The Super Furry Animals Thread

[Rob McCow]

Good news everybody!

Super Furry Animals have enough material for three new albums, frontman Gruff Rhys has told NME.COM.

The band are currently mixing the follow-up to 2005's 'Love Kraft'. Rhys says that record, due out in the spring on the band's new label Rough Trade, will be a "speaker blowing" LP. But an orchestral album is also planned for release at some stage.

Speaking about the new material, Rhys said: "We just finished mixing the new record, but we're working on about three different Furries records at the moment. We've got so much music, which we'll put out gradually.

"We've got about 20 hours worth of music recorded. The next record's a bit of a racket. By the end of the last tour we had dumped all the slow songs are were just doing rocky numbers. At that point we were rehearsing a batch of new songs and that influenced their direction - they're pretty energetic and extreme. It's very melodic, and there are a couple of mellow tunes too."

Asked when the record would be released, Rhys stated: "At the moment, we're just trying to make sense of what we've mixed and we're having a period of reflection that we always have after finishing things. We're not in a mad rush, but the sooner the better I suppose."

Rhys, who releases his second solo album 'Candylion' on January 8, also disclosed how some of the other new material sounded.

He revealed: "We've got an orchestral record on the way too, completely instrumental. But that will take a while."

Wales's most prolific psychedelic loonies are coming back! We've heard Candylion once or twice on the TV music channels and rocky it isn't - but it is absolutely lovely in a charming, nursery rhyme way.

[Wayne]

Psychedelic eh? I don't know anything about this band. Would i like them?

[SiHart]

In my opinion they're the best band in the UK. There's no-one quite as great as the SFA!

This is indeed good news!

Si xx

[Perry Vale]

I got sent a copy of the 'Candylion' cd, and it's quite wonderful, better than 'Lovekraft', imo. I look forward to the next SFA gig at Brixton Academy.

[Paul Monk]

I wonder if they'll finish on a song other than The Man Don't Give A ****?
Its getting a bit tired now. They was a stage where they finished with Mountain People which was good.
Their entrance the last time I saw them was good. The used that buggy thing.

[Paul Monk]

This is a great alternative video for Lazer Beam. I'd definitely play this game!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnkkbpSby74

And would Wayne like them?

[Si Hunt]

It's good when you're fave band is prolific! It balances out liking people like Kate Bush who take 15 years to make an album.

Si.

[Rob McCow]

Indeed Mr.Hunt! The Elastica fan must be so jealous too. We also had DVD's with videos for each song with two of the albums.

The song Mother Fokker also turned up in their encore at Brixton. I think people kind of expect TMDGAF to be their last song and wouldn't leave the concert venue until they played it.

[Wayne]

I opened a christmas card today, & out sprang some Super Furry Animals!

Nice to hear this band that have previously missed my radar. I definitely like what i heard, but this is music that i would only play when i'm in chill out mode, which is the section in which they will reside.
Some nice stuff though. A few tracks that stood out for me are:
'The Picolo Snare' (Could almost be 'Air'), 'Cloudberries' & 'Slow Life'. I like their mellow feel. There's a Pink Floyd influence (probably indirectly?), & the more upp-ish stuff reminds me vaguely of Acid/Jazz group: 'Corduroy', but not as retro.
Good stuff anyway!
Watch for other music bursting out of last minute xmas cards soon.

[Carol Baynes]

I always quite liked them.

[Rob McCow]

Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys and Boom Bip have been hard at work in Los Angeles and London recording tracks for their forthcoming project, Neon Neon.

The duo's debut album will be called 'Stainless Style' and features guests including The Magic Numbers, Har Mar Superstar, Spank Rock and Cate Le Bon (daughter of Duran Duran's Simon).

"We're doing the finishing mixes and it's sounding really good," Boom Bip told NME.COM. "We're aiming for a July release, but the last thing we want to do is rush it and screw it up."

According to Boom Bip, the album is a celebration of simple pop. "Gruff and I focused on making real pop songs -- like Rick Springfield or Cyndi Lauper that you can sing along to in your car," he said. "It's actually really tough to do the happy, catchy stuff, but Gruff's the perfect person to do it -- it's so natural for him to have music and lyrics come out."

Boom Bip, who produced the album in addition to co-writing it, described their collaboration with The Magic Numbers: "They did back-up choir vocals and it's just them and Gruff on the track. It has really gorgeous harmonies and big voices -- it's really intense."

'Stainless Style' revolves around the life and times of car manufacturer John De Lorean, who rose to fame in the 1980s and designed the futuristic car made famous in the film 'Back To The Future'.

"De Lorean was an icon for that era, which was all about girls and cars," said Boom Bip. "He designed the perfect car for men who were having a mid-life crisis. The concept is fairly loose, but all the songs on the album are related to his life. That said, I think every song can stand up on its own."

What? WHO is 'Boom Bip'?!?! Where's the new SFA album? WTF?

[SiHart]

If nothing else, Gruff is one of the busiest people in music today!

But Boom Bip? WHO?

