The Lassie Foundation — “Face Your Funâ€
“Put away the antidepressants — the Lassie Foundation has a new album out…â€
– Los Angeles Times, 10/28/04
2004 marks the return of the seminal California noise-pop band The Lassie Foundation. After a two-year hiatus, The Foundation returns with its full-length debut on Northern Records, Face Your Fun, their most energetic album to date. At one moment it's cascading with the band’s hallmark hooky pop stylings reminiscent of The Beach Boys, Elton John, and ABBA, and the next it’s ripping through early ‘80s British New Wave riffs, à la A Flock of Seagulls, Big Country, and early U2 to bring a new flavor to the current musical landscape.
Formed in 1996, The Lassie Foundation released their first EP, California. California defined the group’s sound, a mix of the smooth ‘60s and early ‘70s West Coast pop music and the sonic power of British shoegaze music. Lassie followed up its EP with their first full-length album, Pacifico. Pacifico caught British attention by being featured in the "What's on the NME Stereo" section of New Music Express magazine. In 1998 the band released the El Rey EP (also featured in NME), whose title track was featured on TV's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", "Popular", "MTV's The Real World", and "MTV Road Rules". Singles in the U.S. and Australia followed, and the band continued its regimen of performing in Southern California clubs with bands like Phantom Planet, At the Drive-In, Mates of State, Creeper Lagoon, and Imperial Teen.
2001 saw a turn in the band’s musical direction with its split soundtrack for the independent film I Duel Sioux and the Ale of Saturn, followed soon thereafter by The El Dorado LP, their second full-length album. Both albums abandoned their traditional shoegaze elements for a cleaner pop sound. It also marked the end of the band.
In its two year absence Lassie received many requests for their catalog, for media placement, interviews, European releases, and tours of Europe, prompting the founding members and songwriters Wayne Everett (vocals), Campuzano (bass), Jeff Schroeder (guitar) to start writing a new album. Supported live and in the studio by Happy Tsugawa-Banta (vibes & keyboards) and Joel Patterson (drums), The Lassie Foundation reinvented itself on Face Your Fun, citing influences such as Echo and the Bunnymen, The Jam, New Order, U2, A Flock of Seagulls, Guided by Voices, and The Jesus and Mary Chain.
After a year of writing, the band went into the studio with producer Andrew D. Prickett, who turned up the click and energy and demanded great performances from the band. The result is the most buoyant, balanced, and danceable music the band has recorded to date. This liftoff juxtaposes Everett’s heaviest and most sublime lyrics yet, encouraging the listener to meet the challenges of life head-on—ultimately, to Face Your Fun.
www.lassiefoundation.com www.northernrecords.com
