The Children's Hour

The Children's Hour is a folk-rock duo comprised of Josephine Foster and Andy Bar. The two have been honing a refined, passionate indie rock style since mid-2002 when a mutual friend introduced Foster, an opera school dropout from Colorado, to Bar, an Art Institute of Chicago graduate from Cleveland. They played with the indie rock trio Golden Egg for a short time, but opted to do things their way. They took their name, the Children's Hour, from a Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem and played clubs in and around the suburbs of Chicago that summer. Within a few months, Foster planned to move to Portland to escape city life. Luckily, a chance meeting with Minty Fresh owner Jim Powers kept her from doing so. The Children's Hour recorded a self-titled EP at St. Gregory's Church and Zwan man Billy Corgan got a hold of it. Corgan was so impressed with the band's bittersweet, spry sound, he had the Children's Hour open for Zwan on their first American tour. John Peel even caught buzz and featured them on BBC Radio One before Christmas. In May 2003, the Children's Hour made their full-length debut with SOS JFK.