The Psychedelic Furs Classic or Dud

And the current touring incarnation is a sad spectacle indeed.

At the time I'd been listening loads to "President Gas" and was thinking wow yeah the Furs what an underrated band. I'm not sure I was right but lack further proof. I like their counter-punk slickness up to a point and I love Butler's absurd voice.

Some songs that sound particularly good this time: Soap Commercial, Heaven, Into You Like A Train / IJWSWYou (such crass titles, such great sounds), There's A World.

But really they all sound good. I can hardly think of one of their tracks that I dislike.

Was thinking (besides that this is a better thread than the other one I revived) that a lot of the material on "Midnight to Midnight" and "Mirror Moves" is not bad, especially the obvious highlights of the latter, but that I'd chalk the P. Furs as another group really hurt by the loss of its drummer. "MM" and "M2M" try so hard to be, for a lack of a better word, danceable, but the beats/tempos are way too often '80s generic. Throw in (or out) a lot of the production - sorry, Keith Forsey - and it's just such a step down.

Speaking of which, "Goodbye" from "Forever Now" might be the band's most brilliant post-punk disco pastiche.

Thought this revive would be Alfred-related.

hahaha

Vince Ely was a monster. Completely underrated. You can also hear his magic on bits of Hitchcock's "Black Snake Diamond Role" LP. "Brenda's Iron Sledge" especially.

ah thanks for that reference, never knew that but it makes sense

I think call me by your name has renewed interest in these guys. Hearing them played places. Like them.

They've never quite gone away -- the mid eighties stuff particularly -- but it's nice.

surely its time to sort out a remastered edition of 'mirror moves'.
all of the albums previous to that have been done.
i saw them a few years back when on a work trip to chicago.
they played at the metro with 'she wants revenge' on support.
so, given my groove, i contacted people and ended up with justin warfield backstage after the gig for an interview.
f&ck me.
i messed up.
while justin droned on and on about how brilliant he was and never answered any of my questions, i had to listen to the furs crew having a proper party in the next door booth.

oh, and the furs were fantastic live.
the whole band were dressed head to toe in black with absolutely no deviation from the rule, and rich sounded sooo good.

that song has been stuck in my head and in rotation since I saw the movie nearly 2 months ago. one of the best & most effective song syncs in a movie in recent memory imo

I'm usually not keen on comps/hits but "All Of This And Nothing" is desert island for me

their show in the bay area stone cold sold out, which never happens; wondered what was behind that, has to have been call me by your name rekindling interest.

For the first time in the history of the Internet we can say Hey there's a new Psychedelic Furs song and album coming out.

It's real good too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=225&v=603KqtjKDSg&feature=emb_title

P-Furs forced to reinstate the saxophone as they revisit their classic sound = awesome

yeah, this song sounds really good, I'm ready for a new album

The beauty of Richard Butler's ash heap of a larynx is how in 1981 everyone predicted it'd sound like this in 2020.

Everyone or no one?

Love this.

For the first time in the history of the Internet we can say Hey there's a new Psychedelic Furs song

Nope, new song "Alive (For Once In My Lifetime)" was snuck onto a live album in 2001:
https://www.discogs.com/The-Psychedelic-Furs-Alive-For-Once-In-My-Lifetime/release/1813394

I've loved everything Richard Butler has done, looking forward to this!

Another new song out "You'll be mine"... It's great!!

Giving these guys an honest listen for the first time in my life, starting with first album. If they would re-release this album with all the sax removed, I would probably love them.

you're in for crashing disappointment

Huh, the sax is awesome! An only gets better!

okay this was good for a morning lol

you're in for crashing disappointment

I meant if pgwp disliked the sax, he better hold on loosely.

lol fair. least corny sax of the 80s tho.

Yeah, we're not talking Hot Sax(tm), we're talking skronky stuff inspired by Bowie's Berlin stuff. Regardless, Mars Williams, who toured/tours with the band a lot, has serious chops/cred.

First album is great.

It is true there are much worse instances of "hot sax" in the 80s than this. But I personally have an extremely low tolerance for the instrument when used in rock music. There are exceptions but not many. I will still give Talk Talk Talk a chance but I am bracing myself!

If you don't like that album I question not just whether you will ever like the band, but whether you will like tons of other good stuff. For me, Butler's voice alone is better than the entire catalog of many other acts. But no pressure.

