My friend Kris and I arrived at the Holocene as Foxygen was setting up. We wandered into the dark, crowded venue of this sold out show, waiting in anticipation to see how Foxygen would fair as a live act. I had already been digging their new album, We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic, for some time, and I was looking forward to hearing my favorite neo-hippie pop hits from one of the most exciting bands to emerge this year. I was a little nervous, because to be honest, I hadn’t heard the best feedback about this band’s live performances, but I was anxious to judge it for myself. As long as they played all the songs I loved, I didn’t expect to be too disappointed.

Foxygen finally took the stage to roars from the crowd. The band looked like it had come straight from Woodstock, with long flowing hair and colorful, flowery garments. To drive the point home, the curly-haired, cap-wearing guitarist looked like a Bob Dylan impersonator. Without saying a word, they made their opening statement: they are the hippies of now. The modern-day flower children. The 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic.

And they proved it. They proceeded with their set of dreamy, beatnik rock and schizophrenic grooves, and the crowd danced and screamed the night away. They opened with a few 21st Century cuts, and I was initially unimpressed by the sound: the lead singer could not even be heard, and I couldn’t make out any actual lyrics—it all sounded like slurred mumbling and loud yelping. Eventually, though, the sound crew apparently got it together as the band exploded into the psychedelic album opener, “In the Darkness,”—one of my favorite cuts on the album—which sounded great! The short, bluesy jam “Bowling Trophies” was another treat, and later we heard some more of the album’s singles: the flowery pop of “San Francisco” and the ethereal ambience of “Shuggie.”

From there on out the music was good, the band was very tight with good on-stage chemistry and energy. The singer, Sam France, however, was another story all together. He was very animated and hyper, and accompanied his lyrics with coordinated movements and facial expressions. It was very intriguing to watch, and enjoyable at first, until he started taking (in my opinion) far too many creative liberties with the songs. He changed the melody up in the chorus of “San Francisco,” taking it much higher than on the recordings and utilizing a strained, Top 40-style vocal tone of which I was NOT a fan. He even rapped a little on “Shuggie:” the line “I met your daughter the other day/Well that was weird” became “I met your daughter the other day/YO THAT WAS WEIRD YA’LL!” It was corny, annoying and out-of-place.

But other than that, the singing was beautiful, pure, and in tune, and France was a great frontman! At least, when he was singing. The other area in which Foxygen, and mostly France, need improvement is stage banter. Between songs, France rambled about nonsense, trailed off mid-sentence, and made his best attempt at sounding profound. “I’m really bad at this stuff, you know,” he said. “Thoughts. The mind. The inner monologue. Like, what is reality? Are we even in this room, right now?” Kris and I exchanged a look that was some mix of bewildered and cynical.

Eventually, the crowd began heckling the poor performer.
“Most people just want me to shut up and play,” France said into the mike.
“Then shut up and play!”—A drunken yell from the crowd.
Amazingly, instead of perpetuating this painfully awkward situation, France simply said something like “All right, then.” and proceeded to comply.

Foxygen played some more cuts from their album, including the epic, building “On Blue Mountain,” which was a fun sing-along for all. They ended their set with a collaboration with members of Wampire on the tail end of 21st Century Ambassadors: “Oh Yeah,” the title cut, and “Oh No.” This made for a grand, spectacular ending for all, and the crowd went away with smiles on their faces.

Despite sound issues, quirky, unwelcome changes to the original album cuts, and the uncomfortable stage banter, the show was overall enjoyable. Foxygen is a fun, unique, and ever-interesting band to hear and observe, and they clearly love what they do and have fun doing it. If you like their albums enough, give their live show a chance! They’re definitely a band to keep an eye and an ear on.

