future of the left

I'm pretty glad this is getting off the ground, I thought it was never gonna emerge. UK tour in Sept

Saw them last night at Buffalo Bar, London, and they were very good despite keyboard related problems. As billious as Mclusky, which was good. Falkous has floppy indie kid hair now!

Saw them at the Welsh Club, Cardiff, last night. They were very good and very very loud. Bought the album, Curses, I really like it on first listen. A bit more Shellac-y than mclusky.

Supported by The Victorian English Gentlemens Club, who were fucking awful.

I deliberately missed them as is my wont but FoTL were class

I thought I was the only welsh person here!

Don't know of any other regulars... a dude called Mei posts sometimes (and was talking photos there last night as it goes)

Are you that fucking enormous, like, 7 foot, 25-stone monster who was standing right in front of me all night?

Very definitely not

Did you catch the first support band? I thought they were pretty good but don't know what they're called.

It was Viva Machine, I think, but I missed them

Curses is definitely in my top 10 albums of the year. If there was any justice "Man-Chasm" would be killing on radio right now. Hopefully they manage to like each other a little longer than Mclusky did...

Yeah I'm impressed. Better than the last Mclusky album even. The Contrarian is a great closer.

i've not heard it yet (but have it queued and ready on eMusic) and am really hoping it's going to live up to my -- enormously high -- expectations.

i'm like 60 seconds into the new one (not the live one, the real one) and it's kicking my ass

yeah it's the first future of the left record i've picked up, so i don't know how these live versions compare to the album ones, but this kills.

oh shit! I need to hear this.

i'm not talking about the live one. the live one was fun but inessential, the songs from the first album are played pretty faithfully, only real bonus is getting dude's hilarious stage banter

ah i obviously can't read.

"arming eritrea" seems like a classic example of a shoot-yourself-in-the-foot opener. too awesome.

Maybe old news, but I've just listened to this (and watched the terrific vdieo) 6x in a row...

wow, that's awful.

no it's not. love the "incredible wealth, incredible luck"

"land of the formers" is pretty good too. "when you roam remember home is always here for you"

Holy shit "Arming Eritrea"

yeah, fuck. that guitar. huge song. i'm somehow thinking that this will outdo McLusky.

:D they're slowly turning into Earl Brutus

Really awesome song/video, am pumped for album 2. Debut was very good, and although I haven't pulled it out all that much, I'm definitely gonna return to it now. What is loses to Mclusky in terms of raw unpredictable insanity it more than makes up for in purposeful, ingenious songwriting. A more assured beast, this.

they're slowly turning into Earl Brutus

Not sure I'd go that far, or anywhere near it, but Falkous does become more and more interesting with every subsequent release (even though I don't think anything's quite topped that second McLusky album). This I like, a lot.

Has this leaked?

Yeah. This record is way good!

This really does get better with every listen.

Oops. I completely slept on this band cos I thought it was some shit haircut indie band and now I find out it's ex-McLusky people!

I think this band are terrible - is the new record a massive break with the previous one or should I just not bother?

I'd not bother to be honest... they switch it up quite a bit, but within the remit that they already had, pretty much. Most of the things that ppl liked/disliked about them are basically still in place.

I think it's a really good, solid record that achieves what it intends, so far as I can see, and won't make them appreciably more popular

sounds exactly like the last album, but if you don't like it you're a fucking no-taste moron

either that or you just can't stand this dude's "voice"

It was actually the lyrics that put me off most.

xp, are you saying he doesn't actually have a voice?

THIS SO-CALLED MUSIC

xp, are you saying he doesn't actually have a voice?

― Pro Creationism Soccer 2009 (ledge), Friday, May 1, 2009 10:39 AM (23 minutes ago)

sorry, scarequotes should have been around "dude" cuz he sounds more like a frog than a person.
THAT SAID, the chorus to the first song is great

So is this band good then or not? I demand answers.

11 people on this thread since the revive can't be wrong.

Yeah they're great. Looking forward to hearing this.

