franz ferdinand

The band's debut self-titled album (released in 2004) debuted on the UK album charts at number three and won the 2004 Mercury Music Prize before their second album charted at number 1. So far, the band has released eight singles, a double single and two video-clip-only singles, of which "Take Me Out," "The Dark of the Matinée," "This Fire" (on the download chart) and "Do You Want To" were top 10 hits in the UK.

They are primarily known as a Scottish band yet only the drummer, Paul Thomson, was born there. The other three members were born in England, moving to Scotland later in life. Alex was born in Almondsbury, South Gloucestershire; Nick was born in Blackpool, Lancashire; and Bob was born in Bradford, Yorkshire.

History

The "Château" - early years

In late 2001, singer and guitarist Alex Kapranos and bassist Robert Hardy began playing music together in Glasgow. After meeting Nicholas McCarthy at a party, they began to rehearse together at McCarthy's house. McCarthy was classically trained on the piano and double bass but initially played drums. The trio then met up with Paul Thomson who had played drums with Yummy Fur. Thomson originally was going to play guitar because he wanted to try something other than drums. However, once Nick started playing the drums, Alex and Bob realized that Nick didn't know how to play them. Thomson took over on drums, and McCarthy moved to lead guitar.

The band started playing at an abandoned warehouse in the Gorbals which they named "the Château." Franz Ferdinand also held rave-like "happenings" combining music and art; Hardy was studying painting at the Glasgow School of Art at the time. When the local police shut the events down, the band found an abandoned Victorian courthouse and played there.

In a 2004 interview with VH1, Alex Kapranos described the sound they were seeking. "On songs like 'Come on Home,' we wanted to sound like Donna Summer and Link Wray mixed together, but it doesn't sound like that at all! We thought we could sound like Prince, too, but what we were really trying to do was take on the attitudes of different bands and combine them in our own way."^{citation needed]}

The band had recorded an EP worth of material which they intended to release themselves. However, the band's reputation was spreading rapidly, and Domino offered them a contract to release an EP called Darts of Pleasure in the latter part of 2003. The band developed its reputation further by supporting Hot Hot Heat and Interpol as well as winning a "Phillip Hall Radar Award" at the NME Awards of 2004 (announced in late 2003). Epic Records signed the band to a contract in 2004 for the USA, although the band's primary label for the rest of the world is still Domino.

Debut Album

Franz Ferdinand have been quoted as saying they wanted to make "music that girls can dance to." [1] This was combined with their art school background on their self-titled debut released in early 2004. It debuted at number 3 in the UK Albums Chart in February 2004 and at number 12 in the Australian album charts in April 2004. While the album had only reached the lowest levels of the Billboard 200 album charts in the US as of early 2004, it reached the top 5 of the indie rock and Heatseeker charts for debut charts. After a couple of North American tours and heavy rotation of the "Take Me Out" video on MTV, the album eventually reached No. 32 on the Billboard 200 later in 2004 and has been certified platinum in the US for sales exceeding 1,000,000. Five singles were released from the album, namely:

• "Darts of Pleasure" placed on the UK Singles Chart prior to being a particularly successful band;
• "Take Me Out" was the breakthrough single and reached the #3 on the UK charts, #66 on the Billboard Hot 100, and #3 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. It also made the top 10 of the Irish and Canadian charts and the top 40 in a composite European chart as well as being voted number one in the Australian Triple J Hottest 100 for 2004 (more then doubling the votes for the song which recieved second place)
• "The Dark of the Matinée" or "Matinée" reached #8 in the UK singles charts and the top 30 on the World Modern Rock Charts (a composite chart of US, German, UK, Swedish, Finnish, Canadian and Australian modern rock charts); and
• "Michael" reached the #17 on the UK singles charts. A large amount of the single's sales were not counted, as they were not released in the correct format.
• "This Fire" was released in North America in November 2004, and was a download-only single in the UK. It reached #17 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, and reached #8 on the UK download chart.

The song "Michael" was the first in a trend among newer bands to write songs with lyrics reflecting a more fluid sexuality. "Michael" is a frenzied dance/rock song based on a private joke among the band about a friend of theirs who got drunk and was dancing unabashedly at a club.^{citation needed]}

The Franz Ferdinand album received a generally strong positive response from critics. The New Musical Express said that the band was the latest in the line of art school rock bands featuring Duran Duran, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Roxy Music, the Sex Pistols, Wire, Travis and Blur. It rated the album as 9 out of 10 and said: "This album is the latest and most intoxicating example of the wonderful pushing its way up between the ugly slabs of Pop Idol, nu metal and Britons aping American bands. What these blossoming bands have in common is the absolute conviction that rock ‘n’ roll is more than a career option."