As a life-long music lover, I’ve gone through almost every musical phase you can imagine (short of popular contemporary country music...yuck!), but one of the most significant was my hard rock/metal phase in middle school and high school. Before I discovered contemporary metal in high school, I was faithfully devoted to the classics: Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, AC/DC, Van Halen, old Metallica, and of course, Guns N’ Roses. Over the years, my musical tastes changed and evolved, and I soon essentially fell off the metal wagon late in high school. I have also come to develop what I used to believe was a strong dislike for GNR but have since realized is more an abhorrence for Axl Rose. I still respect GNR (and other classic hard rock/metal acts) for what they did (note the past tense...as far as I’m concerned GNR ended when the original Appetite line-up disbanded in the mid-90s) and for what they represent, and if you take Axl Rose out of the mix I can tolerate their music. Add some horns, and I’m even more intrigued! So a funk tribute to these 80s hair-metal legends seemed like both an appropriate nostalgic indulgence and a chance to hear and support some fantastic local musicians!

I was excited for my second-ever Goodfoot Lounge experience, having recently attended my first show there (a Phish tribute band called Lawn Boy that features the bass player and mastermind behind this funk GNR tribute) and since decided the Goodfoot is one of my favorite venues in Portland. It has everything a music venue should (a sizeable stage, an adequate PA and lighting system, sufficient dancing space, a fun atmosphere, etc.) with the added element of a well-stocked bar with decent prices. Both times I’ve been there the crowd has been fun and enthusiastic, albeit very different from one another (Phish fans vs. GNR fans), and the vibes are always good.

The 8-piece ensemble known as Funk N’ Roses consists of Aniana Hough on vocals (Marv Ellis, Ben Darwish and Commotion present: A Talking Heads Halloween), Brett McConnell on bass (Lawn Boy, the Brett McConnell Lovetet), Kyle Smith on guitar (The Brett McConnell Lovetet), Josh Lava on keyboards (The Brett McConnell Lovetet, in addition to numerous other collaborations), Mitch Wilson on drums (The Hugs, Wilson Supergroup), Jon Ramm-Gramenz on trombone (Manimalhouse, Pocket), PSU instructor Farnell Newton on trumpet (The Doo Doo Funk All-Stars), and Joshua Cliburn on tenor saxophone (Joey Porter Funk Tributes). The band was exceptionally tight, and retained great energy and musical chemistry throughout their performance. I must admit I was expecting a little more funk and a little less rock n’ roll; the tunes seemed less funk arrangements of Guns N’ Roses songs and more Guns N’ Roses songs with added horns. This, however, was not a bad thing, and you would be surprised just how well GNR’s music lends itself to a horn section. The arrangements were well done, all of them by the multi-talented Brett McConnell over the course of several months, and featured beefy horn blasts, soaring background harmonies, and rhythmic hits abound.

Hough, a highly animated, petite bundle of excitement, played an exceptional Axl Rose, doing justice to his energy, stage performance, attitude, and wardrobe: she sported tight jeans, a black t-shirt, aviator sunglasses and a biker’s cap during the first set, and American flag booty shorts, red, white and blue stunna shades, and a bandana headband during the second. Throughout both sets, Hough interacted incessantly with the audience, running around and tickling, squeezing, slapping, flipping off and/or dancing with its members. On the mike, Hough, when not singing beautifully, demanded the audience’s reaction and enthusiasm, constantly asking questions like “ARE YOU READY TO ROOOCCCKK????” and dropping F-bombs every other sentence, true to the hair-metal way.

The rest of the band did the original GNR justice, with groovy-yet-melodic bass lines from McConnell; note-heavy, bluesy and/or lightning-fast guitar riffs and solos from Smith; lush keyboard accompaniment and a couple of tasty solos from Lava; and arena-worthy backbeats from Wilson. The horns were difficult to hear sometimes, but played their parts well, often doubling the guitar and bass riffs but also adding McConnell’s precisely articulated rhythmic hits and aurally pleasing background harmonies. Honestly I could’ve done with less guitar solos and more horn solos, but then again this was a GNR tribute and Slash’s guitar solos are a key element to their sound. The few horn solos I did hear, however, were impeccably executed and very tasteful. One of the funkiest moments came during the first set in the form of the Use Your Illusion II cut “Yesterdays,” the original recording of which has a tempo that lends itself well to funk music. The FNR arrangement featured a fantastic, screaming tenor sax solo from Cliburn—one of my favorite moments of the evening. Other highlights from the first set included the beautiful rock ballad “Civil War” and the groovy “Live and Let Die,” which was a surprise considering that it is technically a Paul McCartney song that was covered by Guns N’ Roses for Use Your Illusion I. This latter tune was one of my favorite arrangements, combining elements of both McCartney and GNR’s versions: the original recording includes a horn section, the GNR version does not, and the FNR version, by adding horns, combined the attitude and energy of the GNR version with the instrumentation of McCartney’s version for a very fun and unique performance.

