So I wanted to write a bit about my personal favorite band, who I rarely if ever see pop up in the now playing threads around here. I know tinnitus is a fan, but other than that I'm not sure. I wouldn't say they're right up the 3DD alley per se, but there should be some appeal. I got into them back in high school (so 6/7 years ago) when I was a huge Flaming Lips fan. Their drummer Kliph is an outspoken SFA advocate, so I picked up a copy of the Furries' first album for $3 in a used book store one day and I was sold. Not quite instantly (I was still figuring out what "psychedelic" music meant, and I'd read this was a psychedelic album. It is, it just took me a listen or two to really understand this.) They've been my favorite band ever since. I view them in kinda the same way I (and presumably a lot of us) view the Truckers: an endlessly talented band that seems to creates its own world in its music. Consideration of artwork (they've used the same cover artist for the majority of their career) and a willingness to experiment while keeping their core talents at the forefront As for similar sounds, they get lumped into the Britpop scene a lot, but I don't really feel they belong, at least not after the first 2 albums. I would say they're a bit akin to Blur or Radiohead where each album would be a huge shift from the last, but they've kept more of a pop sense than those bands, and I think it's a large reason why I've been able to give a shit about them for so long. I've always kinda considered SFA as the Kinks to Radiohead's Beatles: a band just as experimental and musically talented, but more lighthearted and unable to get the same amount of mainstream attention. There isn't a discography I've played more than SFA's, and I can still come back and find new things to love. If that ain't the sign of a good band, what is? I would say (and I'm sure the bandmembers would too) that their truest kindred spirits are the Beatles/Beach Boys, both of whom they have interesting connections to later on. All of their experimentation is anchored by their ability to write great pop songs, and I think that's whats made their discography so consistently solid.
First some not too important background. They're from Wales, formed in 1993, and they've had essentially the same 5 man lineup for their whole career. There was a period early on where they had a different lead singer (the actor Rhys Ifans, for a bit of trivia) but he left the band before they were signed, and it's been the same lineup since. In recent years they've expanded to having 4 of the 5 members write and sing lead but for all intents and purposes Gruff Rhys is the lead singer/lyricist and rhythm guitarist, Huw Bunford is the lead guitarist, Cian Ciaran is the keyboardist/techno wizard, Dafyyd Ieuan is the drummer, and Guto Pryce is the bassist. Guto remains the only Furry not to write and sing, but their songs are collaborations, always credited to the full band and never one member. From what I gather reading about both bands' studio behavior, the Beatles similarities extend there as well. Every member brings something to the table, whether it's their "natural" instrument or not. Each songwriter has his own style, but the contributions from the other dudes keeps it from being jarring to hear different lead singers on each track. Like any band they had precursor bands, but they're largely mediocre at best. Ffa Coffi Pawb is the most well known as it featured Gruff on vocals, singing welsh language songs over Jesus and Mary Chain-esque backing tracks. Their stuff is impossibly to find, with the exception of the compilation Am Byth. It's a neat curiosity for the hardcore SFA fans, but by no means essential. The best thing about them is their name, which translates to "everybody's coffee beans," but is pronounced like "fuck off everybody." There are a few other pre-SFA bands, but their stuff is even harder to find and even less necessary, so let's carry on.
With that out of the way, I think I'll just write some of my thoughts about each album, post a few of my favorite songs from each, then end with some side projects and miscellaneous odds and ends. There's a lot of good stuff in their extended family tree thats well worth checking out if you've got some time and interest. Wikipedia has some good info for each album regarding recording info and whatnot, so I've thrown in links to those if that's your thing.
Albums
Fuzzy Logic (1996)
Where it all began, for me and the band. Probably their most "britpop" album, which may or may not be a good selling point. I've never really liked the term myself, but there are some similarities to bands like Blur or the Kinks or Supergrass. It's got good energy and fairly simple songs, topped with the occasional psychedelic flourish. I've always loved the way it kicks off literally mid-riff, with "God! Show Me Magic," a song Gruff has described as a "challenge to God to prove his existence." Anyway, the album has a nice range of tempos, with "If You Don't Want Me To Destroy You" being my favorite, followed by "Gathering Moss" and "Hangin' With Howard Marks." It's a pretty good introductory album, though I wouldn't put it in the top half of the discog personally. It's always nice to hear a band's sound evolve from the start, and this album is a great example of that. It has lots of great songs but it's probably the only SFA album with songs I could fairly easily see other bands writing or recording. Not that that's a bad thing at all (good songs are good songs) just what I think keeps it from being a personal favorite. That being said, it was the first one I heard so it will always have a special place in my heart.
