SUPER FURRY ANIMALS

I wonder if they're going to completely skip Hey Venus! and DD/LY.

Yup, it would seem like this was the case. Tonight's setlist in full:

1. (A) Touch Sensitive
2. (Drawing) Rings Around The World
3. Do Or Die
4. God! Show Me Magic
5. Bad Behaviour
6. Demons
7. Northern Lites
8. Ymaelodi A'r Ymylon
9. Y Gwyneb Iau
10. Nythod Cacwn
11. Pan Ddaw'r Wawr
12. Bleed Forever
13. Run! Christian, Run!
14. Hello Sunshine
15. Hometown Unicorn
16. Zoom!
17. Arnofio/Glo In The Dark
18. Ice Hockey Hair
19. Gwreiddiau Dwfn/Mawrth Oer Ar Y Blaned Neifion
20. Slow Life
21. Golden Retriever
22. Receptacle For The Respectable
23. Fire In My Heart
24. Mountain People
25. The Man Don't Give A Fuck

Not the most surprising setlist, but there were still some surprises and the live horn arrangements must have been a nice surprise. 25 songs is really long, especially for a band that hasn't played together in a while. I guess we now know how they feel about their last two albums, unless songs make an appearance at another date. I think they might swap in a few different songs depending on the night.

Yeah, it was particularly good to see 'Y Gwyneb Iau', 'Pan Ddaw'r Wawr', 'Arnofio/Glo In The Dark' and 'Gwreiddiau Dwfn/Mawrth Oer Ar Y Blaned Neifion' being played. Other than that, some not particularly surprising selections: it wouldn't be an SFA gig without them playing 'Slow Life' at this stage as it's probably their defining song overall along with 'Ice Hockey Hair', which is also one of their best ever songs. 'Receptacle For The Respectable' is always a welcome addition to any SFA set, and it's good to see 'Mountain People' got an airing. On the other hand, 'The Man Don't Give A Fuck', while it can be a great live track (particularly in its extended form) has always been an extremely overrated and often incredibly misinterpreted song.

Criticisms? I'm not keen on the new stage outfits they're wearing - they look as if they're about to do some DIY... and that run of songs: 'Bleed Forever', 'Run! Christian, Run!', 'Hello Sunshine', 'Hometown Unicorn' and 'Zoom!' (with the exception of 'Hometown Unicorn') looks like a very long "time to go for a piss" moment.

I've always enjoyed "Zoom!" in their sets. I think they play it well live. It's got a nice prog rock edge that gets your blood running a little. I think they have some sort of new lighting gimmick that's meant to play into their suits. Gruff mentioned something about visuals that feed back into themselves. Having not been there, I wouldn't know. I'm surprised the yetis made a comeback. They supposedly chopped them up or doused them in gasoline and set them alight, depending on the story.

It's also kind of funny that they seem to be branding their new web presence with all their names, like we need to remember it's not just Gruff. yet they only played Gruff's songs. Anyway, not surprising. Might as well play the hits after being gone for six years.

The thing about the slow numbers like 'Zoom!' and 'Run! Christian, Run!' is that I like 'em just fine on record, and get a lot out of 'em when I'm listening to 'em at home, but during live shows I enjoy the uptempo numbers a lot more.

The BBC 6music session with Lauren Laverne was basically four of the Mwng songs they've been playing: 'Ymaelodi A'r Ymylon', 'Pan Ddaw'r Wawr', 'Y Gwyneb Iau' and 'Nythod Cacwn', so I guess those four are going to be mainstays in the set.

I haven't had a chance to listen to the radio session yet. I saw a pretty low quality recording of the last part of their set and I have to say the addition of a horn section really livens up their performance. I was always a bit disappointed by their reliance on Cian's laptop and backing tracks. I understand why it wasn't feasible to tour the world with horn players, etc., but they were missed.

This interview is pretty good:

http://thequietus.com/articles/17781-super-furry-animals-interview

You mentioned earlier that there's a bit of a backlog of songs from that period. Do you have Prince-style vault of unreleased material that you're sitting on?

GR: We've got a load of stuff. There's definitely unreleased songs, unreleased experimental albums.

HB: There's the (Princess) Diana song.