They're good. Very good. Rising to moments of brilliance. They're not great, but then McLusky didn't deliver on the greatness they promised (and I'm on record as calling them the best band in Britain, many years ago).

Falco's reaction to the album leak:

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=62653487&blogId=485944356

Great band, loved their first album as much as Mclusky.

Meh. Poor man's Giddy Motors.

cry me a river, emo boy. welcome to 2009

arming eritrea is so classic

This album is a sweet kick in the balls. Love it. Properly anthemic chorus on Arming Eritrea too, which is unusual for them.

They brought the lols at ATP yesterday, fair play

It was you in the striped hoodie, wasn't it. Own up.

No but I saw that doof about four times after that, with his hood up every time. It was a Bape hoodie as well :(

wha' happen?

An audience member heckled ineptly while wearing a revolting multicoloured top and got hardsonned for his troubles

I direct any and all newcomers to the FOTL live album (or, alternately, the third disc of Mcluskyism), where they can hear a fine selection of Falkous' banter.

They're not great

They are now. This is one of my favourite albums of the year. Holy shit, I love every second of it.

http://www.fluxblog.net/futureoftheleft_chinmusic.mp3

^^dope material

hey M@tt in case you weren't aware, they're playing the turf on July 22

oh word??? nice.

!!!!!

i will be out of the country >:(

<3 mclusky, just heard of these guys, uh, today

this new record rips dicks!

might be the only record i can recall that seems influenced by read & burn era wire, not "cool" early wire!

so excited. dude is such a great MC.

this show is going to be AWESOME

my new favourite band

this show is going to be AWESOME

― and the oscar goes to "HOT TUB TIME MACHINE!" (jjjusten), Wednesday, July 15, 2009 3:49 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yep and STNNNG just got added as the openers!

So why should I listen to this rather than to old Wire or Shellac or Big Black?

they don't really sound like shellac or big black to me at all.

wire a bit, but like i said more newer wire in a weird way.

i dunno. they play future of the left songs which are different songs that have different riffs and lyrics and singing and shit..

i guess i feel like this isn't really my job.

livin up to your username there dude xpost

Fucking balls, I'm going to be out of town for the Chicago show. I am seriously pissed about this.

oh wow stnnng is opening? fuck i should get tickets ahead of time huh

Saw them in Leeds t'other week, they were deeply excellent even tho I only knew about two or three songs at most.

So why should I listen to this rather than to old Wire or Shellac or Big Black?

Yeah what Helgeson said... they do something pretty different and idiosyncratic in its own way, assuming those three bands isn't the only clangy and abrasive guitar music you ever liked I think that's fairly easy to aprpeciate

Flakous' lyrics take a giant leap here. I feel like before, he was just trying provoke, like Big Black. On Travels, he's graduated to making sense of his disgust, like Fall or Flipper. Not a bad song on this record, could end up being my favorite of the year.

given the rabidity of my mclusky fandom i have no excuse for not having listened to the new record yet but i'm doing so now and it is...awesome. they're playing sunday night here in dc; i am already there

Thats cool that they are playing the album for you while you wait.

you gotta go to the customer in this tough economy

Really though, I'm mad at myself for not having heard this yet either.

me and two friends are DJing the Village Voice Siren Fest thing on Coney Island this weekend and FoTL are on our stage. I'm pretty pumped to see em, I liked Mclusky a lot. not to mention they're sandwiched between Thee Oh Sees and Monotonix. should be pretty epic.

daaaaamn that's a hot bill

you're gonna be the DJ? i might be there, sweet

yeah I'm psyched. when I first saw the full list of who's playing it didn't look that great but most of the best ones ended up on the "side stage" and that run of 3 in a row is pretty dope

xpost on the Stillwell Stage, yeah. this is me

sounds nice.
but nothing that wasnt done before..

this record is so so good. so stoked to see them free this weekend. dmr, i will salute you

have to admit that the peeps that are dead set on mentioning that they arent doing anything radically new are kind of missing the point - either that or privy to a whole exciting world of newness in rock that i seem to be missing

mmm...
i didnt say i didnt like it, the thing they do - they do fine.
and i don't expect a new band to sound totaly new,just at least to have SOME new ,interesting element in their music,that would incourage me to keep listenning,cause basically i can't tell the difference between them and other bands with the same sound.
but i have to say the 1st time i listened to them is today.