Key tracks:
Radiator (1997)
Basically the album in which they truly found their identity as a band. The vaguely British guitar rock sound is still very present, but they started to add more of a techno sound, and even though it's not a genre I usually care for, it's the best move they could have made. The weirder tracks on here are my favorites. Unfortunately in the case of songs like "Hermann Loves Pauline," it makes for material that's impossible to play live, but that's a price I'm ok with paying. In addition to the tripper stuff like "Demons" (which has an amazing horn solo midway through) and "She's Got Spies," there are a few straightforward punk rockers, like "Chupacabras" and "Torra Fy Ngwallt Yn Hir," and some of their first deliberate attempts at writing epics. Fuzzy Logic had some songs with huge choruses, but stuff like "Down A Different River" and "Demons" takes it to a whole new level on this album. The real masterpiece here is "Mountain People" (and you can go ahead and include the previous song "Download," since it transitions so nicely), the first in a long line of epic album closers. It starts as a vaguely country sounding acoustic ballad, but gradually morphs into a full-on techno freakout by the end. It's a hell of a song to blast with headphones on. Some great vocal harmonies from Cian, and the techno ending is thrilling stuff. There are many times I consider this my favorite SFA album, and it might be the most overall well regarded of the bunch. Great stuff.
Key tracks:
Guerilla (1999)
The "jukebox album," intended to be all over the place and full of potential singles. The techno influence comes even further into the equation here, but there's a handful of easy rockers and ballads too. It begins with the perversely hidden gem "The Citizens' Band." It's a classic, one of my favorites, but they hid it before track one so you'd need to manually rewind the CD to reach it. Unfortunately I wasn't buying music back when the album came out, so I can't say what it was like to discover it at the time, but I enjoyed reading about it and discovering it years later on my own. I see the album kinda broken down in thirds. The first third (tracks 1to 6) are simpler pop songs, though they range from 2 minute riff-fests like "Do or Die" to breezy tropical jams like "The Turning Tide" or "Northern Lites" to spy movie soundtracks like "Night Vision." Then there are a few techno numbers. "Wherever I Lay My Phone" being the more club music sounding, "Some Things Come From Nothing" and "The Door To This House Remains Open" being more psychedelic and downtempo (I have no clue how to describe electronic music, so bear with me here) and generally more enjoyable. Then the album ends with more pop songs, with "Fire In My Heart" being a top 5 SFA song for me. A gorgeous country ballad with simpler lyrics than most of Gruff's stuff, and a mindblowing vocal harmony ending. If the band has a flaw it's not keeping it simple from time to time with songs like this, because it's an incredible piece of work. Then the album ends with the upbeat manifesto "Keep The Cosmic Trigger Happy." It's the kind of album that feels like a real journey and not just a bunch of good songs, and it really rewards your attention.
Some key tracks:
Mwng (2000)
I'm not suite sure how to write about this album. The elephant in the room is that it's a Welsh language album, so naturally that's a decent sized obstacle to getting into it. It's also more stripped/lo-fi than the previous albums, so any chance they had at building off of Radiator/Guerilla into more mainstream success was shot for two reasons. That being said there's a lot to like here. Unfortunately, I have a hard time distinguishing the songs in my head (damn Welsh titles...) so I can't describe many of them. However, I can say that the final track, "Gwreiddiau Dwfn/Mawrth Oer Ar Y Blaned Neifion" is classic stuff. Hell, throw in the second to last song, since they transition to smoothly. It's an 8 minute jam, it features a great horn part, and the kind of singer going well beyond his range vocals that always do it for me. One of their finest moments. Beyond that, I think this is an album you'd gain more from actually hearing than reading my thoughts. Given how the Welsh language in print form can look like a clusterfuck of consonants, it's a pleasant sound when spoken.
