Reazon’s skills factor in on future tracks.
They played the buzzed-about “Pumped Up Kicks” smack in the middle of their set. Their natural single, this one got everyone going and certainly hooked the strangers in the crowd. The smartest thing these guys have done is unveil an EP’s worth of songs electronically and pretty much exclusively on their website. And there was definitely a group of fans at Spaceland who knew those songs; there to see them, singing along. For those who hadn’t heard them before, Foster the People is easy to like. The songwriting is really solid, their identity impressively intact for such a new band, their contagious energy hard to ignore.
The band’s fourth song, tentatively titled “Electronic,” was the only track they played which is not available to stream on their site. It took a more experimental turn – crossing genres in a way that was dizzying at times (a little bit reggae, some heavy electronic, a taste of soulful ballad, and a dance break!), but it was a nice hint at what else these guys may have cooking.
They ended the show with “Kids,” a catchy tune and proof that Foster the People’s speciality is the toe-tapping, highly produced summer anthem. These boys pay attention to detail; one of my favorite moments of the night was when I noticed that drummer Mark Pontius closed out the set playing double duty; working his drumstick and a maraca in the same hand, adding to the kid-in-a-candy-store sound these guys have.
Foster The People - Kids (Preview Clip).mp3
Foster The People – Kids (Preview Clip)
They’ve only played a few shows so far (half of which were at SXSW) so Foster the People were excited to be back in LA, working on more music and playing a few home games, including a midnight show at the Viper Room on April 14. You’ll for sure be hearing the feel-good “Pumped Up Kicks” this summer, and it’s nice to see that the fun carries through from their tracks to the live show.
Not without kinks that come from being brand new, Foster the People still already begs for a bigger stage. It will be interesting to see how they come into their own as a band playing together, and how they evolve as their audience grows.
Foster The People - Pumped Up Kicks (The Highweights Remix).mp3
Foster The People – Pumped Up Kicks (The Highweights Remix) [MP3] (Info)