Talk Talk Talk is legendary

Todd Rundgren’s production on “love my way” owns me

Josh - given your declaration, were you at the gig at the Chicago Metro with She Wants Revenge on support a few years back ?

if you were, then i am annoyed i ended up having to listen to JW whine on about how great he is as opposed to hanging out with you sir.

'a few years back' = a decade.

f*ck.

Seriously. But no, I've never seen the Psychedelic Furs. In fact, I have no idea why I didn't see their show with James last year. I love both of those bands.

I want to say they did a relatively recent tour with the English Beat as well, and it seemed like such a randomly desperate nostalgia pairing despite, as far as I've heard, both bands still being awesome live, which kind of made me kick myself for not going.

fair enough.
the show at the metro really surprised me.
richards voice sounded so good.
really surprised me.
oh, and all the band dressed head to toe in black.
no deviation at all.
gotta love such devotion.

There's no fucking reason why Made of Rain should be this assured and good.

I'm listening to the songs currently available on Spotify and holy shit

"Don't Believe" and "No One" kill. And the opener "The Boy Who Invented Rock n Roll" is their best in that field since "Forever Now."

"Come All Ye Faithful", "No One", "You'll Be Mine", and "Don't Believe" are the songs I'm listening to and, based on those four songs, this may be my favorite album of the year

Richard Butler has never lost it. Yes, he did take a detour into pop on "Midnight To Midnight" but everything else he's ever been involved with is at least very good, all worth hearing if you like his voice.

Suffice it to say I'll have more professional praise next week.

wow, Amanda Kramer is in the band now?

Very delightfully surprised to learn about all this.

And hey, Bandcamp preorder:

https://thepsychedelicfurs.bandcamp.com/

Holy shit is this good! Really interesting drumming, Richard Fortus' masterful and sympathetic production and of course Butler's presence. This is such a wonderful gift in these strange times.

no one talks about it but i low-key really love the Furs/GnR venn diagram. who could have ever predicted?

Maybe takes its foot of the gas a tad too early, but this is definitely worthy. Some serious '90s vibes to the production, which is perhaps why it also reminds me at times of ... Suede?

I love most of it.

Ooh, Alfred otm that there are some "Wish" vibes to some of this. Which is to say I guess, shoegazey sheets of guitar without being shoegaze?

"The Boy That Invented Rock n Roll" is just fabulous, what an opener.

"wow, Amanda Kramer is in the band now?" she has been for quite a while now

I bought Mirror Moves in 1986, so I'm OK with calling the 21st century "now"

"The Boy That Invented Rock n Roll" is just fabulous, what an opener.

Quite (listening to the album and that track now).

Truly one of the more amazing things about this is is the fact that since his voice *always* sounded like that, now that he's 64 years old and has kept his voice going through all the regular enough touring, it really hasn't felt like it's changed in the slightest. And that's not something that most singers can say.

If anything, the brutal touring schedule has kept it sharp and trim.

Is the soprano sax a new addition to the band's sonic arsenal?

I enjoyed your Pitchfork review, Alfred, though you seemed to like it more than the 7.0 score would imply.

The score was mine!

Really enjoying this too. Not too familiar with the Furs, tho I had the second Love Spit Love album when I was, uh, ten (why I wanted it I truly cannot say) and find myself hearing this in the context of that time. Seems a bit less sardonic, so far.

I was more curious than excited about this, but it is actually a good record! Everybody otm about Butler's deathless rasp sounding essentially unchanged. The alienation feels familiar and comforting under the circumstances, likewise the doomed melodicism.

Good songs. The productions is very 90s as pointed out above, which makes it a bit jarring (since my knowledge of the Furs mainly centers around TalkX3)

wow, this album is really beautiful! reminds me of the last Church album, shimmery production that sounds great at any volume, and as tipsy mothra says, the acid has aged like a fine whiskey, it absolutely sparkles.

Listened to some of this last night for first time. Not bad. Probably the first new P Furs I have listened to in decades.

To be fair, it's the first new Furs material in decades. The lead track, "The Boy That Invented Rock & Roll", with it's stuttering intro, should go on any best-of.

Agreed.

No lie.

Totally worthy of the band that did TTT, and that’s not nuthin.