Si xx

[Rob McCow]

"Candylion took form in the spring of 2006 over a fragmented 2 week period at Gorwel Owen's Ofn studio in Llanfaelog, Wales. My ears were happily ringing from a few months touring with the Super Furry Animals and I had a batch of mellower acoustic songs I wanted to record quickly and get out of the way before the next speaker-blowing SFA record. Once in the studio however I got carried away and found myself in a nostalgic mood, pining for some of the music I grew up listening to. The cornerstones of this record became the soft vocal sound of Psychocandy-era The Jesus and Mary Chain coupled with the sonic sweetshop of daisy age hip hop. Coincidently I had been listening and dancing hard during this period to a lot of my parents' old 1960's and 70's Welsh language pop, folksploitation and progressive rock 7 inches whilst helping Finders Keepers Records compile an album of the period which was called 'Welsh Rare Beat'. With all these pieces of my past swimming around my brain I dropped a lot of slow-mo solo acoustic numbers and built up a bedrock of varied sounds, inviting my friend Owen over to add double bass, and Lisa Jen from the band 9bach - who comes from my home town and shares my Bethesda accent - to sing. The atmosphere at Gorwel's house was free and easy so I felt confident to mess around with the English and Welsh Languages; working in a 15 minute long ballad dealing with Skylon, master of the skies and even recording a duet with Lisa in really bad Patagonian Spanish which fits in with my eventual goal of killing off all the colonial languages with bad grammar. To finish it off I searched further afield and stopped by in Brixton for a day to add some strings courtesy of Sean and Marcus of The High Llamas and finally hooked up with Mario Caldato Jr (who mixed the last 2 furry records) at his home in Rio de Janeiro for a week to mix the thing and add some percussion and flute. I headed home with this record burning in my hand: Candylion, an album essentially of 11 songs for the acoustic guitar and voice. It was a joy and adventure to make and I hope it floats your boat along too for a while, wherever you may be going. " Gruff Rhys, November 2006

Some amusing comments from Gruff with regards to the superb Candylion album!

[Rob McCow]

Big update at www.superfurry.com.

New single coming on Monday! Let's make it a Super Furry smash. Please!

[Rob McCow]

Super Furry Animals are teaming up with actor Rhys Ifans for a Welsh supergroup that will rival Oasis.
The band's drummer Dafydd Ieuan is getting ready to release a 15-track album with the 'Notting Hill' actor under the name Peth - meaning Welsh for 'thing'.
"I played it to Noel Gallagher last night and the boy's quaking in his boots," Ifans told The Observer. "It's wild rock music and I do the singing. I play a bit of guitar, too, but I'm not very good. Just good enough to get laid from a distance."
The band follows the actor's first foray into music - and Oasis - taking the lead part in the band's video for single 'The Importance Of Being Idle'.
He also turned up at the Shockwaves NME Awards to collect the Best Video Award for the clip, declaring that Oasis were all "tragically dead" onstage.

Given the chart success of the SFA's various offshoots, the quaking is more likely to be due to arthritis. He should get that checked out.

[Dino]

I knew Planet Skaro wasn't the only forum to not have a Super Furry Animals thread!

Although this link does contain title and description spoilers, it doesn't contain any lyrics and is a write up on an Uncut blog, of the follow up to Hey Venus! "Dark Days/Light Years".

http://www.uncut.co.uk/blog/index.ph...&pb=1#more1110


It's released as a download on their website on March 16th and as there are 5 other fans here we can talk it up until it's physical release a few months later?

I think it's going to be their Dark Side Of The Moon and if you get to see them live locally, I'd advise you take the chance!
They don't charge £20 for tickets anyway, and this album is going to be their Thriller!

Could we have the title of the thread changed to just Super Furry Animals Thread to celebrate?

[SiHart]

Hooray! Another SFA fan

I'm really looking forward to the new album and I hope you're right that with this one they'll hit the big time. I always keep hoping that as of all the bands currently at work in the world they are by far my favourite. They haven't made a bad album yet and yet they seem to be contsantly overlooked while other far shit*er indie bands get all the glory. is there a single song by The Kaiser Chiefs or Razorlight or Bloc party or whoever that comes close to matching the SFA? I think not!

Anyway, rant over! I hope we'll get to see them live this time round too. We haven't been since the Love Kraft tour way back in 2005.

Si xx

[Dino]

Over the next seven days, Colin Murray's Radio 1 show from Monday is on there.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00j08t3
Inaugural Trams played at 1:51:01.
This will be the third listen by the time I started writing this!

[Dino]

Album available to download from 8PM (in about half an hour) from www.superfurry.com
And also at 8, a live one off webcast gig of the new record.
Here we go!

[Rob McCow]

Ahhhh.... I got Inaugural Trams, but the rest of the album is proving a little more elusive. Refresh, Kitt, REFRESH!!!

[Rob McCow]

Trams!

[Dino]

Have to wait until I get some money in the middle of the week to buy the album.
I was annoyed the streaming of the gig was poor.
Kept delaying. I'd be happy with a sound only show, but even that had problems.
Still, looking forward to it!

[Rob McCow]

I think I missed the gigcast, but listened to about half the album last night.

It was pretty awesome in my opinion, psychedelic and guitar-y.

[Paul Monk]

I can't get the purchasing page to work. I put in my details and then nothing. It told me my basket was empty and that was it.

[Rob McCow]

It took me a few goes to get it to download last night. It seems a slightly unstable site at the moment, but as demand levels off things should get easier.

I paid the money and got the album, so it should be OK!