The BBC's review of the album said: "At only 38 minutes long Franz Ferdinand may not be a particularly long album, but it is a masterpiece of funky, punky, suave cool from the first track to the last."^[1] The All Music Guide rated the album as four out of five stars and said "Franz Ferdinand ends up being rewarding in different ways than the band's previous work was, but it's apparent that they're still one of the more exciting groups to come out of the garage-rock / post-punk revival."^[2]

On September 7, 2004 the album was awarded the 2004 Mercury Music Prize. Take Me Out gained first place in the Australian Triple J Hottest 100 for 2004, winning more than twice the votes of the second-place entry. Franz Ferdinand proceeded to win an Ivor Novello Award in 2004 and two Brit Awards in 2005. The avant-garde music video for Take Me Out earned them a Breakthrough Video MTV Award.

You Could Have It So Much Better

The band spent much of 2005 in the studio in Scotland working on their follow-up album, You Could Have It So Much Better, which was released on 3 October 2005. Throughout the recording process, the band had intended to leave the album self-titled like their debut, but they changed it to You Could Have It So Much Better...With Franz Ferdinand before settling on the current title. The first live performance of their new music came as the band headlined at the V Festival in August 2005.

After the ecstatic reception of their debut, some reviews towards the new album became more polarized, with some complaints that the recording was rushed. However, it generally was critically acclaimed and seen as an album equal to, or better than their first by most critics, including the NME. It entered the UK Album Charts at Number 1 and the US charts at Number 8.

On the tour that followed the album release, Franz broke the record for the longest run at the Alexandra Palace, North London, by playing 4 sold out nights during November-December 2005.

To support the album, four singles have been released. Included in that set is a double A-side single that contained a video-clip only single as well (both the AA-side "L. Wells" and the video-clip "Jeremy Fraser" are not featured on the album, recorded in early 2006 during the band's tour of Australia in support of the album). Also included is another video-clip-only single called "Wine In the Afternoon" which is the B-side to Eleanor Put Your Boots On, and was also not featured on the album, but recorded on tour in Michigan. "Do You Want To" made it to number 4, while "Walk Away" and "The Fallen" / "L. Wells" entered the top 15 of the UK Singles Chart. The 4th and final single from the sophomore album, "Eleanor Put Your Boots On" peaked at number 30.

Usage in the media

In 2004, Take Me Out was in the EA Sports video games, Madden NFL 2005 and NHL 2005; while This Fire was in Burnout 3: Takedown, made by EA Games and Criterion Games.Tell Her Tonight was placed on the track of FIFA 2005.

During the 2005 general election campaign, the band, who feel strongly about environmental issues, donated This Fire as the background music for the election broadcasts by the three UK Green parties. The TV broadcasts, directed by Alex Cox and produced by Kim Ryan, were screened on 28 April 2005 across all UK terrestrial channels. ^[3]

Take Me Out was used in an ad campaign for the PlayStation Portable game system (PSP). The track was also included on the kid-oriented album Kidz Bop 8, the TV show Video Mods, and Guitar Hero (which allowed players to play the song on a guitar-like device).

Do You Want To is included in the "Rock!" song collection for Playstation 2 karaoke game SingStar (which allows players to sing along the lead voice and get points for producing the correct sounds).

Do You Want To was used as the ending theme music to the Paradise Kiss anime television show. It was also used in the second episode of the third season of the serial The O.C.

The song Come on Home also features on the "Live 8" DVD, the follow up to "Live Aid". Music from the song is played at the beginning of the DVD, during the explanation of what Live 8 was.

The song Take Me Out is used as the theme music for Australian Television Program "Any Given Sunday." In Australia it is also used on Channel Ten's Sports Tonight.

Part of the song I'm Your Villain was used in a preview for the 2006 film "The Guardian".

The beginning of "40 ft" was also used in a television commercial for "In Good Company" in 2004.

Collaborations

In early 2005, Kanye West declared Franz Ferdinand to be his favourite band, and coined the term white crunk to describe the band's gritty drum sounds. West and the band met at the 2005 MTV Europe Music Awards, where they sat down together to share praise and advice. West feels that the white crunk vibe has affected his new work, and is best exemplified on the track "Diamonds from Sierra Leone", from his 2005 album Late Registration. The band itself is also greatly influenced by Kanye and sought advice from him on how to improve production for their 2005 album You Could Have It So Much Better.^{citation needed]}

Rapper Snoop Dogg has also declared an admiration for the band, and famously expressed interest in collaborating with the group, though he could not remember the band's name at the time. He stated:

"I'm working on an album that I plan to do with a lot of European artists," he revealed. "I wanna do something with the people that sang "Take Me Out."