dig this record

in fact it's probably my favourite mclusky-related thing since do dallas

"they arent doing anything radically new"
"a whole exciting world of newness in rock"

this is extreme examples.

the good stuff are somewhere in the middle imo

xpost
i'll listen to them more and report

dmr, i will salute you

haha thx dude

btw I messed up the schedule, it's not those three bands right in a row, Place to Bury Strangers is in there too. right before Monotonix I think. didn't want to foul up anyone's day planning.

Oh my goodness. I'm listening to Arming Eritrea right now and it is rocking my musical socks off. Plus my name is Rick so it makes me feel extra special.

So into this band right now. Going to see them in Seattle next weekend!

gutted i missed their uk dates, oh well they'll be back.

played a short but sweet set at siren fest (where i saluted you, dmr--nice jams!). bass player dude marched into the audience during the last song, rewarding the moshing kids who were clomping on everyone else's bare flip flop toes. my only complaint's they didn't play "the hope that house built." if you're even remotely interested in their latest album do yourself a favor and check them out live

Totally agree. I also saw them last week at a free show they did at a bar in Williamsburg. Tremendously loud, fun, hooky, and incomparable on stage banter. Travels of Myself...is my fave album this year, and I haven't said that about a punk album for....18 years?

I think the special thing about Travels is that it's simultaneously hard-rocking and, for lack of a better word, tasteful. They interpolate influences in a non-obvious fashion, their songs have serious harmonic depth, and their lyrics are witty in an unforced way - but at the same time, they're just really fucking fun to listen to, which is a rare and dangerous combo for rock nerds.

this is a good record but arming eritrea towers the fuck over the rest of it.

arming eritrea + lapsed catholics. towering bookends.

Throwing Bricks At Trains is the high point for me, but y'know ... pearls amongst pearls.

Yeah, this is definitely one of the best records of the year. Doubtful anyone will be able to outrock Arming Eritrea in the forseeable future.

they kicked it so hard last night

IMO the record is nothing but highlights. My least fave by a hair is maybe "Yin / Post-Yin."

Alright, even cynical old me (see my post upthread) has to acknowledge they rocked last night at DC9. Yep, I decided to give 'em a chance. I still have my caveats. Wimpy me likes the visceral instrumental attack but only loves the singer's screaming in small doses. So I was glad that the bassist sang on ocassion and the singer ocassionally did more then just scream. I also liked that once in awhile they used the keyboard. I still think they're using a palette with only a few items on it (Wire, Albini, etc.) and yea, that's often enough but for me with these guys I kinda still wish there more colors. But I know that everything has been done before and as for current trends in rock I don't think I want them to go prog-Reich-African ala Dirty Projectors, or psych with a token song w/ guest grime rapper ala Gang Gang Dance, and certainly don't want them to add CSNY harmonies ala too many young bearded indie dudes, but a little more Wire-inspired variety or whatever would make the cathartic release of the shouting that much more effective imo. Maybe I am being too nitpicky.

Unrelated to the above, I thought based on seeing the show hyped on various Washington DC websites (and internet buzz elsewhere) that the small DC 9 club would be packed, but there were probably only about 75 folks there.

I like that they're funny, but not shticky, which is what I could never get past with Art Brut.

Their sense of humor comes through in their between-song chatter live, do you think it comes through in recordings?

oh yeah, theres a ton of funny clever stuff lyrically

his myspace blog is pretty funny too. yah luv these dudes' sense of humo(u)r

do you think it comes through in recordings

Er, in pretty much every single line of every single lyric?

