Absence makes the heart grow fonder

Oh man, long absence! At this rate this is turning into a 6-monthly digest - and after a flurry of activity from Gruff as well.

Anyway, this is all old news BUT you get all the information in one handy bite-sized out-of-date post.

Hotel Shampoo
The album has now been officially released, so make sure you spend your hard-earned cash on some shampoo-related goodies here. If you're the kind who likes to try before they buy (kinda takes the fun out of it but hey) you can stream the album for free from Gruff's website.

The album was launched by Gruff taking over a Blackpool hotel on February 13th. Obviously. I've linked to that just to show you what you missed. You banana.

Next single from the album is 'Sensations in the Dark' which has a, er, slightly more... freeform video than 'Shark Ridden Waters'. BUT it does have multiple Gruff Rhys'. One in a pork pie hat, playing a trumpet. Always a bonus.

WATCH!



Then watch Gruff explain how he wrote 'Sensations in the Dark' on The Guardian website which also has a rather fabulous interview with him. Someone in the comments remarked that Gruff is 'like Columbo with a keyboard and a guitar'. Made me laugh...

And, lo-and-behold, a tour!
17 Feb, St Phillips, Manchester
18 Feb, The Kazimier, Liverpool
19 Feb, St Paul's Church, Cambridge
20 Feb, Arts Centre, Norwich
21 Feb, Glee Club, Nottingham
22 Feb, Cadogan Hall, London
25 Feb, Palace Theatre, Bridport
26 Feb, St Georges Church, Brighton
27 Feb, Glee Club, Birmingham
28 Feb, St Georges Hall, Bristol
04 Mar, Paris Le Cafe de La Danse
05 Mar, Vevey Rocking Chair
06 Mar, Vienna Flex
08 Mar, Frankfurt Brotfabrik
09 Mar, Schorndorf Manufaktur
10 Mar, Brussels Rotonde Botanique
11 Mar, Amsterdam Paradiso
12 Mar, Rotterdam De Unie
14 Mar, Cologne Gebaude 9
15 Mar, 20359 Hamburg Imperial Theater Hamburg
17 Mar, Copenhagen Loppen
18 Mar, Stockholm Strand Club
19 Mar, Malmo Debaser Malmo
26 Apr, Tokyo, Japan, Club Quattro
27 Apr, Osaka, Japan, Club Quattro

Pity he hasn't made it back over to the USA after having to cancel his LA show. I know a few people who would adore it if Gruff did a proper tour over there.

All that typing! I'm gonna go have a lie down.

Hotel Shampoo (and 'Separado!')

Always the way, when I can't get to a computer there is bucket-loads of news. All Gruff related at the moment...

New album/single/video/mini tour/art installation



Phew! Gruff's new album, Hotel Shampoo, is out February 14, 2011 on Turnstile. He did a sneaky little art installation in Chapter (check out the video above) to promote it.

Track listing
Shark Ridden Waters
Honey All Over
Sensations In The Dark
Vitamin K
Take A Sentence
Conservation Conversation
Sophie Softly
Christopher Columbus
Space Dust #2
At The Heart Of Love
Patterns Of Power
If We Were Words (We Would Rhyme)
Rubble Rubble

Check out his website, Gruffington Post for artwork and news as it happens. Also recommend following Gruff and his label Turnstile on Twitter.

The first single from the album is 'Shark Ridden Waters' which you can order on vinyl here and which has a swanky video. Where Gruff looks like Mr E stealing my fantasy car (sounds like a dream I once had).



There'll be a mini-tour to preview the album (list below from http://www.turnstilemusic.net/) but I'm hoping that he'll tour fully next year as I can't make any of these. Mostly because they're not in this country... Some/most are probably sold out by now. Whatever, I don't care. I'm not bitter.

