Searching for Foals’ “Balloons” video—the companion clip to one of my favorite songs on the U.K. quintet’s excellent debut, Antidotes (released here in the States by Sub Pop)—on YouTube, I accidentally typed “foal” instead of “foals.” Within a few moments I was watching, with much fascination, a six-minute video from Britain titled “Birth of a Foal,” in which a man pulls a foal from a prone, stabled horse to the overdubbed strains of the Peter Gabriel/Kate Bush duet “Don’t Give Up.” Afterward, I found the “Balloons” video, and for a while I couldn’t decide which I preferred—the horse nuzzling and licking its newborn as it struggled to take its first steps, or the way the youthful, art-schoolish members of Foals wear their instruments practically under their chins as they romp through knotty, battleship-tight, infectious dance-rock that’s typically compared to Gang of Four and Battles but to me often sounds a lot like our very own Minus the Bear, except fronted by the dude from Bloc Party instead of the dude from Jawbox. Ultimately I chose Foals over foals, because while the latter makes you sit in your chair and go “Awww . . . ,” the former makes you jump up and around and go “Woooo!!”

Fri., May 30, 8 p.m., 2008