GR: Yeah, there are songs that are so outrageous they'd be career suicide. There's albums we've lost, but they weren't particularly good. Just a lost album, not a great lost album. What was it, Steelworks In Stone?

HB: That's right. When we were recording Guerrilla, it was such an overly ostentatious studio, ironically called The Real World. You had so much room. [keyboard/electronics man] Cian started getting bored, I think. There was a lot of waiting around and dissecting, so we ended up starting a parallel band called Das Koolies. We all took on different characters. I think the Stereophonics were next door and they came in to see what we were doing, so we exposed them to Das Koolies. Their late drummer, he was quite taken aback. He said to concentrate on what we were doing.

GR: We took his advice. That was the year before Mwng. We wanted to retreat from polished pop, I think.

HB: We hired some steel drums for one little bit in a song, so we felt like we wanted to use them. They were one of the main instruments in Das Koolies. That and the Taurus bass.

GR: Are you familiar with the Moog Taurus? It's a synthesiser you play with your feet. It makes some howling noises.

HB: Those two instruments were very much the meat and potatoes of Das Koolies.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2rRuKZpdvE

Excellent version of 'Gwreiddau Dwfn/Mawrth Oer Ar Y Blaned Neifion'!

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

It's great to see they still have "it." That's one of the better performances they've done in years.

Maybe time apart and purging all these new song ideas led to something. They still have quite a few shows to run through before I make any proclamations.

In other news, Gruff says that they're putting alternate mixes of Mwng tracks on the CD reissue.

The break seems to have done them some good, they sound far more with it in these clips than they do on the 2009-era footage.

and that's even with "first night problems" (ballsing up the intro to 'The Man Don't Give A Fuck', for example)

After the sell-out success of the first two SFA parties, the Furries return to Corsica Studios to throw another all-night warehouse bash, straight after their second show at O2 Academy Brixton!

Featuring DJ sets from:
Super Furry Animals inc Gruff Rhys, Acid Casuals, Cherrystones (Whatever We Want, Poptones), Andy Votel (Twisted Nerve, B Music, Finders Keepers), Pete Fowler (Monsterism) + many more!

The event will feature everything from deep-fried acid-folk to fuzzy psych and freakout madness, plus a dedicated SFA rave tank will feature in the second room - catering for all those techno music needs.

Add to the mix a selection of mind-bending visuals, B-Movie trailers, kaleidoscopic light shows and (believe it or not) a Kool-Aid bar, you'd be forgiven for thinking that this was some Merry Pranksters' gathering in Haight-Ashbury at the tail end of the sixties, not 21st century Elephant & Castle!

The last two warehouse parties sold out in mega quick time, so what are you waiting for? Get tickets now!

It's going to be interesting to see what else they play live over the next week or so, they've never been ones for changing their set up dramatically every night.

I'm expecting 'Juxtapozed With U' and 'Calimero' to be two of the "subs" they didn't play at Gloucester Guildhall.

Might be a bit obvious, but perhaps "Cardiff in the Sun" this weekend? I don't believe they'll completely ignore their last two LPs.

Yeah, I guess that would fit. I don't believe they'd completely ignore their last two albums either: 'Run-Away', 'Show Your Hand', 'The Gift That Keeps Giving', 'Into The Night', 'Baby Ate My Eightball', 'The Very Best Of Neil Diamond, 'White Socks/Flip Flops', 'Helium Hearts' and 'Pric' all deserve to be aired at some point or another. However, if they do end up ignoring their last two LPs like at the Guildhall gig, or even don't play anything at all from Love Kraft (I hope they avoid playing 'Frequency' in particular, as I've come to the conclusion recently that I hate it), then that's no problem. The amount of different, killer setlists they could put together with the 1994-2004 stuff is incredible. It would be a shame, though, if they didn't sneak in the occasional track from Hey Venus! or Dark Days/Light Years, but they'd have to be the better songs (and I speak as someone who likes Hey Venus! a lot) and not absolute shite like, for example, 'Moped Eyes' or 'Mt.'

I like most of those songs!

Anyway, there's a pair of pretty encouraging interviews out today:

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/whats-on/super-fired-super-furry-animals-9154558

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/sneak-peek-super-furry-animals-9052717

It seems like Ric's book jolted them into action, which makes sense. That's pretty awesome.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/return-super-furry-animals-its-9161677

Wrong Wales Online link.