Wed, 10th Nov Teater Grob , Copenhagen
Sat, 13th Nov Town Hall Theatre, Galway 0035 3915 86540
Sun, 14th Nov The Empire, Belfast 02890 323 744
Mon, 15th Nov Sugar Club, Dublin 08187 193 00
Mon, 22nd Nov Whitworth Gallery, Manchester 01618 321 111
Tue, 23rd Nov Vic Bar, Art School, Glasgow 08448 472 487
Fri, 26th Nov Toynbee Studios, London 08444 771 000
Mon, 29th Nov Point Ephemere, Paris free
Tue, 30th Nov Bitterzoet, Amsterdam 0031 2042 12318
Wed, 1 Dec September Gallery, Berlin 0049 3061 101313

I'm wondering, though, if this is the soundtrack to 'Separado!' that he was talking about...?

Seperado!
Talking of Seperado, the DVD is released, er, yesterday! Order now!

Separado! + The Terror of Cosmic Loneliness

Long time since I last posted; just down to sheer laziness, unfortunately. None of this will be news to anyone but I'm losing track, again, of dates and links etc. so thought it would be best to bring them all into one place...

Separado!
In that last post I lied, that wasn't the 'Separado!' trailer, merely the opening titles of 'Separado!'. This is the trailer, complete with cheesy American voice-over. I like!

Official 'Separado!' trailer

There have been a few reviews knocking around. Some good, some not-so-good. Apparently both Total Film and Sight and Sound have been quite positive (although their reviews don't appear to be online yet), as they seem to appreciate the inherent surreal qualities of the film.

'Separado!' is being distributed UK-wide by Soda Pictures and the official general release date is 30 July (info thanks to @DanLThomas on Twitter). I doubt it will be released absolutely everywhere in the UK but it should be coming to a major city near you!

The Terror of Cosmic Loneliness



Something that I haven't even mentioned on here is Gruff's new album with Brazilian musician Tony Da Gatorra (remember him from TrocaBrahma 2007?). It is, rather brilliantly, called 'The Terror of Cosmic Loneliness', is released at the end of July, has a stunning psychedelic cover and you can view the first video on Turnstile's website! Check it out;

Tony Da Gatorra vs Gruff Rhys - In a House With No Mirrors (You'll Never Get Old)

You can also pre-order the album and get a limited edition t-shirt for £20 (Offer ends 12 July)

To promote the album there will be a couple of Tony Da Gatorra Vs Gruff Rhys live dates;

28/07
Clwb Ifor Bach
Cardiff

29/07
Clwb Ifor Bach SOLD OUT
Cardiff

30/07
Camp Bestival
Dorset

31/07
Field Day Festival
London

I will be attending Field Day as it's cheap, closer to me and there are a plethora of great bands. Including, announced after I bought the tickets, Cate Le Bon. Gruff Rhys and Cate Le Bon in one day can't be bad! I will, of course, take as many photos as possible and will post them on here in early August (but don't hold your breath).

The album is reportedly a lot more experimental and a lot less melodic than what we're used to from Gruff. Which could be a good or a bad thing depending on your perspective. I do have a soft-spot for quite experimental music so I'm very much looking forward to this. Others are not. Ah, well.

The Gruffington Post
I'd keep an eye on www.gruffrhys.com. It's changed back to promoting TTOCL but a while ago they had a test site which looked like it could be quite cool. I'm guessing that will go live soon, so keep checking back.

Featuring Gruff Rhys

Huw has outdone himself. After a discussion on the list about what non-SFA and non-solo tracks Gruff appears on... we now have a shiny new YouTube channel, collecting all the songs in one place.

I highly recommend checking it out as there are some tracks on there that are quite hard to find. I particularly like the comprehensive notes on each entry. Plus the fact that he's even included Gruff's carrot chewing on the Misty's Big Adventure song!

Brought a smile to my face!

Check it out
Featuring Gruff Rhys

All quiet on the Furry front...

There's really not much going on at the moment. But I do get the impression that, as always, Gruff is beavering away in the background and just not giving away much.

'Separado!'
'Separado!' (now spelt correctly by me...) now has it's own website. Which basically just consists of a picture and an email address. But you can sign up to a mailing list so hopefully Ms. Catryn Ramasut will let us know if there is ever any news on this film. Or maybe it will only ever consist of a picture on a dead website. Ho hum.

A pretty picture for 'Separado!' (otherwise known as the official website).