For the second set, FNR commemorated the 25th anniversary of GNR’s debut album, Appetite for Destruction, by playing it in its entirety. The moment Smith struck the first note of the album’s opener, “Welcome to the Jungle,” it was clear that this was the moment the whole audience (including myself) had been waiting for. “Welcome to the Jungle,” already quite funky for a rock song, was phenomenally performed by FNR, with an extended breakdown that included solos by all three horns. Most notable was the squeal of Newton’s trumpet—an approach I have seen him utilize often, but that was more fitting than ever in this setting. The rest of the album was perfectly played, and the audience enjoyed it to the end, when they demanded more.

For their encore, FNR played two more GNR classics: the beautiful acoustic ballad “Patience” (one of my favorite GNR tracks and the only one to which I can still listen to without practically tearing my ears off in annoyance at Axl’s vocals) and the gloriously epic “November Rain” which, with its conclusion of screaming guitar solos and repetitive sing-along vocals (“Everybody needs somebody”) ended the night perfectly with the band at full blast and the audience’s excitement at full capacity. It was an exceptional performance and a fun show all around, and I am proud to be able to say I was present at Portland’s first-ever funk tribute to Guns N’ Roses, and it blew me away.

I’m not a huge Phish fan— but that’s not to say I don’t like them: I thoroughly enjoy them! The idea of jam bands is always interesting to me—I love the songwriting approach of establishing a groove, steadily building it to its absolute peak, riding it there for a while and slowly coming down. Jam band music can really take you on a journey, and Phish is perhaps the best example of that. While other jam bands that I’ve heard (Grateful Dead, the Allman Brothers Band) are masters of melodies, hooks, and extended southern rock and country guitar solos, Phish marry that with sophisticated musicianship and technical abilities to create an eclectic musical rollercoaster.

While I enjoy the music of all these artists, I think the main reason I have not developed a devoted love for jam bands is that I haven’t had enough chances to see them where they REALLY shine: in the live music setting. So of course, having never been to a Phish show, when I heard that jazz bassist and recent PSU graduate Brett McConnell was playing in a Phish tribute band, I had to check it out.

I arrived at the Goodfoot Lounge around 9 PM, just as the doors were opening. Upon entering the cave-like atmosphere of the Goodfoot’s downstairs, I took in the venue for the first time. Surrealistic paintings and depictions of the jazz age decorate the walls of the huge room, complete with ample seating and an impressive stage set-up including a psychedelic light/fog machine rig and a more-than-adequate PA system. When I first arrived, I could count the people there on two hands. This rapidly changed within the first hour, however, as the room flooded with around a hundred long-haired, bearded, and/or dreadlocked Phish-heads ready to shake what their mamas gave them to several hours’ worth of jams.

Like Phish, Lawn Boy has a four-man instrumentation of guitar, bass, keyboards, and drums, with multiple members contributing backing vocals. The members of Lawn Boy are already established Portland musicians: lead singer/guitarist Rob Sipsky played in the now-disbanded Mars Retrieval Unit; drummer Nick Werth plays vibes in the prominent Portland band Yeah Great Fine; bassist Brett McConnell leads his own jazz group, the Brett McConnell Lovetet, in addition to numerous other gigs including an upcoming funk tribute to Guns N’ Roses; and keyboardist Chris Phillips founded the increasingly ubiquitous Philly’s Phunkestra.