Some key tracks:
Rings Around The World (2001)
I've got a slight personal beef with this album, since it seems to be the one that appears on critics lists, if they include any SFA at all, and it's probably my least favorite. I'm not quite sure why I'd say it is (every time i look at the tracklist I realize how many great sons it has) but something about it just doesn't quite click as a classic album for me. As some context, this was basically their major label album, so they were understandably quick to take advantage of the financial freedom that entailed. Whether it was bringing in huge names like Paul McCartney and John Cale for extremely unnoticeable contributions (chewing celery and playing a bit of piano, respectively) or releasing a DVD of the album in fancy surround sound with videos for every song, they didn't refrain from spending Sony's money. As a result, it feels like a deliberately "big" album, for better or worse. Anyway, the songs. They're more orchestral than past albums, but with the same blend of psych rock and techno throughout. "Receptacle For The Respectable" is my favorite, because it seamlessly moves throughout a handful of genres in 4.5 minutes. At one point it even had a hip hop verse, but it was abandoned and few have ever heard that version. It also features McCartney's celery solo. "Run! Christian, Run!" is another favorite, a slow acoustic ballad building into a techno freakout. "Juxtapozed With U" is a futuristic soul track written as a duet between Gruff and Bobby Brown, recorded as a duet between Gruff and his vocoder drenched vocals. A lot of the album deals a bit more with serious topics than before, especially in the political realm, something that would continue on the next album. (As outsiders watching the US behave under Bush's power, can you blame them?) Despite my reservations, this is a good 1st album. It covers a lot of ground and has some great singles and greater deep cuts. If there has to be one token SFA album on critics' best of lists, an album with an entire song about Clinton and Lewinsky ain't too bad a choice.
Some key tracks:
Phantom Power (2003)
I view this one as a more focused, and much more successful, version of Rings Around The World. They were still enjoying the financial side of a major label deal, but the songs were better and the arrangements didn't have as much shine as they did before. It's a vaguely acoustic album, with a lot of the songs written in strange guitar tunings, and the result is what I currently believe to be their finest accomplishment. All of their albums, to use a cliche term, cover a lot of ground, but I feel this one covers the best ground. It's got better than normal examples of everything they'd done well in the past. You've got your simple pop songs covered with "Hello Sunshine," "Liberty Belle," "Venus and Serena." "Liberty Belle" is my personal favorite, probably due to all the nice memories I have associated with it walking around campus in college. It's a perfect autumn song, and that's my favorite season. Then you've got your longer epics covered with "Slow Life," "Cityscape Skybaby" and "The Piccolo Snare." "Slow Life" is a great example of the band's creative process. It stemmed from a 10 minute techno song Cian put together, which was cut and pasted into a more conventional rock song. It's the kind of song that can basically only come at the end of an album, and it's another swirling psychedelic techno epic. Good stuff, but I like "The Piccolo Snare" a bit more. It's a similar kind of multipart song as "Slow Life" or "Mountain People," but feels like nothing else they'd done. I'm not quite sure what it is, but it really hits me hard every time. All that being said, my favorites from this album are probably "Bleed Forever, which is a really stripped down soulful ballad, and "Sex, War and Robots," which is sung by Huw Bunford and features some achingly beautiful peddle steel. There aren't too many SFA songs that really hit you hard with the sadness, but this one does, and does it oh so well.
Some key tracks:
Love Kraft (2005)
The misunderstood outcast of the discography, mostly doomed by poor promotion and and incredibly poor single choice. I hate to say things like "went over audience's heads" or whatnot, but I think in this case that's kinda what happened. After RATW and PP, the band was in decent position to make another shot at mainstream success. They were still signed to Sony, the past two albums had done well, and this one was produced by Mario Caldato Jr. However, the material, good as most of it was, was nowhere near as poppy as the past albums, and the choice of lead single was, in my opinion, terrible. Love Kraft isn't an album overflowing with hits, but "Lazer Beam," the one they chose, was perhaps furthest from mainstream ready as could be. It's a fine song, but I have no clue how it was picked over something like "Frequency" which is pretty melancholy but has a soaring chorus that I believe could have sold more people on the album than "Lazer Beam" ever did. After it failed to take off the label kinda stopped promoting it, which is a shame because the album is really special if you can get into it. It's very orchestral, but not in the bright, poppy way the last two albums were. It's more orchestral in a dark, almost Jean-Claude Vannier-esque kind of psychedelia, which I can see being a bit heavy to get through. It's also a fairly down album lyrically, which kinda adds to its outcast status. It opens with "Zoom!" which is an incredible odyssey of a track, with guitar solos aplenty, and ends with a pair of rather depressingly slow ballads. It also features 4 members of the band contributing songs, the most yet. Surprisingly, "Atomik Lust" and "Walk You Home," two non-Gruff songs, are among my favorites on the album. People that love this album tend to be really passionate about it, but it's the one (well, maybe not as hard as Mwng) I can most see people not getting into.
