A lo-fi guitar-based band from San Francisco, "Foibles are: Phil" — according to the sleeve notes from their album, "Solid Rock Baptist Church Rummage Sale". Their songs are catchy tunes with amusing if occasionally nonsensical lyrics, and neither the cheap microphones nor low quality 8-track recording detract from this. Cool Beans compares their songs to "XTC, Kinks, Of Montreal, and Captain Beefheart".

Phil Dumesnil plays all the instruments, almost all of which are borrowed, with the exception of the drum kit which was bought from Toys "R" Us. The songs are mostly about childhood and teenage years, and none are even vaguely serious. The album is very bouncy while not being trite, and a nice counter to listening to Radiohead or Nine Inch Nails all the time.

Discography to my knowledge:

As far as I know, the only place to get Foibles music is through Cool Beans (www.coolbeans.com), and they only sell the Two Penny Nails EP. I got my copy of the album by emailing Phil himself, who sent me a copy free, which struck me as a very cool thing to do. You can email him yourself at crankandrattle@hotmail.com.