Froth

Though they began as a joke band, Froth quickly became something more tangible. After two albums that were reverb-caked and garage rock influenced, they made a leap into the world of big-screen shoegaze and dream pop with 2017's Outside (Briefly). The next step is usually for a band to go even bigger, but Froth instead turned inward, and their next album, 2019's Duress, was a fragile, lo-fi take on shoegaze. Joo Joo Ashworth and Jeff Fribourg were two friends from El Segundo, California, with a passion for music and a sense of humor, and they dreamed up Froth as a fake band, planning to send out publicity photos and tales of their adventures on the road without actually performing a note. Ashworth and Fribourg even had a friend at a vinyl pressing plant who offered to help them spread the hoax by pressing an LP that would feature 20 minutes of silence as long as the "band" provided Froth emblazoned sleeves to pack them in. However, in 2012, fate forced Ashworth's and Fribourg's hands when Fribourg staged a small-scale music festival called Ourbq, and one of the acts canceled at the last minute. With no one else to take their place, Froth played their first live set, with Ashworth on vocals and guitar and Fribourg on Omnichord, an electronic variation on the autoharp. With Jeremy Katz on bass and Cameron Allen on drums, Froth played a show that Fribourg dubbed "a disaster," but it prompted the musicians to actually begin writing songs and rehearsing. Before long, Froth were playing regularly in the Los Angeles area, and in June 2013, they released their first single, "Lost My Mind," which reappeared a month later on the group's debut album, Patterns, released by Lolipop Records. The album received strong reviews, and Froth were soon touring in the U.S., Europe, and the U.K. By the time Froth began work on their second album, Fribourg had left the band, and Cole Devine joined the lineup on guitar, changing the sonic palette of the band a bit and increasing the strength of their guitar attack. In May 2015, Froth released their sophomore album, Bleak, through the celebrated L.A. indie label Burger Records. The band, with Nick Ventura replacing Devine on guitar, toured extensively, sharing stages across the U.S. and U.K. with bands like Craft Spells, Tamaryn, and Pond. Their third album was recorded with producer Thomas Dolas of the band Mr. Elevator & the Brain Hotel and featured the group (which was now a trio after Ventura's departure) delving deeper into the dream pop and Krautrock aspects of their sound. Outside (Briefly), which was named after the title of a chapter in a Richard Brautigan novel, was released by the band's new label, Wichita Recordings, in early 2017. After making their most expansive and sonically powerful album, the trio once again worked with Dolas, this time on a record that stripped back their growing sound in favor of something more home baked and hissily lo-fi that relied on drum machines and wobbly synths. Duress was released in June 2019, after which the band headed out on a U.S. tour. ~ Mark Deming & Tim Sendra, Rovi