Some key tracks:
Hey Venus (2007)
I don't really like the phrase "return to form," but it's commonly associated with this album. After the whole Love Kraft story, the band (with some light record label prodding) switched it all up. New producer, new studio, new cover artist, deliberate attempts at simpler pop songs, etc. All that should spell disaster, but the album pulled it off. It's a bit similar to Fuzzy Logic but it's more of a 60's pop (with more than a bit of Phil Spector influence) sound than that album. Either way, the songs are simpler and catchier than they'd been on the past few albums. It may or may not be a concept album about a character named Venus (the band have said it is and isn't) but it's really just a lean, sunny collection of songs. Their shortest album by far. Personal favorites are "Run Away," the obvious Spector tribute, "Into The Night," an upbeat rocker with some middle eastern instrumentation, and "Let The Wolves Howl At The Moon," a piano driven country ballad. It's their first album in a long time that they approached without any particularly grand ideas, but that "keep it simple" philosophy still ended up looking fairly radical in light of the previous records. And even with all that we still get "Battersea Odyssey," one of the most genuinely weird songs in their catalogue.
Some key tracks:
Dark Days/Light Years (2009)
The last album. For now. It was a deliberate attempt to record heavier songs based on grooves and studio jams. Some of them had been attempted and aborted for previous albums ("Moped Eyes" stemmed from a jam during the Hey Venus sessions) some were new. It was a no nonsense studio period, largely for financial reasons, so they basically went in, knocked this album out, left. For a band to discover new sounds on their 9th album together is pretty amazing to me. I still don't quite understand why this album does so much for me, but it does. It opens with the Sabbath-esque stoner rock of "Crazy Naked Girls," then touches on glam rock with "Mt." and "Inconvenience" and krautrock with "Moped Eyes," "Inaugural Trams" and "Pric." The masterpiece, in my opinion, is "Cardiff In The Sun," which is a murky, shimmering beast of a song that doesn't sound like much else they'd ever done. They've done a lot of songs that build into magnificent climaxes, but this one seems to do it differently, and the result is terrific. It's even better when it transitions to the middle eastern groove of "The Very Best of Neil Diamond," which is a post-apocalyptic story about being unable to pick the true soundtrack of your life. It's also got Bunf's great Stones-y rocker "White Socks/Flip Flops" and the fairly adorable "Helium Hearts." I'm probably a bigger fan of this album than a lot of people, but it's the band's 9th album, they still sound fresh and experimental, and it still blows me away even after playing it to death when it came out. If that's not a great album, what is?
Some key tracks:
And, since what is music discussion without frivolous compulsive rankings, here's my latest order. The few hardcore SFA fans I talk to online don't agree at all. That's the magic of the band. Keep in mind I love all of these records dearly, so even the bottom 3 are damn good. Also keep in mind that this order changes constantly and I can see it in almost any order, to be perfectly honest.
