"I used to believe / though I know I was wrong / some men leave scars / where others leave song..."
The sweet fiery Americana indie sweep and swing of "The Car" by NYC-based chamber rock band Foley, from their fourth LP 'Beulahland', feels classically drawn casting long shadows against the heartland. There is a sense of late 70's criss cut classic rock from the vintage organ sound, the surfy drum beat, and the hollow body guitar stabs, sax drones and storytelling that feels just vague enough to feel mysterious but just familiar enough to feel like an every boy / girl situation. These cinematic colors ride the rails like a Springsteen escapade but also I feel sweet hints of Van Morrison or The War on Drugs or Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats.
LINER NOTES (excerpted / bracketed):
[Eddie Byrne, lead singer and songwriter for Foley, on "The Car":
"The song was quick and fun to write, I wanted to write from the perspective of someone kind of pathetically terrible. It came to me from a true moment: I was walking down Tompkins Avenue and took a moment to adjust my hair in a car window, when I noticed the driver notice me and peel off. The vanity and humiliation of the moment was really funny to me.
The band got the vision very quickly and brought it to life in short order. I sent a demo of the song on my nylon string guitar that I write all my songs on, a trusty cheap guitar with clear nail polish patching a crack in its body, and in the following rehearsal we played it pretty much exactly how it appears on the album. Danny's organ sound came pretty quickly and gave the song a vintage rock sound. I was listening to David Berman's Purple Mountains album a lot around that time, and I loved how dry the vocal sat on top of a really catchy upbeat instrumental, all undercutting these really ironically tragic songs. That spirit definitely worked its way into our song, and many on this album.
I always get a little red in the face singing this song live because of how vain and pathetic the narrator of the song is, but there is a kind of vanity implicit in live performance, so this song becomes a kind of stating of the elephant in the room that puts me at ease to be in front of people so brazenly. It gives me license to be pretty egregious elsewhere."]
"The song was quick and fun to write, I wanted to write from the perspective of someone kind of pathetically terrible. It came to me from a true moment: I was walking down Tompkins Avenue and took a moment to adjust my hair in a car window, when I noticed the driver notice me and peel off. The vanity and humiliation of the moment was really funny to me.
The band got the vision very quickly and brought it to life in short order. I sent a demo of the song on my nylon string guitar that I write all my songs on, a trusty cheap guitar with clear nail polish patching a crack in its body, and in the following rehearsal we played it pretty much exactly how it appears on the album. Danny's organ sound came pretty quickly and gave the song a vintage rock sound. I was listening to David Berman's Purple Mountains album a lot around that time, and I loved how dry the vocal sat on top of a really catchy upbeat instrumental, all undercutting these really ironically tragic songs. That spirit definitely worked its way into our song, and many on this album.
I always get a little red in the face singing this song live because of how vain and pathetic the narrator of the song is, but there is a kind of vanity implicit in live performance, so this song becomes a kind of stating of the elephant in the room that puts me at ease to be in front of people so brazenly. It gives me license to be pretty egregious elsewhere."]
I look forward to hearing the many 'other' stories on 'Beulahland'.
-Robb Donker Curtius
The Chicken Wheel will take you to the AP Go Fund Me- and any amount is so appreciated!
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://foleyny.bandcamp.com/album/beetlebug
https://www.instagram.com/foleyny/
https://x.com/FoleybandNY
https://www.youtube.com/@foleyny
https://www.facebook.com/foleybandny
https://www.foleyny.com/
An indie/folk rock band currently based in Brooklyn.
An indie/folk rock band currently based in Brooklyn.
Foley, indie rock, alt rock, folk, porch country, gospel, Americana, heartland rock, singer-songwriter, Brooklyn, NYC, 4th full length album 'Beulahland', new single "The Car", Eddie Byrne lead singer, personal storytelling,
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