I mean, "Reginald J Trotsfield" isn't that common a name around Wales, you know.

pro tip: "You Need Satan More Than He Needs You" - not actually FOTL outing their secret black metal agenda

Sometimes funny, sometimes juvenile and not funny lyrics that both can lose their effectiveness with the often limited vocal range.

yeah i just dont get the objection to the vocals in this at all so i dont know what i could do to convince you otherwise

nice jams!

thx, that was my man chris DJing before FotL. we all traded off, I was on at the beginning before the blue van played, before thee oh sees, and before spank rock

was up front in the crowd watching future of the left (totally fun but wished I could hear the vocals more) and thee oh sees (who were rad, favorite thing I saw all day)

man i'm fucking excited listened to this twice already today!

IT'S A PAUSE IT'S A PAUSE FOR THE PTEREDACTYL'S CLAWS

album rapidly climbing the cad charts

was listening to this again today and really diggin the drumming. not a flashy drummer does lots of little interesting things

Eh, this is OK. I can't help but peg it as "watered down noise rock" though. Don't have much reason to return to it when I've got pure, uncut stuff on hand. Felt the same way about McLusky to be honest. I guess when I want to listen to this sort of thing I want more pummeling, less, uh, "sing-along".

xp yeah great point about the drummer. guy is real good.

also i'm not sure what yr comparables are but i listened to both this and do dallas today and they are pretty gd pummeling.

don't think they're going for noise rock really. one listen to "lapsed catholics" ought to tell you that. it's a punk album, straight up, old school political diatribal lyrics and all. i can see where you might think mcclusky owes something to like jesus lizard and shellac and other albini babies but this is a whole different thing

These dudes were so on target in Chicago. Amazing that a band could be this aggressive, and this tight, yet so loose and funny between songs. Also: Falkous? How does he sing/shout/scream like that night after night without tearing his voice to shreds? Force of nature, that.

HOLY FUCKING FUCK

Yeah, was at the Chicago show too and was wondering same about his voice. They did kill it tho.

ok that was the best show ive seen so far this year

this band rules

^ feelin' this user name.

yeah basically main dude was sick as a dog before the show and my friend from STNNNG told him about Dayquil so he went to the pharmacy next door and guzzled some.

they had the AC cranked cuz i guess he was so hot and feverish.

then, they come out and not only do they not do a phone it in OMG i'm sick thing....it's like the fury of fucking God himself brought down upon Midway.

goddamn yeah best show i've seen in ages. so in love with this band.

wow i really have to see these guys.

yeah like i said to jjjusten a couple days ago, i thought it was 'quaint' to see britishers doing touch & go style rock in 2009, but holy god they were on their shit, they totally brought it

Meant to comment earlier - found out about these guys through the Too Pure poll a bit earlier -- didn't realize the Mclusky connection until that point. Was a bit ehhh on the first album but this new one is grrrrreat!

Loving Curses. I wish I was still going to gigs, cause I'd def check'em out.

Real men hunt in PACKS.

This album gets better and better with every listen. Loving "Throwing Bricks at Trains" at the moment.

My ears are still ringing from their awesome set on Saturday.

twin cities folx, relive the memories

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgA12dGqBK8

AAAAAAAARGH

I bought a ticket for their London show and then forgot all about it. Found it last night, checked the date, it was last week.

IDIOT

they're coming back to chicago, this time i am going to fucking make it

oh man the build in "Arming Eritrea" is something else

Better double check, they canceled their Madison show.

they're coming back to chicagolondon, this time i am going to fucking make it

Epic and wonderful in Montreal. Great turnout too!

really? that's great that a lot of people showed up, considering it was so criminally underpromoted. i think i saw like, four posters on the main last weekend and that was the only notice i had ever seen. i wish i had gone to the show but i had an early morning of listening to a barely audible 80 year old economics professor and i imagine they play loud...

yeah, it was not only under-promoted but mis-promoted - online listings still had it as being at the currently defunct Zoobizarre, and the tickets at Cheap Thrills were listed at $100.00! It wasn't quite a packed house, but it was def. better than I expected - ironically, the last time I was at the venue it was for the (I think) sold-out Japandroids show a couple weeks earlier, where they covered "To Hell With Good Intentions" (as a major-key romp, yuck).

FRIDAY. STOKED.