As the ensemble began its set, the crowd was instantly entranced by the power of the groove. McConnell laid it down with his funky, locomotive bass lines while Werth impeccably provided a rhythmic backbone, flourished with syncopation and polyrhythms in all the right places. Sipsky delivered Phish’s absurdist lyrics and sing-along hooks with crowd-pleasing charisma as devoted Phish fans belted it out right along with him. As the grooves built and the solos ensued, the crowd was moving wildly, drunk on (among other things) the music. One tall, broad, shaggy-haired audience member in shorts and a t-shirt joined the band on stage early in the set and danced solitarily front and center, acting as conductor to the large dance ensemble until he was finally joined by several of them—lessening the gap, both literally and figuratively, between audience and performer in true hippie jam band style.

Sipsky handled most of the soloing duties, but Phillips and McConnell played some noteworthy (no pun intended) solos and, true to the Phish way, the whole band utilized an improvisational approach for the duration of the set. When Lawn Boy played the one song of their set with which I was familiar—the brilliantly epic and nonsense-lyrics littered Junta cut “You Enjoy Myself”—it sounded much different from the studio track, to the extent that I barely realized they were playing it. In the case of the solos themselves, the musicians balanced a tonal approach of soaring melodic passages and blues licks with more rhythmic and riff-based playing, providing for an enjoyably diverse listen throughout.

I wish there was more I could say about the set, but as I am not familiar with much of Phish’s music it’s hard for me to evaluate the authenticity of this particular tribute. Judging, however, from the reaction of the crowd and the opinions of the one or two Phish fans with whom I spoke, I can assume that this was an adequate representation of what a Phish concert is like. Lawn Boy plan to continue gigging for the foreseeable future, trying to cover as many Phish songs as possible: they provide a request list at their shows (I myself requested the funky Junta track “David Bowie”), hoping to play a completely new set at each gig until they run out of songs. If you’re curious at all about jam bands in general, and/or if you can’t afford/don’t want to wait for the next Phish stint in Portland, check out Lawn Boy the next chance you get.