There are some ripples of excitement on the list and board as both Andy Votel and David Wrench (producer-types) have made passing references to working on Gruff's solo album. But, as usual, there's no real information on the album. I think Gruff must have briefed both of them to just drop hints and tease us... He's a little flirt. Anyway, I'm guessing this solo album they're referring to is the soundtrack for 'Separado!'. But I assume that, if it is, then the film and soundtrack are tied in together and one won't be released without the other. In other words, I'm wondering if the solo album is dependent on 'Separado!' finding a distributor? As a stalwart of the Welsh music scene it must be a lot easier for him to release an album than a film... Gruff's an untested element when it comes to the film side of things.

Gorillaz
And Gruff continues his rent-a-vocal duties. (I mean that in the nicest possible way, who wouldn't want to rent those vocals?) This time he is appearing on the new Gorillaz album, Plastic Beach. In the new issue of Q, there's a feature on the Gorillaz album and Gruff has a little side-bar. He says he appears on 'Superfast Jellyfish' and 'Leviathan' but, looking at the tracklist, it would appear that 'Leviathan' has been dropped (how very dare they!). Anyway, that'll be one song to download from iTunes. Unless you have a thing for virtual bands and want to get the whole album...

Well, that's a lot of words to basically just say there's no news. I need something at the end of all this. Ah! A download! That'll do nicely.

Schubas Tavern interviews Gruff, September 2007

The sound is quite bad, so turn it up to 11!

No comments just links

Interview with Gruff and Guto (well...) in Brazil

Interview with Gruff about Seperado from the Guardian

Interview with Gruff

Interview with Gruff for Rizla (notice a pattern here?)

Very short interview with Gruff at Blissfields (fast forward 'till about 04:05)

Interview with... wait for it... Neon Neon!

And this glorious quote from BBC 6 Music's Twitter;

"Gruff Rhys says Super Furry's have started writing new material on the road. Drummer Dafydd's new band The Peth have finished another record"

Ah!

¡Seperado!

Only the other day I was wondering about Gruff's Patagonian documentary Seperado and now he has talked about the film in an interview with Agit Reader. Here's what he said about Seperado;

'We’re going to show the film for the first time in November and hopefully someone will help me put out a DVD for release sometime next year. The film’s going to be called “Seperado.” I also did a soundtrack for it, so that will be my next solo album by default.'

News on Seperado and news on a solo album?!

There's been speculation on the SFA list that he might be showing the film at the Soundtrack Festival in November, where the Furries are also playing. As the festival is celebrating the relationship between film and music that would make complete sense - but I also hope there is some form of general release for the film. Even just a limited release in art house cinemas would be very appreciated. Fingers crossed he'll be able to release it on DVD, too (packed full of extras, eh? ...I don't want much).

I'd recommend reading the rest of the interview as Gruff also talks about the fabled Furries instrumental/soundtrack album (looks like it's been put on the back-burner)!

Reading between the lines a couple of cool points; Gruff infers the Furries will still be together in ten years and he also seems to suggest that there is a good chance of even more solo work from him ('...my next solo album.' not just 'a solo album.') But then maybe I'm reading too much into his words. As usual.

For some reason I'm even more excited about Seperado and it's soundtrack than I was about the new Furries album.

And so my Gruff obsession continues.

Huw Stephens' Introducing

Thanks to the list, info on a Gruff Rhys DJ set in October;

October 13, 7pm-12am, FREE, The Social, London
Also with Yr Ods, Lousie Golbey + guests.

Huw Stephens' Introducing at The Social

More videos? More videos!

Some more Dutch interviews for your delectation. Look, I embedded a video! It's not from YouTube so I don't mind embedding it. This first video with Gruff is nice and easy-going.

Actually... Well... he does start talking about politics and war. So I suppose it's not really easy-going at all is it...? But Gruff himself seems very easy-going. I think if the world was going to end in the next 5 minutes, I'd want Gruff to break the news to me. There's something relaxing about him. Better relaxation than abject terror, hmm?



This interview is from 2005, but there's also a 6-part interview with Gruff around the time Hey Venus! was released. I prefer this one from 2005, though, as he seems a bit more coherent and relaxed. And the cameraman isn't quite so damn close as in the 2007 interview - that video makes me feel claustrophobic! There's also two live performances. Which are great. As usual.

