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Foot Patrol is an Austin, TX funk band that puts the "fun" back in FUNK.
Voted as the fans' favorite band in the Texas Rollergirls' 2008 season, Foot Patrol has created quite a sensation around Austin, TX and elsewhere as a "must see" live act. Sure, Foot Patrol is into feet. But once you listen beyond the foot fetish content, the group lays down some of funkiest grooves in town, bending Prince-like sex appeal against odd samples and fervent beats. The eclectic vision of Hung Nguyen and TJ Wade, Foot Patrol’s songs are both hilarious and swaggeringly smooth, rapping out toe odes that will, well, have your feet moving.
Foot Patrol is another manifestation of the prolific production team of Hung Nguyen and TJ Wade. It's a departure from the angry hardcore edge of their other projects and highlights their playful side. The sound is reminiscent of 80's Minneapolis funk, and the outrageous lyrics are about TJ's uncommon love for feet.
TJ's virtuostic playing and singing are complemented by a stellar group of Austin music veterans who really know how to turn out the funk. Before you know it, you'll want to get frisked by these guys.
The name of their first album is "Toetry In Motion" followed by the "Foot Worship Queens" ep and the second full length album "Smellabration." 2008 brought "No Small Feat." 2009 brought on the whimsical "Chrissy EP." A small collection of songs about that wonderful dumb blonde we all know; voice provided by TJ Wade.
In 2010 Foot Patrol will debut their next full length release, "Pussyfooting," featuring songs such as Camel Toe, It's Stinky, Mudslide, Raw Footage, and Dirty Digits.
Their other projects are the hardcore rock band Terroristic and the hardcore rap outfit MC Terroristic.
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His name is T.J. and in his own words, he has “an uncommon love for feet.” The lead singer and keyboardist of Foot Patrol, the world’s premiere funk act dedicated to all things foot fetish (their first album is called “Toetry In Motion”; their second, “Smellabration”) just played their first gig of SXSW 2008 at the Beauty Bar. And it was funky. Fortunately, T.J.’s not the strong, silent type of beat cop. He’s able to openly discuss his preoccupation.
And did we mention he’s blind?
So, foot fetishes, eh?
-I really do have a foot fetish. Especially women’s feet. I love them.
What did you do with that predilection before the band?
-Before the band, my life was in the middle of nowhere. I had no friends. I had no feet to love. But these guys have helped me in every way, you know?
What’s your favorite type of feet?
-Soft, smooth, smelly and silky. I mean, I appreciate all types but I really like them big feet.
What’s the nastiest thing you’ve ever done to a foot?
-Hmm. I’ve sucked toes. You know you got to get into toe sucking. And it goes further and further, deeper and deeper, than that. But I can’t divulge everything.
Gee. Thanks a lot, T.J.
- Superdeluxeblog, by El Douche A
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SXSW review: Foot Patrol
By V.M. Black | Thursday, March 13, 2008, 08:16 AM
Austin’s favorite foot fetish funk group, Foot Patrol, took only a few songs to prove that they are not just a foot-worshiping novelty act. Foot Patrol’s 8 p.m. opening set brutalized the audiences’ ears with funk grooves, punk spirit and even more highly danceable shake-the-junk-in-your-trunk rhythm and blues soul music that energized the Beauty Bar on Wednesday and released the venue’s soul from its all too familiar stoic hipster, arms-folded, cool pose.
Initially audience members might have thought that frontman/keyboardist T. J. Wade was pulling on pant legs as song after song lyrically unfolded into anthems obsessed with the worship of human feet and foot fetish parties. Wade’s singular “smellabration” of feet finally leveled certain members of the audience into curious “Is this guy for real?” and “I think this guy is for real” outbursts.
Foot Patrol has grown from a two-piece featuring bassist Hung Nguyen and vocalist Wade, into a nine-piece ensemble including three super-tight horn players and “The Toe Deputy Dance Squad” (two female go-go dancers).
The band and their dancers were clad in fake mustaches. Other members wore wigs and the guitarist even wore a prison orange jumpsuit. The band repeatedly toyed with audience expectations and performance conventions, but the tenor of the vocal performance and the power of their inescapable rhythms — more James Brown than Parliament Funkadelic — was enough to make you surrender to their outrageous presentation.
Midway through the set, the audience appeared to come to terms with the fact that Wade was stone-face serious and 100 percent committed to his would-be/could-be hit songs concerning his fondness for female feet. Dropping rhyme upon rhyme with the tonal precision of Stevie Wonder and Prince, Wade simultaneously revealed moments of his classical piano virtuosity in quick, subtle flashes on his electronic keyboards. And as good as the kid is ..s, when he does a blurry-fast run, you get the impression that he’s almost reigning in his skill for the measured poppy funk of his band.
The “S.W.A.T.” theme song received a pretty reverent interpretation (although its poignancy and irony seemed to be lost on the predominately under-30 crowd). Wade and band likewise sampled bits of the Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me” during their memorable original “Such A Pity.”
If only an adventurous advertising mogul were in the audience: There must be a shoe/sock/sandal maker in the world that could create a “perfect storm” of pop cultural candy by combining a Foot Patrol song with just the right images. Out-of-towners should note that as weirdly original and inspired as Foot Patrol is, their freak funk claims underground Austin music scene lineage to local punk and funk juggernauts the Big Boys, the Butthole Surfers and Brown Whornet.
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