Wow, this Franz Ferdinand CD is good!

[Davey]

Got a full mailbox today with all kinds of goodies including CRSv9 and some demos to check out of Los Lonely Boys, The Stills <i>Logic Will Break Your Heart</i> and the buzzed about new debut from the next big thing, Franz Ferdinand. CRSv9 was a pretty good listen and thanks a ton JDaniel for all your work putting it together and getting it out to everybody. Nice job and all that. But this Franz Ferdinand is like, freakin' awesome! This might be stuck in my player for days. Already on spin two point five. Really contagious. Was probably gonna buy it anyway, but this clenches it. Thanks bigtime, you know who. Hope my reciprocity is satisfactory. Should be there soon. Is this the coolest music site on the planet, or what? :)

[chrisnz]

Bahh! Humbug! Didn't make anything clench for me (Lord I love typos;-))

I think I must be getting old and bitter... because I just don't understand... can't for the life of me fathom why people get so excited over these tired retreads of music that the perps fathers or even grandfathers were thrashing out decades ago.

Whatever happened to kids who wanted to tear everything down and remake it?

Consider this a kind of perverse "pity click".

Just messin wittcha :-)

Chris.

[Davey]

Bahh! Humbug! Didn't make anything clench for me (Lord I love typos;-))

I think I must be getting old and bitter... because I just don't understand... can't for the life of me fathom why people get so excited over these tired retreads of music that the perps fathers or even grandfathers were thrashing out decades ago.

Whatever happened to kids who wanted to tear everything down and remake it?

Consider this a kind of perverse "pity click".

Just messin wittcha :-)

Chris.
Thanks for the pity clench, buddy!

Hey, so you don't like to have fun anymore? Don't like it when the songs are catchy and well written? You bozo! Franz Ferdinand isn't tired at all. Actually, it's pretty fresh sounding to me. No missing the myriad of influences, but dude, it's just rock n roll. Kind of like the Strokes mixed with some Blur, but I think already better than the Strokes and with the possibility of maybe being better than Blur. I say that mostly out of respect for Blur, because I already <i>like</i> it more than any Blur album I have. Maybe I'm just getting easier to please in my old age and have heard enough things being torn down and put back together wrong. It's a blast to find an album every once in a while that is fun and unpretentious, yet at the same time bold and intelligent. Just doesn't happen very often for me. I can see that some of the appeal may wear off with more plays, and I haven't heard many other releases this year, but for now it has "clenched" the top spot on my best of 2004 list :)

[MindGoneHaywire]

Chris might be just messin', but I kinda agree with what he's saying. I do like this CD--which is white-hot right now--more than the Interpol record, but I'm not sure how much of a compliment that is. Don't get me wrong--I like both. But neither strike me as terribly original, and I'm more forgiving of a lack of originality in genres that aren't particularly original in the first place. Post-punk, which I would call this for lack of a better term, was certainly original. Good rec, but nothing spectacular to my ears. Then again, I didn't even give British Sea Power a 2nd listen.

I did just throw on a disc that hit me a lot harder--of all things, I swear, the Eamon CD. "I Don't Want You Back." Wiseass profanity & vulgarity with a smirk & a good dose of a contemporary pop sensibility. The guy can sing & there are melodies to be heard; in other words, it's not really a rap album. But if you can imagine what it would sound like if Eminem sang instead of rapped, this is in the ballpark. Enough good lines where I was actively listening for the next one in more songs than not. Very misogynistic, but good for a laugh provided you don't take it seriously. My wife thought it was hysterical, actually. Not for anyone who can't stomach the sound of contemporary urban r&b/pop, but...I can't, really, yet I was able to roll with this. I'll throw on the Franz Ferdinand again later, but for now this is ringing my bell.

[chrisnz]

Bozo!!! moi?

I can remember fun clearly.

There's just something fundamentally wrong with kids who want to make music their dad's would like. Pick your influence, steal their sound, copy the structures, add words and hey you've got a career. Could have been a pharmacist could have been a dentist could have been something else that rhymes with ist maybe careerist but what your definitely not is any kind of artist.

[Mysterio]

I too have really enjoyed that Franz Ferdinand disc. I have probably listened to it at least 10 times since I bought it. It may not be original, but what is these days in the post-post-modern world?

It is fresh, and vibrant, though. Fun and funky art-house dance!

I like their garage band spirit (or so it seems). I read in Rolling Stone (unfortunately?) something about them starting the band after, I think it was someone in Belle & Sebastian, (NOT quoting here) gave them a bass guitar and told them to do something with it. Right on, I say.

Along with this, I've also really been into the Cooper Temple Clause disc that I finally got around to getting, Kanye West, and I just got The Secret Machines this weekend, and it is KILLER! Listened to it 3 times in a row, I think. That means something to me.

Heavy rhythm section and drum sound reminiscent of, dare I say...Bonham, with modern electronics. This band is good. But, who are they?

Anyway, I'll get out now and write back in another few months...

[chrisnz]

Ouch, forget those extensions dude. I'm not dissing everything you like. I loved the SFA's, Wrens Broken Social Scene, Grandaddy albums from last year. Admittedly the rebirth of Folk leaves me somewhat puzzled but then the fact that some people still got the blues leaves me dumbfounded so I'm kind of used to being out of step.

Rest assured when I find something that you'll really hate... it'll be on it's way in a jiffy.