Phantom Power
Radiator
Guerilla
Dark Days/Light Years
Love Kraft
Hey Venus
Fuzzy Logic
Mwng
Rings Around The World
EPs/B-sides
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch In Space (1995)
Moog Droog (1995)
Ice Hockey Hair (1998)
Out Spaced (1998)
Slow Life (2004)
With the exception of Ice Hockey Hair and Out Spaced, I know the non-album tracks more through a huge playlist of all 30/40 of them, so I can't say much about the individual EPs on their own. However, b-sides and non-album tracks in general are one of my favorite things about SFA. They've slowed down over the past few albums, as money and studio time gets tight, but back in the day each album would have at least 5-6 extra songs, including some serious gems. One of the more notable examples would be "The Man Don't Give A Fuck," which was recorded to go on Fuzzy Logic but had to be exiled after Steely Dan refused to clear the sample of "Showbiz Kids." They resolved the issue later and put it out as a single, gaining Guiness Book of Records placement (twice. Once with the original, and then later on with a 30 minute live re-release. They've since lost the record) for most uses of the word "fuck" in a pop single. Novel profanity aside, it's a great track. More politically minded than other stuff from the Fuzzy Logic era, but the chorus is a nice example of the band's unique talent. I later bought that Steely Dan album to hear the source of the sample, and expected it to be the chorus or something. Nope. It's actually just one line in one of the verses, and these guys heard it and decided to build an entire song around it as the chorus. I know sampling is a controversial musical form, but I'm a big fan of the possibilities it can present, and this is a good example of how it cane be used imaginatively.
Beyond Out Spaced (which is a very good rarities compilation that I'd definitely recommend. It would rank solidly in the middle of the discography if it were a "real" album) I think there's 2 or 3 really excellent albums to be made using b-sides alone. If anyone's seriously interested I can upload my b-sides collection. There are some songs in there that are too good to be remembered as just album rejects. My personal favorite SFA track (and many other fans' as well) is the title song on Ice Hockey Hair, and I love and hate the band for wasting an absolute gem of a song on a 4 track EP. Seriously, this song. I cannot praise it highly enough. The bassline, the vocals, the riff, everything. It could end at about 4 minutes and it's still a classic in my book, but then it kicks back up with another jawdropping chorus and cements its legendary status. Turn the speakers up and give it a listen:
Some other key non album tracks:
Solo/Side Projects
Paul McCartney - Liverpool Sound Collage (2000)
I actually haven't listened to this yet (though I bought a copy a few years ago) but the story is basically that McCartney met Cian Ciaran in the bathroom at a NME awards show, there was mutual respect for each other's music and he drunkenly convinced McCartney to let him remix some Beatles recordings. This is the result, though SFA are only on two tracks. It's more significant for leading to Paul contributing "carrots and celery" to a track on Rings Around The World and providing a pretty good bit of trivia connecting the Furries to the best rock and roll band of all time.
Super Furry Animals - Phantom Phorce (2004)
A full album remix of Phantom Power with each track handled by a different producer. Another curiosity, more worth buying for its kickass packaging than any of the music.
Gruff Rhys - Yr Atal Genhedlaeth (2005)
Gruff's first solo album. It's really short (~28 minutes) and it's entirely in Welsh, but it's perhaps his most overall poppy work. It's all catchy enough that the language barrier doesn't matter. Most of the songs are based on simple layered beats with lots of toy keyboard kinds of sound affects. I'd say it's the album that comes closest to capturing the joy of Gruff's "solo" act. He doesn't just play stripped down versions of his songs on an acoustic guitar, he brings an army of keyboards and sound affects and creates his own backing and vocal tracks. It's kinda mesmerizing to watch:
A sample studio track from the album:
Acid Casuals - Omni (2006)
Cian's techno side project. Not quite my bag personally, but it's nice chill music to zone out to from time to time. The price of admission (this was actually my record store holy grail for a while. Try as I might I just could never find a copy until I found one for $2 in this tiny fucking book store in DC. Record shopping is crazy stuff) is worth it for "Bowl Me Over" alone, which is a lovely doo wop/Be My Baby kind of song. I'd even rank it among his career highlights.
Gruff Rhys - Candylion (2007)
My favorite of the solo projects, and probably a top 5 album along with the main discography. This one is more based on acoustic guitar than his first solo album. The title track is a pretty adorable children's book-esque tale of a kingdom of candy, and the last track is a 14 minute odyssey about a plane hijacking, that touches on celebrity culture, love, death, etc.
And, for anyone up for an adventure, the mighty "Skylon!"
Neon Neon - Stainless Style (2008)
A full length collaboration Gruff Rhys did with American DJ Boom Bip. It's a biographical album of John Delorean, rooted in 80's synth pop. Shouldn't have worked out as well as it did, but I was very impressed with this album. Even the more hip hop oriented tracks worked. It's a pretty one of a kind album in Gruff's body of work, but his sense of melody is still there, especially in "Steel Your Girl," which is just a gloriously huge beat and melody, and one of my favorite things he's ever done.