Japandroids doing that song is like their 'thing' isn't it? I'm not blown away by Japandroids generally tho

i would pay for compilation of future of the left stage banter. these are some zingy dudes.

n/a, there's a whole ton of live zing on this record...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Night_I_Saved_Her_From_Vampires "> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Night_I_Saved_Her_From_Vampires

oh i have that.

DEEP IN THE HEART OF THE BATTLE

CAUGHT IN THE SWITCH OF THE FLOOOOO-OOW

FREE! DOM! FROM NOTES! SHE! SELLS! FREE! DOM! FROM! SOOOOOOOONGGGGGGGS!

this band represents what rock music should be about.

just realized they didn't play "drink nike" last night (unless they played it as an encore, i left during the last song)

ive decided that i think that song is my favorite rock song of the year, even if i'm not into the rest of the album nearly as much

xp to m@tt

yeah the last minute of it is probably all time for me....i love the whole album...seeing that live it was so fucking rocking.

what the hell else sounds like that minute we were quoting? i want more of that

they don't totally "sound" like FOTL but the great Superchunk anthems like "Hyper Enough" or "Detroit Has a Skyline" or "Slack Motherfucker" have that sort of quality that makes your heart sort of lift in your chest

oh yeah i love superchunk, partic. those last 2 you cited

FREE! DOM!

FotL sending a message out to the mods.

yeah "arming eritrea" kinda towers over the rest of the album for me.

i thought that at first, and it's still the best song, but if you listen to the album more it's all pretty much amazing.

good to know. i plan on continuing listening to the album, but it'll probably bum me out for the next few weeks knowing i missed the show and probably my only chance to see them for a long time.

Show last night was amazing btw

haha i so wish i coulda gone, i got two separate, identical texts from two separate people on friday night:

"LIGHT SABER COCKSUCKING BLUES!!!"

bastids canceled their madison show scheduled for last night

lol xpost

listened to the album again today and yeah there are definitely a few other songs that are almost just as good as eritrea. the whole fotl/mclusky and their monstrous bass and extreme rocking out-ness are doing a great job of filling the space in my heart previously occupied by rage against the machine et al.

just heard that live album mentioned upthread. awesome. "I understand but you're wearing a Tool t-shirt so your opinion is invalid"

Last night @ the garage. Brutal. The thing where he decides to fuck the words and just swallow the mic in a scream is kinda scary. The 10 minute avant-anarchist-punk-jam finale with crowdsurfing bassist and live drumkit dismantling was unexpected. Unless they do it every night.

they do it every night.

I'll expect it next time then.

Heard from Andy Falkous indirectly tonight (from a good source) that Future of the Left is gonna be put on hold and he's starting up yet another new band. He described them as "less heavy, more scuzzy." Not sure if either of the other two FOTL guys are involved...

I hope that's not the case - felt like they were just hitting their stride.

listening to "travels with myself..." again now, so dang good. hit after hit.

THOSE KIDS
I SWEAR
DRINK NIKE
YES

No 'new band', bassist has left, guy from Oceansize is filling in. http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=62653487&blogId=533999373

interesting move.

Plus a mystery fourth member on 2nd guitar! Stoked.

new EP out supposedly on 11/11!

but not in the usa.

http://www.futureoftheleftv2now.blogspot.com/

OH SHIT

continuing the trend of really good song titles: "'polymers are forever', 'with apologies to emily pankhurst', 'new adventures', 'my wife is unhappy', 'dry hate' and 'destroywhitchurch.com'."

Has anyone seen them since the bassist left? Easily some of the funniest banter I've ever heard.

First time I heard Arming Eritrea I thought for some reason Rick was Rick Rubin. Which I've never managed to erase, even though it's total nonsense, right?

Anyway http://twitter.com/#!/shit_rock/status/110350588818096130 wtf

skimmed through the new ep on spin.com yesterday, sounded good - like standard mclusky/FOTL but maybe falkous is trying some new things vocally. looking forward to giving it a real listen asap.

forgot about these guys till my friend told me she'd just discovered mclusky. listened to travels... again and it sounded even stronger than i recalled, but the 'new' ep is leaving me pretty cold. getting a bit tired of falco's sub hmhb stream of consciousness in-jokery.