Ohio Heat
Runaway

I like the fact that within 5 seconds of Gruff announcing they're going to play Runaway, he has to ask Bunf 'What shall I do?'. Bunf replies 'Runaway?' and Gruff responds, 'Yeah?'. That's a good suggestion, Bunf... There's also a sweet moment at the end when they both look overhead when they hear a bird. I love it when Gruff is interviewed, he's really sweet and funny. And judging by the smile on Bunf's face, I think Gruff cracks him up, too.

Enjoy.

Corsica à gogo

That after-show Warehouse Party that I mentioned earlier looks like it is definitely going ahead now. Well, they're selling tickets and Pete Fowler's done a fancy poster so I'm guessing it's pretty much set in stone. It is being held at Corsica studios (Corsica, France, à gogo? See what I did there? Hmm...? Ah, to hell with ya...) from 10pm - 6am after the Somerset House gig. Gruff will be anti-DJing along with Guto and Acid Casuals will be doing their thing. Dunno what Bunf and Daf will do... get drunk?

I'm um-ing and ah-ing about whether or not to go. It does sound groovy but... hmm. Well, I better make my mind up pretty soon or all the early bird tickets will be gone. And I'll have to pay an extra £3. Which, y'know, could bankrupt me.

Half of the cheap tickets are sold already. Ak! Can I let a bargain slip away before my very eyes?? If I get around to it, I'll buy them from here. And you could too. Or not. Whatever. I'm easy.

More live news

No, they haven't announced a 6-month world tour, more's the pity. There are, however, a few more gigs/live appearances due in the summer from the wonderful SFA.

Warehouse party at Corsica Studios
I haven't heard anything in an official sense but someone posted this on last.fm. Apparently, possibly, maybe, there is going to be an after-show party on 18th July, after the Somerset House gig in London. I'll keep an eye out but here's the bumf from last.fm;

"After the success of their last sell out after-show warehouse bash SFA have decide to do it all over again. Gruff, Guto and The Acid Casuals will all be playing and they’ll be joined by Cherrystones, Andy Votel, Pete Fowler, Allez Allez and many more to throw the mother of all freakbeat, psych fuzz happenings. Full line-up and early-bird tickets to be released very soon!!"

Which does a grand job of getting you excited while at the same time telling you nothing.

Ben & Jerry's Sundae on the Common
Sundae on the Common is being held on Clapham Common Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th July 12 noon 'til 8pm. The Furries are headlining on Saturday and the rest of the line-up on that day is also ace; Teenage Fanclub, I Am Kloot and King Creosote are the three I'm particularly excited about. (With that line-up on Saturday, if you're going on Sunday instead - with the Human League headlining - then you must be nuts.) Plus there's free ice cream. Which swung it for me. It's a quiet, cheap, family-friendly mini-festival. Tickets are all sold out, now, but I bought mine as soon as they went on sale and I've sorted my train tickets etc. London, twice in one week... I'm a glutton for punishment. You can still win free tickets, though.

Rizla Invisible Players
Gruff is part of the touring Rizla Invisible Players, DJ-ing at various festivals over the summer (it's a safe bet that if the Furries are playing at a festival Gruff'll probably be doing his anti-DJ thing there as well). You should definitely check out the Rizla website, there's quite a lot on there about the Invisible Players; a tour map, videos/pics/audio from the various gigs, the chance to win tickets and mini-bios of all the Invisible Players. There's also a video on there introducing you to them all, where Gruff just reinforces my opinion that he is the goddamn coolest man alive, make sure you check it out. I would absolutely love to see Gruff DJ (DJ Gruff? ...no, that's someone else...), the man has a ridiculously broad and obscure music taste, so I reckon it'd be a blast to listen to his record collection. It's unlikely I'll ever make it to any of the Rizla shows, though. As, again, they are giving where I live a wide berth. Ho-hum. Maybe they've heard of my insane Furry-devotion..?