Chris.

[Davey]

Ouch, forget those extensions dude. I'm not dissing everything you like. I loved the SFA's, Wrens Broken Social Scene, Grandaddy albums from last year. Admittedly the rebirth of Folk leaves me somewhat puzzled but then the fact that some people still got the blues leaves me dumbfounded so I'm kind of used to being out of step.

Rest assured when I find something that you'll really hate... it'll be on it's way in a jiffy.

Chris.
Hey, you can't reply <i>after</i> I delete my post! That's not fair! Sorry, I don't usually like to get into these kind of conversations because it's all so subjective, and what you find derivative someone else may find new and exciting. It's just a deadend. So I decided to delete my last post and let yours stand as the last word. But you just couldn't let it rest, could you? Hehehe, OK I'll play another round :)

I honestly don't understand why you denigrate Franz Ferdinand for making music their parents could like and at the same time, loving the other things you list which have genes going all the way back to the 60s and could easily be appreciated by an older generation. And I also don't think the sound of Franz Ferdinand can be characterized nearly as easily or succinctly as you and J seem to say or imply with your derivative dismissals. To me they successfully bring together quite a few different sounds from bands like the Kinks, Blondie, Joy Division, Wire, Madness, and maybe even a dose of Frankie Goes To Hollywood, among others. But even if they could be described as easily as you guys say, the songwriting and every other aspect of the music is still excellent. Their problem (if you want to term it a problem) is that there are now too many other bands on the scene that aren't as good but that are borrowing from that same disco-dance-post-punk-new-wave pool and so they come off as following the followers. But I think they've managed to integrate their influences better than most and have a unique enough sound to get them past all the initial derivative claims, as evidenced by how highly the album is regarded by both fans and critics alike. That's what I think :)

[chrisnz]

Well sure it's subjective but there's usually reasons behind how you feel about things and I don't mind talking about them but it's just noodling not serious.

I doubt you could find anyone over about five who could find this new and exciting. Not that there's anything wrong with having influences. Influences are cool but you've got to bring something of your own to the table. When I listen to this I can't find anything that roots it to 2004. Listen to it and tell me when it was made? How do they do that? Because it can't be accidental.

I don't really hear Joy Division or Wire because there's absolutely no juice or edge to this music. It's poptastic boy/girl silly love songs. Mostly I hear Elastica minus the edge.

They have integrated their influences. They've pureed them and extruded the result.

Some of my favourite mags have given it 10/10. Go figure.

Betcha $5 that it's not in your best of 2004 ;-)

Chris.

[Davey]

Betcha $5 that it's not in your best of 2004 ;-)

Chris.
Sure buddy, as long as you don't try to pay up with one of these things.....

http://www.rbnz.govt.nz/currency/money/0060617-7.jpg

:)

Yeah, I hear ya. I don't know how much I'll still like it by the end of the year. By then I may have heard new stuff by Bjork, Circulatory System, The Court and Spark, Bark Psychosis, Wilco, PJ Harvey, The Secret Machines, Mission Of Burma, and who knows what else, so FF may have slid a ways down the list. Or maybe I'll be tired of it in a month. But it's a fun album right now.

You're kind of right about the Joy Division connection. I think it's more of a feel than actual sound, at least for me. And maybe a little connection could be drawn in the historical references used for the band names, not sure if Franz Ferdinand had anything like that in mind. There is some influence that shows up in the bass heavy rhythms and I think that keeps it tied to the New Order sound too. I do hear that same Elastica you mention, which of course is a direct Wire connection, but I don't agree that the edge is all gone. It's just a funkier sound. More Talking Heads than Wire, I guess. But in the end I do agree with you guys that it is a derivative sound, I mainly disagreed with your initial posts where you implied they were just nicking some other mystery band's music and calling it their own, and that I must be bonkers to like it so much ;). I do really feel that they've absorbed a lot of influences and created something I find interesting, fun and likeable. I guess you're right that there isn't much edge and that the sound is familiar, but I also guess that must not be a problem for me nowadays :)

EDIT: Oh yeah, forgot to mention one thing. One of my favorites on the CD is that fifth track, Auf Achse. But I bring it up because you may have noticed in this weeks playlist that I was listening to that Simple Minds Early Gold collection and this song really seems to remind me a lot of them and it also encapsulates a lot of what was good about the early sound of Simple Minds before they went to s<a>hit. Granted, maybe not for you, but definitely for me. And it's got that cool, yearning chorus... <i>you want her but you can't have her... you want to but she won't let you...</i>. Maybe Blondie too. Have you ever heard Kilimanjaro by the Teardrop Explodes? Kind of a minor classic that Swish Baby turned me onto a couple years ago. Real nice album with some similarities to the Franz Ferdinand sound but of course with about a 25 year head start and not as funky. My only real point is that I could probably sit here listing bands all day long that Franz Ferdinand kind of sounds like, but in the end the album still has a bunch of what I think are really good songs, catchy and clever, and just generally well written. And that's the real reason I like it so much :)

[DJBabs]

I think Franz Ferdinand are amazing. I have just recently been getting into them... and I was looking around and found this contest--- http://franzferdinand.tv/theird/ --- you can win a trip to see them in Scotland!! I would love to see them play in their hometown... it would be incredible. Have any of you signed up yet? Good luck if you do :)