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.

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.