Psychedelic Jamboree

Keep checking out Pete Fowler's blog, he occasionally has some Furry news on there. Just had a look today and apparently Gruff is DJ-ing at the Psychedelic Jamboree on June 10th in The Big Chill Bar, London. Sounds cool and it's free. So check it out if you happen to be in London around the 10th.

SFA @ Sub29

I just realised I never actually posted about the three gigs the Super Furries played at sub29 in Cardiff. Originally billed to play just Thursday's gig, they added Tuesday and Wednesday due to the ridiculous demand for tickets. I hesitated and missed out on a ticket for Thursday but managed to get hold of a couple for Wednesday's gig.

It was a 550-mile round trip for me with an overnight stay in Cardiff but it was well worth the time and money. Didn't have much time to sight-see in Cardiff, which was a shame but, on the plus side, I did see both Bunf and Gruff in the street prior to the gig (Gruff in a fetching orange boiler suit). My boyfriend went all fan-girl at the sight of Gruff (the only Furry he'd actually recognise) and seemed more excited than even I was...

The gig was fantastic, although I don't think the venue was that good. The UEA LCR in Norwich is just as small, if not smaller, and the sound quality there is much better. Despite a few sound issues, they were good-humoured and energetic and whipped the crowd into a bit of a frenzy. It wasn't the greatest gig in SFA-history but it was intimate and they were obviously happy to be playing to their home town.

Other people have complained that they just played DD/LY all the way through and didn't have a very varied set. I didn't think that was a bad thing. They were there to promote the album after all and they're warm up gigs for their festival dates later in the year, so they have to practice the new material as much as possible. Plus, the encore that everyone in the front row knew was coming, as we could see the setlist, was absolutely fantastic. Slow Life, RATW, Juxtaposed with U, TMDGAF and, my personal favourite, Keep the Cosmic Trigger Happy. Great way to end the gig and everyone was singing along at the top of their voices.

As for DD/LY, I think a few of those songs could become staples of the Furry live gig. The Very Best of Neil Diamond, Where Do You Wanna Go?, Moped Eyes and Inconvenience all stomped along and show just how raw and rocky this album is compared to their earlier albums. Cardiff in the Sun I think suffered the most from the venue's hit-and-miss sound but come the summer time, at outdoor gigs (Somerset House!), I think it will really come into it's own. Would be fab to hear it actually played in the sun...

Overall, well, it was groovy. What more can I say.

Oh yeah, and I took some pictures. Yes, they are all Gruff but he was the only one I could see to get a good picture of. Honest.











See more here

Gruff on (Behind) Closed Doors

Just stumbled on this on YouTube, perfection in two parts;

Gruff in a lift part 1
Gruff in a lift part 2

It's the same show that Gruff and Bunf were on, the link to which you can find elsewhere on this blog.

It's a very adorable and good humoured performance from Gruff, from the Yr Atal Genhedlaeth era, and is one of my favourites. Love the fact that he's really going for the one-man band thing here. I half-expected him to strap a drum to his back and some cymbals between his knees.

Great stuff.

The Music of Moondog

I think I must have a Super Furry radar.

Twice recently while watching Sky I've randomly flicked to Welsh language channel S4C (and I don't speak Welsh), just as they've started talking to the Super Furry Animals. I flicked over while Uned5 was on and saw Cian and Guto talking about some football stadium and the new album. Then I happened to switch on to Bandit just as they started talking to Cian.

Now, I had a sudden urge to check the Clinic website (I'm a bit of a Clinic fan but never actually looked to see if they have a website) and lo and behold, there's a picture of Gruff Rhys smiling at me!



He and Bunf will be performing as part of the Barbican's 'The Viking of 6th Ave - The Music of Moondog', on 30th May. I'm afraid I've no idea who Moondog is but then I'm just one of the unwashed masses, so that's not surprising. Gruff and Bunf will be part of the 'specially assembled All-star Moondog Choir'.

Clinic, Caribou and 2/5ths of SFA... I wish I was gonna be there.

He's the greatest, he's fantastic

More on that Dangermouse/Sparklehorse collaborative behemoth; Chrysalismusic are streaming tracks from the... er... album? Sounds funky, although I'm not sure that using various singers really works as an album. It's like your music library on shuffle. If you have cool taste, mind. But then who said it'll actually end up as a conventional album...? Well, ok, it probably will...

