The Psychedelic Furs Classic or Dud

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