The Peth - The Golden Mile (2008)
Pretty inessential side project from the drummer (with former member Rhys Ifans back in the fold) and his band. Some of it's pretty ok darker psych rock, but some of it's just bad. There's been talk of a second LP for years, but Hollywood keeps getting in the way. Coincidentally, not much of the first album is on Youtube, but here's one of the better songs:
Tony Da Gatorra & Gruff Rhys - The Terror of Cosmic Loneliness (2010)
Fairly easily the worst album in the extended catalogue. It's theoretically a "collaboration" but it's really just this Brazilian TV repair dude screaming over the noise of some guitar/keyboard thing he made. Gruff contributes a few songs but only one of them ("In A House With No Mirrors) is particularly worthwhile. I wouldn't recommend this album to many people as anything more than a curiosity, but it's the kind of experiment I love seeing musicians take. There's a good chance I'll never play this album again, but I jam to this song quite a bit still:
Gruff Rhys - Hotel Shampoo (2011)
Gruff's most recent solo album, based predominantly on piano songs. He's called it his middle age album, and that's fairly accurate. It doesn't try to do anything major, it's basically just Gruff on auto pilot, and I dont mean that as a bad thing. It's a great collection of 60's pop songs that works pretty well as an introduction to Gruff's writing. One of those albums that it's hard to really say much about, other than that it's well worth listening to. I'm a huge fan of Dylan's New Morning, which I think kinda defines "minor album" to me as an album that just seems to aim to remind people that you write songs, without taking huge chances or really messing around. This is that kind of album.
Gruff Rhys - Atheist Xmas EP (2011)
Exactly what it sounds like. Tongue in cheek alternative Christmas songs. Slashed Wrists This Christmas is a really cool 60's Dylan homage, and the other two tracks are pretty neat, but nothing essential.
Cian Ciaran - Outside In (2012)
One of my favorite albums of the year. Probably #1, but I've been too lazy to make a real list yet. It's a gem though. I've seen some people compare this to Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue, in that it's a stunning solo album from a member of the band you didn't hear much from before. I'm sadly not that familiar with his solo work yet, so I can't say much on that. Cian's sang some lovely SFA songs in the past, but this is his best stuff yet I think. I don't know if it's the solo context forcing him to really hunker down and write great songs, but he stepped up his game big time. I liked his SFA album contributions, but I was a bit wary of his low key vocals and instrumentals holding up for a whole album, but he handled it well. It is a mostly low key set of Wilson-esque orchestral songs, but there are enough upbeat songs to keep it from being dragged down. "Martina Franca" is a lovely nod to "Heroes and Villains," and there are some really gorgeous vocal harmonies throughout. I'm usually a bit iffy on harmonizing with your own voice, but it's done well here and didn't bother me at all. I would probably say the last two tracks are my favorites, but it's a short album that flies by. Probably the most straight up Beach Boys tribute in the SFA family tree, so well worth a listen if thats your scene. This album gives me hope that, if the band does break up for good, there will still be great stuff coming out from several different projects, and that's not such a bad thought.
Related Bands/Miscellaneous Junk
Gruff's lent his voice to a bunch of odds and ends by friends of his. You can check 'em all out here, with these being my favorites:
Off Groillaz' Plastic Beach
Off Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse's Dark Night Of The Soul.
Off Simian Mobile Disco's Temporary Pleasure
Considering one of my favorite things about the band is Gruff's voice (which I don't really have a good comparison for. His pitch is vaguely Neil Young-ish, but the Welsh accent makes it impossible to really compare) I enjoy hearing it in other contexts, so I'm glad he's so willing to throw his voice into oddball songs.
Separado.
Gruff's first movie. Ostensibly a documentary of Gruff tracking down a long lost musician relative during a tour of South America after Candylion came out, but it's more about the culture than the artist or the music. It's a vanity project for sure, but you can tell it's something he's passionate about, so it's excusable. It has some cool performance scenes, and Gruff's a charming enough subject to draw interest, but it's really more of an anthropological film than a musical one. I enjoyed it, the guy I watched it with didn't, but it got generally good reviews from non SFA fans. He's working on a sequel right now (footage shot this past summer) with a third to come in a few years.