Well, at least something positive came out of the book release, because I can comfortably say that the book itself isn't all that great and is far from the book that could and should have been written about this band. Thank fuck I wasn't the only one to notice.

It's funny to imagine Bunf watching himself on YouTube. It's almost like you're covering your own music. I also like that the bit about how it's the most they've ever rehearsed for a show.

I agree the book wasn't the best ever. I would've liked a bit more fact and maybe a little more insight into their sales "decline" that began with Love Kraft.

He wouldn't be the only musician to confess to watching old live shows on Youtube to remember how to play certain tracks. I think that Blur have copped to this, too!

I agreed with all the reviews that called the book a missed opportunity, really. The kind of book that I would have liked to have seen for this band would have been incredibly detailed, not just the events that led up to their formation or throughout their career, but information about song inspirations, references in the lyrics, the recording process, a timeline of events such as when things were written/recorded/mixed etc. I would have also liked to have seen something which examined SFA as a collaborative, musical unit.

Instead what we got was a pamphlet that was written from the viewpoint of "OH LOL! SFA R SOOO WACKYYYYYY! THEY BOUGHT A TANK!!!11!!!!1" ... Sure, stuff like the tank, the inflatable bears, yetis and all that kind of stuff is part of the SFA story, but ultimately it's the music that is the most important thing and I have a hatred of anything that emphasises the gimmicks and stunts over the music.

Anyway, the first night of the tour proper is happening right this very moment... can't wait to see what the setlist is like.

Looks nearly identical except they swapped the order of some songs:

https://twitter.com/asoundreaction/status/594277998234316801

Maybe they...don't like Dark Days/Light Years? :'(

Obviously the majority of the people buying tickets aren't there to hear "Inconvenience."

I kind of think "Golden Retriever" could be swapped out for something better. I've never found that one of their better songs.

Looks nearly identical except they swapped the order of some songs

Not even that - the setlist is exactly the same!

My guess (based on what I've seen of SFA setlists in the past) is that they're not going to deviate from this setlist too much. They're playing gigs in Cardiff on the 2nd and 3rd as well, and I don't think they'd keep the same set for all three Cardiff dates. My guess is that at the very least they'll swap the order of the songs, or they might replace one or two songs with something like 'Juxtapozed With U' or something along those lines.

Or 'The International Language Of Screaming', that's a possible sub.

It'll be very interesting if they get through the whole of this small tour without playing 'Run-Away' or 'The Very Best Of Neil Diamond'.

"Battersea Odyssey" with the live horns would probably be incredible. At least for me. I really grew to like that song.

I had a listen to all their albums in release order yesterday after not listening to some of them for years. The "golden era" run of albums from Fuzzy Logic up until and including Phantom Power still sound as great as ever to me and listening to 'em back-to-back reminded me why I liked this band so much in the first place. I've always thought that that run of albums was an incredibly great run, but coming back to them with fresh ears made me realise just how great they were. Love Kraft sounded incredible, probably the best sounding/produced album of them all, but found myself surprised at how some of the songs didn't really do it for me anymore. Hey Venus! was better than I remember it being, although not quite up to the standard of the first six albums. Dark Days/Light Years I think starts off a bit shaky, but comes into its own on the second half of the album. 'White Socks/Flip Flops' has lost none of its power for me, and I still consider it to be one of the best tracks they put out post-Phantom Power.

On the whole though, I was left with the impression that 'Slow Life' is the ultimate SFA song, their absolute peak and the track that it was all leading up to. Everything after that was a nice addition to the catalogue, with some underrated work in there, but definitely a bit of a climbdown. If they manage to come up with a track as good as 'Slow Life' ever again, remains to be seen - personally, I doubt it - but for me, it stands proud as the ultimate blend of everything that SFA were going for.

yeah, it holds the lot, but I'd have 'Ice Hockey Hair' alongside it.

"Slow Life" is a monster.

I think it was a once-in-a-career type of song. I wonder if Cian is even writing electronic music anymore.

