Emerging from the wilderness...

Still no internet connection at home at the minute, but here I am leeching from someone else's.

There's a couple of SFA-related newsy type things for your delectation;

Dark Days/Light Years
The album is now fully formed and available to download from SFA's official website. As a dedicated follower of the Furries I opted for the CD + mp3 bundle. No mention of the vinyl release but I assume there is one. And I'll be purchasing that too... I'm so sad.

But, the album is, as ever, groovy. I won't do a review as I'm hardly unbiased and I border on illiterate but I have been listening to it quite a lot. And I wouldn't if it was crap... It's quite raw and has a jamming-70s-prog-rock vibe to it, a departure from the smooth poppiness of Hey Venus! (as great as that is). It's that speaker-blower that Gruff was promising us on the release of Hey Venus! Y'know, turn it up to 11. Favourite songs so far;

Moped Eyes - Gruff's voice may just be the sexiest it's ever been on this song and there's a nice driving rhythym to back it up. Cool stuff.

Cardiff in the Sun - pure bliss, especially when followed closely by the sitar-laden The Very Best of Neil Diamond. It's a toss-up which of them I like the most.

I realise now why I like SFA... everything they do is extraordinary. I mean, they've recorded nine albums and all of them I would happily listen to for years and years to come. There's no-one else that come close to them in terms of consistency. Even David Bowie, who I've loved since before the Furries, has had hits and misses. The Flaming Lips, Grandaddy, Eels... they're all bands I adore but only the Furries seem to remain so vital to me. They tip-toe on that line between seriousness and silliness but always sound the better for it. They have warmth, style and humour and I adore them. The stars must have been in a once-in-a-millennium alignment when SFA formed. Anyway, enough gushing!

Pete Fowler
I highly recommend keeping an eye on Pete's blog as not only is he a great artist in his own right, but there's bound to be some SFA goodies pop up on there from time to time. Recent posts include teasers about the Dark Days/Light Years album artwork, a collaboration with Keiichi Tanaami, some of which is included with the downloaded album. Can't wait to see the full artwork on the physical release. Which is approaching fast, just a couple of weeks away, now!

Mr Fowler has also got a compilation album out, and there is a shiny new track from Gruff Rhys on there. Although with no lyrics/vocals... and that's what I love Gruff for... but it's still nice to hear some electronic noodling from him. Have a read about it here.

Plus, some of Pete's work will be in London at the Monsters Inked exhibition, which sounds groovy. What better on an Easter weekend than to visit a gallery exhibiting hundreds of monster illustrations?

NME
In the new issue of NME there is an interview with Gruff and Bunf entitled "What Rock'n'Roll has taught us" complete with an old photo of the band. Apparently from when they liked hanging around in graveyards. Ah, the follies of youth, eh? There's some nice anecdotal-type stories from the two. Particularly liked the idea of a Philadelphia fan tattooing misspelt Welsh SFA lyrics onto himself, and Gruff not having the heart to tell him he'd spelt it wrong. I'm guessing the cat's out of the bag now...

Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse
I have images of 80s British cartoons running through my head now, but apparently Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse (I've always had a penchant for a bit of Mark Linkous...) are collaborating on some mysterious album/movie/plan-to-take-over-the world. Of which nobody knows anything apart from one poster doing the rounds that lists a load of names alongside theirs including Gruff Rhys. There's a lot of others (The Flaming Lips, Iggy Pop, Jason Lytle et al.) but I'm intrigued by the inclusion of David Lynch (I'm a Twin Peaks fan). Linkous, Rhys and Lynch? My excitement levels are rising...

My time's almost up. Back through the internet-free darkness I roam.