Local band releases “Fun! Exciting! Realistic!” album

-- Meghan Dusek

My meeting with Anoka-based band, Facing the Plastic, began in true rock star fashion: bassist and contact Mike Erickson forgot about the meeting. “This must look really professional,” Mike exhaled deeply and apologized again and again when he arrived. But then he handed me a copy of their first full-length album, “Fun! Exciting! Realistic!” and black and neon slipcover, complete with pin-up girl and “Exclusive satisfaction guarantee” sticker, and it was more than enough to beg the question: Who is this band? 2005: Facing the Plastic formed in North Minneapolis with a garage-indie approach to rock by founding members Sean Folstad, vocals and guitar; Jay Jorgenson, drums; and Mike, bass and vocals. Each member also takes on additional responsibilities—Sean focuses on booking while Mike handles promotions. And Jay? “Jay just drums really well,” Mike joked. “We don’t ask a lot more from him.”

“Our sound is influenced by just a bunch of things,” Mike said, listing (to name a few) garage-grunge, post-punk, alternative and metal. “Facing the Plastic will never refer to themselves as the current trend of music ‘on crack.’”

I won’t lie, I don’t pretend to be a music expert or even know off-hand what the differences between garage-grunge and post-punk are. However, I can say that the tracks from “Fun! Exciting! Realistic!” are definitely reminiscent of styles with which I am familiar.

The opening track, “The Motivation,” is stylistically very instrument-driven versus vocal, and the rawness of the track reminded me heavily of early, “Kill ‘em All” Metallica with the fast, steady, omnipresent drums and simple recurring lyrics. The second track was grittier, more grunge with a very Nirvana opening before moving into a faster pace. But despite these monsters-of-music name-dropping, the entire album has a definite feel that is unique to the band. As quoted from the media kit: “…catchy rhythms with guitar hooks that snag you in for the ride and slams you into a groove when you’re not expecting it.” The tunes are catchy and it’s definitely varied with enough of a mix to make it onto the “driving” playlist on my iPod.

“It’s been an interesting learning curve … there are a lot of catch-22’s in this business,” Mike said about the process of releasing their first album—and also working on creating and designing a media kit; a Web site; and maintaining their web presence, which has gained them an international following (so to speak).

“We put together a pre-sale package of a t-shirt and the new disc and advertised it on our site, some discussion boards, random stuff,” Mike explained. “So far, we’ve sold stuff to England, Mexico, Japan and Australia.

“I also leaked our album online. We had more than 6,000 downloads in one downloading community alone,” Mike added.

In the local music scene, the band has played extensively around the Twin Cities. “We do some advertising, but we get most bookings through word-of-mouth recommendations,” said Mike. Their venue list includes The Fine Line, Station 4, First Ave, The Dinkytowner, The Varsity Theater, Club Underground, The Red Sea, Club 400 and many more including festivals and private parties. They have played with Screaming Mechanical and Brokencyde, who were recently featured in a MTV’s Total Request Live (TRL) spot. “Their stuff is more screaming hip-hop,” Mike said about Brokencyde. “We’re pretty versatile, we can complement a lot of styles.”

With word-of-mouth flying, Internet downloads skyrocketing and international sales before the CD was even released, what is Facing the Plastic planning on next? “We’re already writing for the next album,” said Mike. So the learning curve encountered on “Fun! Exciting! Realistic!” didn’t turn them off?

“Nah … it was pretty rad,” Mike said.

Mike Erickson is currently a student at Metropolitan State University studying Journalism, Creative Writing and Philosophy. For more information on Facing the Plastic, including show dates and merchandise, visit them at www.facingtheplastic.com or download “Fun! Exciting! Realistic!” off iTunes.