Here's the link below;

Chrysalismusic

If I'm not mistaken Gruff is singing on track 2, his voice sounds a little different but that's definitely his accent. I've lost track of what number song I'm on now, but I've heard Jason Lytle and Iggy Pop (that I can identify) so far. And now I'm feeling all nostalgic for the days of Grandaddy! I really wish Jason Lytle was doing a full UK tour, but I think he's just doing Manchester and London in May.

Anyway, it all sounds excellent! I highly recommend listening to the stream on Chrysalismusic and also visit the Dark Night of the Soul website for more info. Which is sparse at the minute. But apparently it's going to be released in the summer. Plus if you go on the website you can see some of the Lynch visuals, which I really hope there'll be more of.

Track-by-track

Haven't found this anywhere else but MusicRadar have got a track-by-track breakdown by Gruff of the new album. All sounds gooood.

Track-by-track - MusicRadar

Viva Zwei

There's a Super Furry (Gruff again, I know, I know...) interview on You Tube that I haven't seen before and it's only been up since the beginning of January so I thought I'd post the link here. It's an interview with Viva Zwei, a German music channel, and Gruff, talking about Rings Around the World in 2001. It's an in-depth, good little interview with Gruff even touching on my other obsession, films (albeit briefly!). Well worth a look. A relaxed and good-humoured interview but with depth. Although... it did leave me thinking that he must get fed-up with being asked to analyse his music all the time.

Anyway, I highly recommend it;

Viva Zwei, 2001
Part one
Part two
Part three
Part four
(NOTE:These links will take you direct to YouTube)

Gruffalo Goodness

It's the new year and I'm aching for a few more pictures. Stumbled on some great ones of Gruff. Very photogenic this man. They're from 2005, when he was playing at the Marquee Club in London.

All images are copyright to Andrew Kendall and you can see other bands (but, really, why would you want anything more than Gruff?) on his website http://www.andrewkendall.com/

It's a nice set of images with everything Gruff-like present and correct; curly hair, rough-and-ready beard, chunky rings and watch, groovy instruments (I've just noticed that one of his Fowler guitars has a Mork-style rainbow strap) and that lovely, slightly bemused expression...

Team Love Library

OK, I'm back on Gruff again.

Candylion's US label, Team Love, have introduced the Team Love Library. Amid all the debate regarding illegal downloads, the impending death of the music industry and the moral ambiguity of the whole damn piracy issue, Team Love have took an admirable step in creating a library of free downloads for their roster of artists.

From their website;

"Each month (or so) we’ll be rotating the Library’s selections, featuring different Team Love albums as well as exclusive content such as unreleased songs, live or remixed versions of TL favorites.

The library will be open to the public 24/7, and as we have an endless abundance of MP3’s (we fucked up and made too many of them), anything you take from the library is yours to keep. You will not be notified if you fail to return something on time, and you will not lose your library privileges if you share selections with friends."

In my eyes this is a step in the right direction for music. Labels need to be aware of, and embrace, the mixtape/bootleg ethic that make finding new music such a thrill. The joy of finding something rare and sharing it with friends.

Especially with the Furries, however, I am very conscious of the fact that they rely on fans for their living and I want to support them in any way I can. If the fans didn't help to keep them going, they wouldn't be able to provide us with the music we love. So I don't download bootlegs or pirate versions of any music. As a result, I'm very grateful that a label (even just a small indie label) has given free access to new music, unreleased tracks, remixes etc. After all, it all helps to build a fan base for new bands or strengthen the fan base of established acts. I might download something for free now, like what I hear and later purchase more of the artists work. It's like a free taster (tell him it's ok, we learn this way). It's the future, man!

Anyway... the point of this post is that in the future there may be some Gruff-related goodies available for free on the library. Unfortunately, from what I've read, it looks like only US residents will benefit from any free Gruff releases. As Candylion was released on Rough Trade in the UK, Team Love can't release any tracks from the album to UK residents (I'm guessing that includes unreleased tracks and remixes as well).

Ah well. C'est la vie.

Access the library here;

Team Love Library