Ian: I’m here with Francois Comtois, is that right? Francois Comtois: That was really good! Oh, thank you! The drummer for Young the Giant, who formed back in 2004 as the Jakes and skyrocketed to success shortly after signing to Roadrunner Records and changing their name in late 2009. That’s correct, right? That’s correct. This is all from Wikipedia, so…you never know. They now have three hit singles, including the Portland radio regulars “My Body” and “Cough Syrup.” So, Francois: you rose to fame and huge success in seemingly very little time, at least from my perspective. I remember hearing “My Body” on the radio a little over a year ago and having no idea who you guys were and now you’re huge and one of my favorite current bands, to be honest. So did it seem to happen really quickly for you as well, or was it a long, exhausting road? There were definitely times where it was exhausting and confusing and kind of all over the place. I think we get a lot of perspective in that we’ve done a lot of opening for bigger bands. That’s kind of how we got to this point initially and that was a lot of the touring experience that we had. So we heard about these guys who spent ten years in a van or trailer and all the normal stuff you have to do to get to this point. And I think we experienced a fair bit of that; we put in like a hundred thousand miles that first year of touring and that was just all us driving pretty much all the time. So yeah it definitely got to the point where it started to happen very quickly. So it was kind of like a long, slow build-up and suddenly you woke up one morning and you were huge! Exactly. It was like an “s”-curve type of thing. So it was all worth it then? Oh yeah. Of course! All right, well great! So when I listen to your music, there’s a number of things that are striking to me. The vocals, first I have to say, Sameer—that’s his name, right?—he’s an incredible singer. He just blows me away. As a singer myself—I mean I grew up singing my whole life and his control and everything… One of the biggest things, though, is the influential diversity, and your influences apparently, from what I hear, I mean I hear sort of a pop melodic sensibility almost reminiscent of 1950s doo-wop in songs like “I Got,” which is one of my favorites from the record, and “Strings” which is another great one. And then, you know, hints of anthemic rock, which we hear on your singles, of course, and also “Garands”—which, I love that song too…great guitar riff. And then also, you personally—your drumming is really interesting to me in that you kind of alternate between driving rock beats and then more syncopated polyrhythmic stuff. It’s very eclectic and I really enjoy that. So tell me about your influences on drums and in general and how they compare to the influences of your bandmates. I mean, for the most part I would say we have, very similar influences. I think the reason why you see that diversity is because we’re trying to come to terms with what those different influences mean to us—especially in the early portion of songwriting. Like “I Got,” for instance, was our attempt at some sort of doo-wop, sort of Motown type thing. And you sing backing vocals, too? Yeah. Yeah, that’s great, you guys are great, man. I mean that back-up vocals are definitely almost as striking as the lead vocals, and they really complement it well, I think. Cool. Yeah, so it’s just trying to get comfortable with those influences. I mean, personally speaking, I take some influence from Phil Selway, who’s the drummer from Radiohead—it’s just his ability to be appropriate at all times. Questlove, obviously, The Roots drummer, for his sense of timing; Levon Helm from the Band—you know, just one of the quintessential singing drummers. Definitely a huge influence for me. But yeah, it’s just kind of like taking those influences and putting them through our personal filters and seeing what comes out on the other end. Great! Cool, so once again, I did a little research on Wikipedia, and, you know, that can be…you never know. But it said on there you took over on drums after Jason Burger moved to New York. Is that correct? Yeah! Okay. So what did you play in the band before that? I played the bass. I actually was approached initially as a temporary replacement for the bass player. Oh! There were some line-up changes and I thought that was just gonna be a few shows while they figured out what they had to do. We ended up recording a record, or an EP, which I played the bass on. And then, as we were about to start touring, Jason Burger, who was our drummer, decided he wanted to go pursue jazz performance drums at Manhattan School of Music. So we were left without a drummer like three weeks before our tour was going to start. I had played drums—you know, messed around with my brother playing drums in the garage. Oh, so you hadn’t been super practiced in it or anything? No, I mean I’d never really taken lessons or anything. I guess the singing -- I did choir and stuff in high school. But I figured, I’ll do drums for a little while and we had our friend Payam, who now plays bass. We said he’ll come on temporarily as bassist and I’ll play drums and we’ll figure it out and I’ll come back to bass…and it’s been almost four years now and it’s kind of just something that I got more comfortable with. Yeah, well you seem to have really learned how to do it pretty well. Did you play any other instruments besides bass and drums and vocals? Uh…I played trumpet very briefly in high school. Oh yeah, I used to play trombone…I don’t touch the thing anymore. Yeah I mean I had a bunch of early kind of forays into music and nothing really stuck with me until I started to kind of mess around with the guitar and the drums when I was in like 8th and 9th grade. So this is for my own selfish interest, because I recently decided to take up the drums a little bit myself. Any advice for beginning drummers? I think