Foreign Exchange Bests Love Language At Soundclash Raleigh

Despite the wind, rain and cold, about 600 people packed into a tent erected on North Street in Downtown Raleigh to watch Durham-based R&B crew The Foreign Exchange take on Chapel Hill’s The Love Language in a battle of the bands.

With The Foreign Exchange on one end of the tent and The Love Language on the other, the two bands battled through four rounds; including a covers round, a takeover round, a clash round and finally a wild card event.

For the first round, each band performed their own unique cover of Prince’s “Take Me With U” from the classic album Purple Rain. The face-off resulted in an early lead for The Love Language as they won over the audience and earned one point.

The second round had each band playing their original tunes with the other band having to finish the second half of the song on cue while finishing it in their own style. This round ended in a tie and The Love Language holding a 3-2 lead over The Foreign Exchange.

VIDEO:
The Love Language takes on “Daykeeper”
The Foreign Exchange takes on “Lalita”

That lead didn’t last long with The Foreign Exchange besting the indie-pop band in The Clash round, bringing the score to 5-3 as the R&B group successfully adapted their songs to three different genres — bossa nova, reggae and disco.

For the Wild Card, each band invited a secret musician to join them on stage to be a part of their performance. The Foreign Exchange selected trumpet player Stan Graham. However it was Motor Skills emcee and Gross Ghost frontman Mike Dillon who helped The Love Language claim another victory.

VIDEO:
The Love Language feat. Mike Dillon

The victory wasn’t quite enough to bring The Love Language back to the top as The Foreign Exchange took top honors with a final score of 5-4.

“It feels dope. It feels great to win,” The Foreign Exchange frontman Phonte said. “Some of the styles we did today we’re probably going to end up doing in our shows.”

Hopefully the Red Bull folks were pleased with the bands, audience and support of local music so we can see more of the Soundclash events come to the City of Oaks. Maybe Colossus vs. Kooley High, I Was Totally Destroying It vs. The Beast (sister vs. brother), or Lonnie Walker vs. Blount Harvey.

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• The Foreign Exchange Teams With ?uestlove On Prince Tribute
• The Foreign Exchange’s Video For ‘Daykeeper’
• The Foreign Exchange Receives Grammy Nomination