Voices raised (and quieted) as Foreign Born celebrates

Foreign Born's half-time opus "Union Hall" sounds like the kind of song that could change the course of nations, or at least inspire a labor uprising or two. (Never heard it? Go here.) Its big background chant and stomping percussion are the kind of sonic metaphors of which hits are made. And even if "Union Hall" isn't a real place ("It's more symbolic," singer Matt Popieluch told me last week, while crediting guitarist/composer Lewis Pesacov with coming up with the notion to slow the song down), it never took on more shape than it did Tuesday night at the Los Angeles quartet's record-release show at the Echo.

A dozen members of the L.A.-based women's chorus Nevenka -- which performed the set in between shoegazer opener In Waves and the headliners -- joined Foreign Born onstage to lend their voices to that chant, and the song darned near burst at the seams. It was a joyous occasion to begin with, since the performance marked the long-awaited release of Foreign Born's album "On the Wing Now," and friends of the band were already buzzing about one generally positive review the album received Tuesday.

Nevenka's cameo, along with its set of Eastern European folk songs, gave the evening an irresistible charm, even beyond the oddity that Earlimart was having its record-release downstairs at the Echoplex. Musicians are forced to play over patrons' conversations all the time in rock clubs, but some customers Tuesday empathized with the less-amplified singers plying tunes from Macedonia, Bulgaria, Georgia and elsewhere in the Balkan region: They shushed their fellow audience members.

Now that's good folk.

||| Sample some Nevenka: "Deda mogik'vdesa."

||| Foreign Born also performs Sunday as part of the second-day lineup of the fourth annual F-Yeah Fest in Echo Park.

Photo of Matt Popieluch, center, guitarist Lewis Pesacov and members of Nevenka, by Kevin Bronson / LAT.

Comments

[The Riverboat Captain]

"Pitchfork - Good Review To West Coast Band Shock" ?

Say it ain't so :)

[Mel]

Foreign Born with Echo And The Bunnymen....no futher