In response, Kapranos playfully replied, "Someone told me the guy who does "Drop It Like It's Hot" wants to collaborate with us...That's great. I love that song and like his style."^[4]

In 2006, Franz Ferdinand, Death Cab For Cutie and The Cribs went on a joint-headline tour, primarily of shows at universities.^{citation needed]}

Andy Knowles has served as a support member of the band for some time, as a keyboardist and second drummer. Knowles has not been featured on an album yet, but is featured drumming in "Brown Onions," a song featured on The Fallen / L. Wells double A-Side single. He has also played many live shows as well as being seen in the video for Walk Away.

At the 2006 Reading Festival, Madness drummer Daniel Woodgate (Woody) appeared with the band on stage and played on the song 'The Outsiders'.

Next album

According to NME in 2005, the band had no intentions to stop and continued to record at a relentless pace.^[5] In January of 2006, they began new recording sessions, coinciding with some dates in Australia and New Zealand: "Then we’ll see how many songs we’ve got together but we’re talking about going into the studio at the end of January." Kapranos explained. "We’re popping over to Australia and New Zealand at the end of January as well, as you do. It’s brilliant, I’m looking forward to that. We get to miss the Scottish winter, which is not a bad thing at all."^[6] Their third album was thought likely to be released in late 2006 or early 2007, however the band revealed in early September 2006 that they were going to take an indefinite break after headlining the Carling Weekend.^[7], but played yet two shows in Brazil. Not that they've been completely out of the spotlight. Alex and Nick found time to appear at the Edinburgh Book Festival in August 2006 (video interview can be seen here), and took part in a songwriting session for the Festival.

Name

The name of the band was originally inspired by a racehorse called The Archduke. After seeing the horse run on television the band began to discuss Archduke Franz Ferdinand and thought it would be a good band name because of the sound of the name and the implications of the Archduke's death (his assassination sparked World War I). They discussed it in a very early interview with Scottish magazine, Is This Music? ^[8]

"Mainly we just liked the way it sounded," says Bob. "We liked the alliteration." "He was an incredible figure as well," continues Alex. "His life, or at least the ending of it, was the catalyst for the complete transformation of the world ... he was a pivot for history. But I don't want to over-intellectualise the name thing. Basically a name should just sound good ... like music." Paul has a much grander notion. "I like the idea that, if we become popular, maybe the words Franz Ferdinand will make people think of the band instead of the historical figure."^{citation needed]}

The song Take Me Out, on the band's first album, was the second single to be released by the band. The single release of Take Me Out came with the B side, 'All For You Sophia', based on the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, whose name was Sophie, not Sophia. (The band changed the name Sophie to Sophia to give the song a better ring to it.) There are many historical references to that day, including "June the twenty-eighth" and "the Black Hand,".^{citation needed]}

Art

The band is notable for its use of Russian avant-garde imagery in album and single covers. Examples include "You Could Have It So Much Better" which references a 1924 portrait of Lilya Brik by Alexander Rodchenko, "Take Me Out", which references One-Sixth Part of the World also by Alexander Rodchenko, "This Fire", which references Beat the white with the Red wedge by El Lissitzky and "Michael", with single art based on A Proun by Lissitzky.

The avant-garde music video for Take Me Out, directed by Jonas Odell, was inspired by Dadaism, Busby Berkeley choreographies and Russian constructivist design.^[9] The lyrics of Do You Want To make reference to parties at the 'trendy' Glasgow art gallery Transmission and the video includes a satire of the work of contemporary artist Vanessa Beecroft.

Also, in "Outsiders", the lyrics "In 17 years will you still be Camille, Lee Miller, Gala or whatever" are a reference to the lovers of the artists Auguste Rodin, Man Ray and Salvador Dali.

Discography

See main article: Franz Ferdinand discography

Studio albums

Singles

^a Download chart
^b UK only release
^c Double A-side

Music videos

• Darts Of Pleasure (2003)
• Take Me Out (2004)
• The Dark of the Matinée (2004)
• Michael (2004)
• This Fire (2004)
• Do You Want To (2005)
• Walk Away (2005)
• The Fallen (2006)
• L. Wells (2006)
• Jeremy Fraser (2006)
• Eleanor Put Your Boots On (2006)
• Wine In The Afternoon (2006)

Music samples

Notes

References

• Hiatt, Brian (2005). "Hot Scots - Franz Ferdinand get rock fans dancing again" Rolling Stone (accessed June 16, 2006)

External links

• Franz Ferdinand's official website, band site
• Franz Ferdinand's official website, from Sony-BMG
• Franz Ferdinand at WikiMusicGuide
• Franz Ferdinand, at New Musical Express
• Franz Ferdinand at VH1
• Franz Ferdinand interview at musicOMH.com
• Franz Ferdinand news, from skwik.com

Craig Hower