'Ice Hockey Hair' most definitely up there in terms of SFA career highlights. All-time Top 3 songs for me:

1. Slow Life
2. Ice Hockey Hair
3. Some Things Come From Nothing

Oh yeah, minor setlist changes on the second Cardiff date. Setlist essentially the same as the first except the order of the songs shuffled slightly, with 'Bad Behaviour' and 'Bleed Forever' being dropped for 'If You Don't Want Me To Destroy You' and 'Juxtapozed With U'.

Pretty good prediction on "Juxtaposed." That's been a setlist mainstay for over a decade. They played "IF You Don't Want Me to Destroy You" at the last gig I went to (Hey Venus! tour). They were also starting to play ""Blerwytirhwng" around that time. That's one I would've loved to have experienced live. I'm so glad they uncovered "Arnofio/Glo in the Dark." Those spacey Welsh b-sides that ended up on Out Spaced are some of my favorite SFA tunes. I wish they'd traveled further in that direction instead of going towards glossier production and more anthemic songs.

Obviously I love both sides of the band, but I feel those Out Spaced tracks really took the band in a unique direction: the synths, the guitar riffs, and vocal layering in a song like "Pam V' really do it for me.

Hey Venus! b-side "That's What I'm Talking About" and "Cardiff in the Sun" somewhat revisit that territory.

There's a few other B-sides that could fit that mould. 'This, That and The Other' tends to get overlooked quite a bit.

Something for the Weekend and International Language were the new ones tonight.

Right, so they kept 'Juxtapozed With U' and dropped 'God! Show Me Magic' and 'If You Don't Want Me To Destroy You'. Yeah, I guess the way they're approaching this tour is a mostly static setlist, but with the occasional change in places where they're playing more than one gig. I'm unsure how many songs they've rehearsed for this tour, but suspect it's not many. It's possible they might do 'Calimero' at some point, but struggling to think of any other potential songs they may have rehearsed up. I suspect if there was nothing from Hey Venus! or Dark Days/Light Years played in Cardiff, then it's pretty much going to be that way for the rest of the tour.

Had a listen to Out Spaced on headphones last night before I went to sleep and was really impressed this time around at just how well the tracks they chose for it fit together, which is no mean feat considering the tracks on the album were recorded over a period of four years and weren't recorded with the idea of a B-sides album in mind. I guess having the same producer (Gorwel Owen) on all of the tracks helped the compilation inadvertently have a cohesive sound. In particular, I love the segues: it's now difficult for me to imagine the recorded version of 'The Man Don't Give A Fuck' not flowing effortlessly into 'Dim Brys Dim Chwys' - even though they were recorded a couple of years apart it feels like that segue was, weirdly, always meant to be. I love the way they extended the endings to 'Fix Idris' and 'Blerwytirhwng?' specifically for Out Spaced, too.

Oh yeah, here's a bit of crazy SFA trivia: the versions of 'Focus Pocus/Debiel' on Out Spaced and Moog Droog are different in a non-obvious way. Not only are the drumstick clicks edited out on the Out Spaced version, but the gap between the two parts is slightly longer. I don't know why this is the case, but it's proof (alongside the extended endings) that some studio tinkering went down when compiling Out Spaced.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_Ry8TLGDts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyocFTk2iGI

Further to my post above about listening to SFA's back catalogue with a fresh pair of ears, I decided to spend a little more time with the post-Phantom Power albums last night and... I'm incredibly surprised to be saying this, but I seem to have changed my mind on Love Kraft completely! While I still think it's got some incredible production work on it, and it sounds great, my view on it nowadays seems to be that it's an excellently produced album of mostly shitty songs. I came away from last nights listening session pretty much deciding, even though I love the production work on it, that it's their weakest album. Hey Venus!, and now Dark Days/Light Years are both sounding pretty good to me right now, however I'd be lying if I said that there wasn't a couple of moments on both of those records that I disliked. I certainly don't consider any of these albums to be anywhere near as good as their "classic" run of 1994-2004. Maybe those solo projects affected the quality control of the "main" band... I don't know.

Love Kraft

Good-to-great:
'Zoom!', 'Atomik Lust', 'Ohio Heat', 'Cloudberries', 'Cabin Fever'.

Absolute shite:
'The Horn' - Bunf's strained vocal sounds like nails on a chalkboard to me now, and the song feels underwritten, in particular the middle 8. Shite!

'Walk You Home' - A confused mess of a song, almost completely hookless, the outro in particular feels melodically bland. Shite!

