Chris Brokaw + Tim Foljahn

Chris Brokaw was born in New York City and raised in the outlying suburbs. He attended Oberlin College, where he took exactly two music-related classes: Multi-track Recording and Steel Drumming. In 1986 he moved to Boston, Massachusetts; and in 2011 relocated to Seattle, Washington.

Chris is perhaps best known for his work as the drummer in CODEINE and the guitarist in COME, who made several albums in the 1990s for the labels Sub Pop and Matador that are considered landmarks in American independent rock music.

Since 2001, Chris has focused primarily on his work as a solo artist, making numerous albums of vocal and instrumental music. This has ranged from full on rock ("Red Cities", "Incredible Love") to explorations of the 6-string and 12-string acoustic guitars ("Canaris", "VDSQ Solo Acoustic Volume 3") to the experimental and abstract ("Tundra", "Gracias, Ghost of the Future"). Throughout, Chris has maintained an active solo touring schedule in the US, UK, Europe, Canada, Australia and Russia.

He has composed original music for the following films: "I Was Born, But" (Roddy Bogawa, 2004), "Road" (Leslie McCleave, 2005, which received the award for Best Original Score at the Brooklyn International Film Festival); "Sospira" (Lana Z. Caplan, 2011); "Taken By Storm" (Roddy Bogawa, 2011); and "Now, Forager" (Julia Halperin/Jason Cortlund, 2012). The latter two films screened in 2012 at MOMA in New York City.

Chris has also performed and recorded as an accompanist to Thurston Moore, Evan Dando, Christina Rosenvinge, Jennifer O'Connor, Rhys Chatham, Steve Wynn, Alan Licht, GG Allin, and Johnny Depp.

He has composed music for the Dagdha Dance Company (Limerick, Ireland) and Kino Dance (Boston); collaborated with playwright Rinde Eckert and director Robert Woodruff on the new opera "Highway Ulysses" (2002, American Repertory Theater, Cambridge, Mass.); performed as one of 77 drummers in the Boredoms' "77 Boadrum" in New York; and performed as one of 200 guitarists in Rhys Chatham's "A Crimson Grail" at Lincoln Center, New York. His band Dirtmusic (with Chris Eckman and Hugo Race) performed at the Festival In The Desert, in Essakane, Mali, and collaborated with the Touareg band Tamikrest on an album recorded in Bamako, Mali.

Currently, Chris plays in the bands Wrekmeister Harmonies, The New Year, and The Empty House Cooperative, all of whom have new albums in the works for 2012 and 2013. He also plays in a duo with Geoff Farina (ex-Karate), netting two albums ("The Angel's Message To Me" and "The Boarder's Door"), and in a new duo with Stephen O'Malley (Sunn O))) ) called The Catamites.

2012 will see the release of "Gambler's Ecstasy", a rock solo album five years in the making. Chris will do an extensive US tour in September and October, performing solo, opening for the Japanese band Mono; and will tour further in 2012 and 2013 with a bassist and drummer.


Tim Foljahn's solo records have always been inward looking. They're written, played and recorded by the man himself, sparsely set, late night interior monologues intoned in an echoey baritone that pretty much defines the sound of being alone.

Sure Foljahn has played with other people — most notably with Steve Shelley in Two Dollar Guitar, but also as a guitar for hire with Cat Power, Townes Van Zandt, Half Japanese, the Boredoms and Thurston Moore's Psychic Hearts. Most recently, you could catch him on the hit show Orange Is the New Black. He's a member of Assistant Warden Caputo's band Sideboob. (In real life, Sideboob's songs are written and performed by Adopted Highways; that's Foljahn, Jennifer O'Connor and Tom Beaujour.) Still, despite all this collaborating as a songwriter and sideman, in his solo work, he seemed up to now, fundamentally solitary.

That's why Fucking Love Songs is so surprising and ultimately so satisfying. It engages with others, specifically significant others, in a cycle of songs about relationships. "While I was writing the songs, I had relationships starting, relationships ending and relationships starting again," says Foljahn. "It just seemed natural to write about them. People would ask me what I was working on, and I would say, 'Oh, a bunch of fucking love songs.'"

But it's not just the other people in the songs. It's the ones on the record – including two extra guitar players, two drummers, a bassist, even back-up singers — that make this album so densely collaborative. Consider, for instance, "Wild Tonight," with its slow, blistering lead, its bluesy in- the-pocket rhythm guitar, its sweet, sweeping gospel chorus, its raucous drums. That's Smokey Hormel, who has played with Tom Waits, Beck, Johnny Cash, Joe Strummer, Neil Diamond, Norah Jones and Adele, on one guitar. Foljahn met him while auditioning, twice, for a spot in Beck's band (Hormel beat him out). Tom Beaujour, the album's producer/engineer, plays another guitar. Jeremy Wilms is on bass, and Jon Langmead, a drummer for Mark Eitzel and Jennifer O'Connor, punches out the beat. (Brooklyn drummer Brian Kantor sits in on two other tracks.) O'Connor and Amy Bezunartea sing harmonies.

The result is a beautifully layered, dense, full-band sound that amplifies Foljahn's evocative songs. Bend your ear to "Legends" with its cavorting, porch-picked guitar lick (Smokey again), its lilting, group-sung chorus, its sunny, folk-scented lift. Or check out "Etant Donné" a headlong, full-on garage rocker. "For me this is a totally upbeat pop record," he admits. Foljahn recorded Fucking Love Songs over a two-year period at Nuthouse Recording in Hoboken with Tom Beaujour (Juliana Hatfield, Nada Surf, Jennifer O'Connor ) producing and engineering. "Tom gets such great sounds," Foljahn says, "To my ears, his records have more resonance than you hear in current albums. There's almost a sound of the 1970s in it."

The main thing, though, are the songs, as cracked and individual as ever, but focused this time on love. "When I listen to a song I really like, I'm glad to be right where I am in the song, but I'm also wondering what's coming next and a little bit sad when it's gone," says Foljahn. You might find yourself feeling the same way about Fucking Love Songs.