Pete Fowler
He's basically their Wes Freed, and his stuff is incredible.
The High Llamas
A band fronted by Sean O'Hagan, who has done gorgeous string arrangements for nearly every SFA/Gruff album. Sean's a true Brian Wilson/Burt Bacharach disciple, and he was in serious talks to produce a Beach Boys (with Brian Wilson) comeback album in the 90's. It didn't happen, but The High Llamas have put together a nice Beach Boys catalogue of their own that's worth checking out if you like breezy orchestral pop songs. They don't really have a standout album, but they don't really have any bad ones either. I'd say either Gideon Gaye or Hawaii are the highlights, but they don't deviate too much so any of them would make a decent introduction.
Gorky's Zygotic Mynci
Basically SFA's lesser known Welsh brethren. I've not yet fallen in love with them, but they're an interesting band with a similar sense of experimentation and play in their work. Their stuff (and frontman Euros Childs' solo work) can be hard to track down, but might appeal to some of you more than it has to me.
Y Niwl
Welsh surf rock band that toured as Gruff's backing band/opener after Hotel Shampoo came out. Nice tunes on record, incredible live. If instrumental surf rock is your bag, here you go. http://yniwl.bandcamp.com/
Wendy & Bonnie - Genesis (1969)
"Related" is a huge stretch here, I'll admit, but this is a cool album that not a lot of folks know about, and I wanted to say a bit about it. Part of one of the songs ("By The Sea") is used as the sample at the beginning of "Hello Sunshine," off Phantom Power. I bought this because of the slight SFA connection, and it's one of those awesome lost 60's albums. Wendy and Bonnie are sisters that were ~12/14 at the time, and basically recorded this and nothing else. The session guys on this are notable, including Larry Carlton from Steely Dan, Jim Keltner from seemingly everything ever, and Mike Melvoin, from Pet Sounds, Nighthawks at the Diner, etc (and father of Wendy from Wendy & Lisa/Prince's Revolution). Definitely a music nerd curiosity more than a legitimate classic album, but it's also nice 60's psych pop with some jazzy, almost tropical playing on it. Cool stuff.
The Future
The following things are on the horizon, in case anyone's made it this far and likes what they hear enough to care about the future:
SFA- LP10. No clue when, but they have so far made it clear that they aren't broken up and a 10th record will happen. I'm desperately hoping that's the case, as their last full band record came out in 2009 and I need new tunes to play to death.
Cian Ciaran - Second solo album. Supposedly more of a loud and dirty rock and roll album. Already recorded, probably out next year.
Huw Bunford - Solo debut. I've asked Gruff about this a few times and he keeps saying it's coming, it's great, and that Bunf is currently taking classes in orchestration, so I can't wait for this one. Bunf's a pretty out there dude, and I have no fucking clue how this album could sound, and I'm pumped to hear it. Should be out next year, but I have no clue anymore. It has an equal chance of being a left field psych masterpiece and a total piece of crap, so I'm excited to hear it.
Gulp - Debut album by SFA bassist Guto and some Welsh girl. Only a single is out so far, with an album probably next year.
The Peth - Crystal Peth. It's been mentioned a lot the past few years, but hasn't surfaced. I'm not exactly on the edge of my seat anticipating it, but the debut had enough potential that when this drops I'll give it a listen.
Neon Neon - LP2. Likely under a different name, but Gruff and Boom Bip have said they'll make another record together. I'm excited for this because Stainless Style is a really well executed project, and I'd like to see them turn their attention to another celebrity, ideally from another era.
Gruff Rhys - two more movies in the vein of Separado (one about a tour of North America, which I was actually interviewed for after a solo show in Baltimore this summer, and one about a tour of Africa), a soundtrack to Separado (featuring mostly new material, including a few covers and some songs written for the film), and a solo album of biographical songs (preview a few here. Some really cool works in progress) written/played during this past summer's US tour.
So there we have it. Quite a bit of stuff to explore, covering a whole lotta ground. Hopefully some of you checked out an album or two (I believe most of it's on Spotify, if that's your thing), and let me know if anything stuck. Thanks for reading!