"Ash Wednesday"! (and the rest)

I didn't realize John Ashton was fighting stage 4 prostate cancer. Apparently the band did a benefit show for him earlier this year in Woodstock, and now they're auctioning off this signed guitar (signed by Richard Butler, Tim Butler, Mars Williams, Amanda Kramer, Rich Good, Zack Alford and John Ashton):

https://entertainment.ha.com/itm/vintage-guitars-and-musical-instruments/the-psychedelic-furs-signed-schecter-electric-guitar/a/7275-85129.s?ic4=GalleryView-ShortDescription-071515

Really a tough situation, it's too advanced to operate on so he's been on chemo, hormone therapy and other things for the past year and I guess he'll be continuing treatment for the foreseeable future.

As a prostate cancer survivor of uh, 6 mos so far, this has meaning, weight, and such strong sad anger.

I stumbled on to a gofundme campaign from late 2021 that claims original drummer Vince Ely (he was the drummer for the first three albums) has throat cancer, but it has very few donations. Not sure what happened there, but is it true, Ely has throat cancer?

Not sure. Nothing online but that late 2021 UK Go Fund Me.

Just saw the current touring version of Psychedelic Furs last night with X opening.

the band's current lineup I think is — original members Butler and his bass-playing brother, Tim; saxophonist Mars Williams and drummer Paul Garisto from the mid-'80s lineup; and two relative newcomers, guitarist Rich Good and keyboardist Amanda Kramer

As mentioned in the other thread, X was great, but I was surprised how much I enjoyed the Furs. Mars is a fantastic saxophonist, I'm glad he's still with them and nothing against Kilburn but Mars is even more accomplished and brings more to the band (even though he didn't appear on their first few albums). The Butlers were great and again, they really loved the crowd, they kept coming over to the edge of stage and mouthed the words with us. It was almost too much to have Richard Butler like two feet away from you, crouching down and singing directly at your face, and really not knowing what else to do except bop my head to the beat. (I didn't know the words well enough to sing back.)

I agree. Was raving to my wife about how great sax player Williams sounded. Richard Butler looked real into it. I hadn't seen them since the early 8os. I did wish they would have done "Sister Europe" & "Into You Like a Train" and sometimes the drums and guitar were too arena rock , but largely a fun show

xpost--I messaged the guy doing the go fund me for former P Furs (and Cure for a bit) drummer and he said:

Visitor Message from Simon Porter:

He’s good.. on the road to recovery.. living in Eastbourne with his beloved dogs..

Regards

I had a couple songs from the most recent album pop up in shuffles recently, that's really a good record.

I need to listen to that latest one again

Marvellous old Furs advert. Mostly just actual songs off the LP, but Butler talks over them occasionally.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDyF_OUEl10

So just a quick reminder that Richard B worked with Martin Gore on four songs on the new Depeche album. All quite good!

any details as to how this team up happened, as its not something i would have expected ?

Haven't seen it discussed yet myself.

Mars Williams is missing their upcoming tour because he's fighting cancer. (Two other members from the band's history have also been fighting cancer.)

Go Fund Me campaign to help him out:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/marswilliams

Just caught them tonight. Richard sounded awesome, still the epitome of cool, and Mars was back in action!

A friend who saw them last week thought they were great and reported approvingly that Richard Butler looked like a kooky grandma.

^^ Show me some men who look like old lesbians!

saw this, thought "fuck i wish i could finally see them" and then looked, and i am now gonna see them 9/29. Thanks Josh.

fwiw, shows bigger than a few hundred bring me down, though i finally saw spoon last month and wooooooooooohooo, i enjoyed that.

They were great when I saw them with X. I didn't expect Richard to constantly come up to the edge of the stage, especially off to the side where I was - he was literally inches from me, which was cool but after awhile almost felt TOO close. All of a sudden, there was this pressure to facially express my enjoyment over and over again - I didn't want him to think "was this guy just here for X?" (To be fair, I love X to pieces.)

ha i would likely have the same issue, but still not a bad problem. glad to hear they're sounding good, i hope that it continues.

because i have so much and such long listening history with them, i have a weird sense of them not being actual at all. almost a personal feeling that they are bigger than popular music, just like, this creative/productive "thing" of "that" era.

i listened to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ncz9b2dIHkU 4 times while rollerskiing 6mi up gravel paths to home today. that album surprised me at the time for it's pop catchiness and it's very smooth melding of their history and general styles with those of greater recency. and also the VU/Cale violin, and the clarinet(oboe?) parts on top of that. It's just a good piece to me.