it’s kind of the same thing as with anything: just practice as much as you possibly can. How did you start? Did you start with a practice pad or did you pretty much go right into kit? Pretty much right into kit; my brother and I pooled our birthday money. You shared a drum set? This really terrible, like $150 awful broken Kima Empire or something. But it was so exciting and I would just, like, blast Nirvana and try to imitate and emulate Dave Grohl. Oh yeah. So I guess just practice. And I mean, the nice thing about drums is you can do it wherever. That’s true. I was practicing my polyrhythms yesterday on the way home from school, walking home from the bus stop. Exactly. Then if you can do it on your lap, you know, your feet, your hands they’re all the same. So if you can just kind of wrap your head around that then everything starts to get much easier. Cool! All right, well I’ve got a few more questions for you. Tell me about the most exhilarating show you’ve ever played, if there was one that just stood out. There have been a couple that stand out recently. On this tour, we did two nights at the Wiltern in Los Angeles, which is a pretty historical venue, and which was huge for us because we grew up in Southern California for a really long time. A lot of great bands that have played there…that we were able to sell it out and have all our friends and family there for us was pretty special. And then Austin, actually, where we had done ACL (Austin City Limits) before, which was really, really crazy. And you did South by Southwest as well, right? Yeah, South By last year was a lot of fun. I’ve wanted to go there for a long time. I’ve heard it’s a good time. This last time around we did two nights at Stubb’s, which is another super historical venue. Oh yeah. You know, just walking out on stage, sometimes it’s very hard to not just look like a jackass and smile wide-eyed looking out at the crowd, it’s so surprising and joyful, so yeah, probably on this last run those are the two that stood out most for me. And have you played in Portland before? I’m sure you have, I just don’t remember seeing or hearing about you guys coming. Yeah we played at the Crystal Ballroom. Was that a couple of years ago? No we did Crystal Ballroom a few months ago I think with the Kooks. Oh wow, I didn’t even hear about it. I would’ve been there! It was the Christmas stuff that the radio station puts on…you know, like seven nights of... Oh yeah! So we were one of those. We’ve done the Crystal Ballroom a couple of other times. Played the Doug Fir Lounge… Is this your first time at the Roseland? Actually the first headlining tour we ever went on as openers was for Minus the Bear and we ended at the Roseland. So when was your first headlining tour, then, like for you guys as headliners? This is like the first real headlining tour where we have legitimate production. We did a headlining tour, technically speaking: early 2011 we did kind of like, two months but it was all, like, 200-capacity venues—200 to 500. Actually the first time we played the Crystal Ballroom was during that run and that was the one show that was, like, 1500 people and everything else was like 200 people and we finally got here and it was one of the first times we had ever played a headlining show to that many people. So it’s got a pretty special place in our heart. So I thought this was interesting: I also read that you received praise from former Smiths frontman Morissey, who called you one of his “favorite new bands.” Are you a Smiths fans? Have you met Morissey or seen him at your shows? We have not met him. As far as the first question I think, as much as a Smiths fan as anyone who does music. We’re not, like, super Morrissey worshippers or anything like that. Yeah, same boat. I just read that he’s pretty critical of modern music. So I guess that’s a pretty good thing for you guys. Yeah, it’s nice, you know it just came around as we were starting to get a lot of reviews of the record and some of the reviews were really nice and some of them were not so nice. So it’s good to have someone who’s made a big mark on music come out and say that he enjoys our music was definitely a boost. But then again we try to not take too much from what people say about us. That has to be applied to both sides, where you can’t get too bummed out when someone says “This sucks.” You kind of have to let it pass through you. On the other side you also can’t say “Oh, Morrissey thinks we’re awesome, we’re doing it right! Let’s just not work hard.” That’s very mature of you guys. Well I guess my last question, then, is what’s next for Young the Giant? What can we look forward to in the next year? Well, directly speaking, Sunday we’re going home for 10 days. Just going to relax, take some time off? Yeah, just like 10 days, then we’re doing another couple weeks in the States and a couple weeks in Europe. And then, kind of just playing shows here and there, doing a good deal of festivals and as late summer comes around and early fall we’ll try to do the next record. We’ll get into the studio around September or October. Hopefully come March 2013 or Spring 2013, we’ll have a new record as long as the world doesn’t end. Well apparently they got it wrong. I heard they didn’t account for leap days. That’s the news right now. I took a Mesoamerican anthropology class and we only understand their calendar system to within, like, plus or minus 30 years, so essentially 2012 could’ve been anywhere in the last 30 years, or anywhere in the next 30 years. A little off-topic, but… All right, well, you heard it hear first on KPSU, Francois Comtois says the world is not going to end, or may have already ended, or may end in the future. That’s right! I hope it doesn’t end before our next record. Yes, yes, me too, me too! Well it’s been an honor and a privilege, and thank you so much. Enjoy your ten days off, and thanks for coming to Portland! Yeah, thank you!