It’s true: after previewing the month-long Echo residency of L.A. Afro-Funk band Fool's Gold, I called them my "favorite local band." A week later, the lead guitarist, Lewis Pesacov, was sitting behind the mercy table and as I asked him if he had seen my article, his father approached, shook my hand, and said, "You're in on the ground floor." He was beaming, as proud as a dad at a science fair after his kid won first place.
Naturally, this struck me. I do have a vested interest in seeing this band succeed, of rising above the 'ground floor.' And yet, no matter how highly I praise the band's unconventional (yet respectful) take on a music not original to their own continent, nobody to whom I've introduced Fool's Gold seems to like them very much.
The one exception is friend and fellow music writer Drew Tewksbury, who counts the debut record by Fool's Gold as one of his favorites of the year. Interestingly, Drew's friends are also split in their opinions of the band.
Both Drew and I attended a private party thrown on October 6th by record label IAMSOUND in honor of this debut record in the Masonic Lodge of the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. The party was sparsely populated for a secret show with an open bar, made even smaller by comparison to that other cemetery show by that other band with a debut record a few weeks ago.
Small crowd or not, Fool's Gold still know how to put on a show. The younger kids in the audience were wowed by the vast number of people on stage while those in the crowd who went to Hebrew School spent their time translating singer Luke Top's lyrics. The band burned through their best songs (among them, the only song featuring a brief dally into English, "Nadine") before jumping off-stage and ending the show with their signature trip through the crowd, chanting all the way.
We live in a country where, arguably, the biggest World Music sensation of the past few years (Vampire Weekend) is filled with white, upper-class, Ivy Leaguers. Maybe what Fool's Gold needs to get beyond the ground level is some capitulation, some kowtowing and some assimilation. Maybe they need preppy clothes and some more English in their songs. I can say, as a writer and a fan, that I wish them all the success they can grab, but only if they stay authentic.
Originally in Los Angeles Magazine at: http://www.lamag.com/do/blog.aspx?dt=10/12/2009
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