Mike Mills in a recent interview:

I just saw one of the best shows I’ve seen in years, the Psychedelic Furs opening for Squeeze, and it was awesome in every way. There was no feeling of age up there. They all played and acted like young men and sounded great, and I couldn’t have had a better time.

i saw the same pairing in Denver, Squeeze opened for Furs. Good show, they played very well, the sound system was terrible terrible. the vox were almost totally lost to me, row 2. Enjoyed it a great deal, wouldn't say the elder furs seemed like young men, but they were extremely credible, very casually and comfortably active (and interactive) rock adults ha.

Did they play the 2020 songs? They deserve inclusion.

they played a few at the show I saw, so I assume so.

Yup and agree that album is very solid imo. Effective pop lyricist and songwriter for me.

when I saw them in May 2023 they played The Boy That Invented Rock'n'Roll, Wrong Train, and No-One from the new album, so they're not neglecting it

Wish they'd play something from the Love Spit Love albums. So underrated!

hugely underrated!!

Is there any other band of their era that tours as reliably as the Furs? They play several dozen dates across the US annually, and have done so nearly every year since 2000.

i kept thinking “kooky, hmmm a little, but not too granny like, rly”?

the rows up front dissolved during the show and i got a good handshake from r butler on a walk-by, it was gratifying as hell.

Oh no...

Rest in peace, Mars

Shit. There was a benefit scheduled for him in a couple of days. He was a pretty incredible player. Amazing that he could fit in just as well with the Psychedelic Furs and Peter Brotzmann.

I think you recommended The Chicago Octet/Tentet which is indeed an amazing album.

(A limited edition physical release but still available on Bandcamp)

Big loss to Chicago area rock/jazz scene. This dude was on so many fun records!

Liquid Soul shows were so dope.

RIP awesome sax guy, you were amazing live

Awesome, awesome player, for me he will always be a part of Hal Russell's NRG Ensemble, Finnish/Swiss Tour, The Hal Russell Story, their free jazz opera, and Hal on Earth esp

RIP

Fine tribute by Peter Margasak. Mentions the support he gave other musicians with addiction issues: sounds like a good guy and real community player. Love those Christmas Ayler records.

https://petermargasak.substack.com/p/mars-williams-has-left-the-stage?utm_source=substack&publication_id=85512&post_id=139041340&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&utm_campaign=email-share&triggerShare=true&isFreemail=true&r=3b6cq

Only just noticed this news, terrible

One of my favourite rock sax guys ever, amazing tone, essential to all their best work

Slight rewind but still, fuck mortality

oh man I love those Christmas Ayler records too.

He's even adding to the din here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPfGwMdGHfU

Happy birthday, Richard Butler! I'd run into you like a train.

I'm seeing them next month!

I love those first 2/3 albums and although I'm not a big nostalgia boy i think I'd want to see them on the strength of that alone

They put on a great show - I saw the last tour with X before Mars Williams had to step away for cancer treatments and they were great. If you get to the front and to the very left or right, Richard will constantly walk up and kneel down and almost sing at you. (Assuming he hasn't changed his routine.)

I saw them open for Squeeze and Mars was there. Had to have been one of his last shows with them. They were great and best of all looked like they were really happy to be there. (See also: the English Beat.)

I saw them with the Jesus and Mary Chain back in November and met Elvis Telecom that night. Richard Butler still sounds amazing and they sort of move around for a bunch of 60+ year olds.

Great show last night. Hits-heavy, of course--which is what I came for, though they did a few from the newest album, which I really need to spend some more time with. Butler might have set a record for least amount of stage banter in a show I've seen (a few "thank you"s between songs and at the end was literally the extent of it) but still a dynamic performer.

I'm seeing them this autumn. I actually got the ticket because Anja Huwe of Xmal Deutschland is supporting them. I do like the Psychedelic Furs but wasn't sure if they'd be any good now so glad to see so many people have had a good time seeing them recently, now I'm really looking forward to that whole gig.

Still on a post-concert Furs kick, it turns out their setlist from the current tour--which according to setlist.fm appears to be the same for most of their current shows--makes for a good Furs sampler: https://music.apple.com/ca/playlist/setlist-the-psychedelic-furs/pl.u-LdbqrK5TxdlyMP

oh wow they're playing "In My Head" and "Forever Now"?!

Yeah, "Forever Now" was a definite highlight. Mild letdown: no "All That Money Wants." Also, nothing from Book of Days, which is kinda neither here nor there, even if that record has a couple songs I do like.

The Midnight to Midnight tour, they added alto sax to "Sleep Comes Down".. I wish they'd release a concert from that tour.