UK tour starts next week. I'm undecided about going.

you should go. done.

I'm sure they're still great live, but the new album is leaving me a bit cold.

saw them last tuesday and holy shit man, they fucking kill it live. new bass player and guitar player are O_O amazing.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/future-of-the-lefts-andrew-falkous-hates-on-mr-big%2C88509

If this band never released another note of music and simply gave interviews and bantered on stage, I would be happy forever. I mean, I like the music, too, but damn the guy is hilarious when he gets a bee up his butt.

They KILLED IT in Seattle last night.

If this band never released another note of music and simply gave interviews and bantered on stage, I would be happy forever. I mean, I like the music, too, but damn the guy is hilarious when he gets a bee up his butt.

otm

I agree and I don't even like their music!

Ha:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/exclusive-a-funny-future-of-the-left-us-tour-diary,89012/

i kept waiting for "the plot against common sense" to click and it never did :( the songs seem less hooky in general but the thin production and long tracklisting don't help either

start with robocop 4 and work outwards from there

that's one of my least favorite songs on the album, such an easy lyrical target and the song is clunky. my faves are probably "goals in slow motion" and "i am the least of your problems." still love this band, the album just feels disappointing after the last couple.

The song Lord Hates a Coward is a monster but I've not heard anything that comes close to that.

Yeah, kept trying to like it, after adoring the last two, but it just felt like the songs aren't there. Despite the (increasingly obscure) humor, it's a bit of a humorless slog.

tbh with this lot and McCLusky to an extent, I don't get what is so interesting that T&G/AmRep bands didn't do much better 20 years ago.

I think people are grateful that there's just british bands actually taking this approach at all which leads it to be somewhat overrated

As a amphetamine reptile sorta dude, no offense, but I don't hear that comparison at all.

yeah there *might* have been something to that with McLusky say 10 years ago but it seems way off to me at this point

Loved Travels but on this one the targets get too specific, too-fish-in-barrel. Che Guevara t-shirts and trust funds? Also, to American ears, "The Plot Against Common Sense" sounds really Glenn Beck, and I don't think it was intended ironically. Like Jello Biafra, when he's on, he's hilarious, but his method seems to lead to duds as much as explosions.

The only Am Rep band that are even a little like FOTL was Freedom Fighters (the most undervalued Am Rep band)

Eh, there's more than a bit of Helmet in Future of the Left.

Certainly they are more T&G-ish, though not as much as, say, Metz.

Helmet sold out!!

it's comforting to see a lot of you struggling to like this album as well; at first i thought me not liking it was a sign i'm just a flake when it comes to music. i think i'd like it more if it were shorter. cut a few songs here and there and it could probably be a lot more hard-hitting. i agree with what others have pointed out upthread, it's a collection of good and bad songs, not a bunch of mediocre ones.

eh, I think the shooting fish-in-barrel just seems to me to be a natural conclusion on things

I agree the AmRep thing was a bit off base (never that gnarly really) more Jesus Lizard-meets Pixies-meets Fall, but I think even now that the likes of Giddy Motors were much more interesting than McLusky, who IMO seemed some kind entry-level Jesus Lizard for Idlewild fans

And Im sorry, British bands simply cannot do this thing as well as their counterparts. For one half the time they're just ripping them off

Goes back to at least Black Flag and especially Husker Du

New album out today. So far seems better than "The Plot Against Common Sense," which I could never really get into.

Pretty much all the songs under three minutes are great.

I must have played Passed Around at Parties around fifty times over the past few days. Not that the rest of the record isn't great, but that is one hell of a striking song.

Haven't listened yet but Falkous has a new solo project

http://christianfitness.bandcamp.com/album/i-am-scared-of-everything-that-isnt-me

So far it sounds like a more lo-fi Future of the Left, which is not surprising.

I was driving home from a walk on the beach and Arming Eritrea came on. Fucking HELL. One of those songs you want everyone around you to hear so that the communal rage might cleanse us for one sweet moment.