'Lazer Beam' - Their worst ever single. There's a reason why the band choose 'Zoom!' to play live to represent Love Kraft and not the sole single from the album, and that reason is that 'Lazer Beam' is absolute fucking shite. The lyrics in the second verse must be some of the laziest lyrics Gruff has ever written, come to think of it.

'Frequency' - A fan favourite, but it's totally confusing to see why. Yeah, it's SFA in ballad mode, but it's a fucking weak ballad, and if you don't think it's a weak ballad then do me a favour. Listen to 'Demons', and then listen to 'Frequency' - I rest my case. Shite!

'Oi Frango' - Completely pointless romp through an obvious chord progression with some synth effects and Portuguese words grafted on to try to make it sound interesting. It's not interesting, it's shite.

'Psyclone!' - Takes an idea from Gruff's solo track 'Ni Yw Y Byd' (basically one melodic theme repeated across several key changes) and marries it to the drumbeat from Queen's 'We Will Rock You'. Thing is, though, the melodic theme chosen isn't actually all that great, and the lyrics in particular fucking suck. I've decided I never want anyone to ever catch me listening to a song that features the lyric "take the turbulence and twinkle your toes... OH! OH!" - very cringeworthy. Shite!

'Back On A Roll' - I actually used to really like this one, but now it grates on me in the worst way possible. Bunf sounds incredibly strained when hitting the high notes on this (he seems to have refrained from doing this in songs he's sung for the band after this album) and it's lyrically not up to the standard you'd expect from an SFA track. Performance wise, it has the feel of a band trying to nail an upbeat track when they're perhaps not in the mood to do so, and the result feels like a kind of "laboured fun".

Hey Venus!

Mostly good, aside from 'Suckers!' which is a very pedestrian power ballad which Gruff himself quite rightly hates, and 'Battersea Odyssey' which starts off well with that great guitar intro but descends into a tedious stompalong. Personally, I would have had 'These Bones' on the album instead, which is ace and deserves to be heard by more people. Here's hoping that it's a contender for a future B-sides compilation.

Dark Days/Light Years

Good-to-great:
'Crazy Naked Girls', 'Cardiff In The Sun', 'The Very Best Of Neil Diamond', 'Helium Hearts', 'White Socks/Flip Flops', 'Pric'

Tolerable-but-meh:
'Inaugural Trams', 'Inconvenience', 'Where Do You Wanna Go?', 'Lliwiau Llachar'

Absolute shite:
'Mt.' - Why the band felt like this track in particular was worthy of representing the album is a complete mystery. They were obviously banking on radio play, why else make a censored version of the track? It's yet another SFA shuffly glam stomp, and one may well ask themselves "does anyone need another SFA glam stomp, especially one as weak as this!?"

'Moped Eyes' - A tarted-up joke song and nothing more. Thought it was crap in its early form and still think it's crap.

ranking:
Radiator
Phantom Power
Rings Around The World
Mwng
Guerrilla
Fuzzy Logic
Hey Venus!
Dark Days/Light Years
Love Kraft

SFA 1994-2004 = Classic. One of the best bands of that period.
SFA 2005-2009 = Patchy. Some underrated work, but definitely not the force they once were.

It'll be interesting to see what happens next.

Interview with Gruff on DiS today although he doesn't really say much about "the future"

http://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4148963-vote-furry--gruff-rhys-on-politics-mwng-and-the-future

I love "Moped Eyes." Don't know why. It seems like the exact kind of SFA song I'd hate. I dig the little stabs of guitar and bassline, I guess.

I got the Mwng reissue the other day and quickly downloaded it as well so I could listen to the alternate takes/mix of the album. It's not drastically different, but there are subtle differences, like the background vocals on "Dacw Hi" being out of sync and more pronounced. Well worth seeking out if you're a completist.

I haven't even bought the Mwng reissue and I'm not particularly interested in hearing alternate takes/mixes of the Mwng sessions, either. I'm perfectly happy with the original Placid Casual release that I've owned for the last 15 years, and it's not like they've remastered it or anything, so I don't really see the point. It's good that it's out there again on vinyl, though, because original copies are so expensive. I can't see the value of the original vinyl going down because the original was self-released, and this new edition isn't.