Listen: Franz Ferdinand drop ‘Lazy Boy’

With a few short weeks until the release of their fifth studio album, Always Ascending, Franz Ferdinand have returned to treat fans to another new song from the impending record. On Thursday (Jan. 25), the Scottish band unleashed the audio for their latest single, “Lazy Boy.” Listen to the almost three-minute track above.

“Lazy Boy” will join previously released tracks “Feel the Love Go” and lead single/title track “Always Ascending” on the band’s upcoming new album. Always Ascending is set to be released on Feb. 9 through the group’s longtime home of Domino Records. Pre-orders for Always Ascending are currently available on the band’s website here.

Always Ascending will mark the band’s first record without founding guitarist, Nick McCarthy. McCarthy left the band back in July of 2016 to focus on his family and other musical projects. In 2017, before announcing their fifth studio album, the group confirmed the addition of Dino Bardot on guitar and Julian Corrie on keyboards, synth, and guitar.

In support of Always Ascending’s release, the newly revamped band will hit the road in the spring for their North American tour. Franz Ferdinand’s upcoming North American trek will kick off on April 8, 2018 at Rebel in Toronto, Ontario and wrap up over a month later on May 17 at the Fox Theatre in Oakland, California. The complete tour itinerary can be seen here while tickets are currently available on the band’s website.

Franz Ferdinand confirms release of fifth studio album with new song

Earlier this week, Franz Ferdinand took to social media to tease that something big would be announced before the end of the week. Taking to Twitter on Monday (Oct. 23), the group posted a ten-second clip with the date “25.10.17” flashing against a black background while some music played in the back. The band accompanied the short clip with the caption “ARE YOU READY?” On Wednesday (Oct. 25), the Glasgow-based band confirmed the release of their fifth studio album, Always Ascending. The new record, which will feature a total of ten new tracks, is scheduled to be released on Feb. 9, 2018 through the band’s longtime home of Domino Records.

According to a press release on behalf of the band, the new set of songs is “a triumphant recasting of the group, bursting with fresh ideas and vigorous sonic experimentation.” In addition to confirming the name and the release date of the impending album, Franz Ferdinand has also given fans the first taste of the new LP by release its lead single and title track, “Always Ascending.” Listen to “Always Ascending” above.

Pre-orders for Always Ascending are currently available on the band’s website here.

To celebrate the massive good news, the band has also announced that they will be hosting a Facebook Live stream later today. The stream will go live beginning at 3:30 p.m. EST/12:30 p.m. PST and will be broadcast from Paris’ Point Ephémère. During the live-stream, the band will reportedly preview a selection of their new recordings.

In support of Always Ascending’s release the band previously unveiled a slew of North American tour dates. Franz Ferdinand’s North American tour will kick off on April 8, 2018 at Rebel in Toronto, Ontario and wrap up over a month later on May 17 at the Fox Theatre in Oakland, California. Tickets for the upcoming tour will go on sale beginning this Friday, Oct. 27. The complete list of spring 2018 tour dates can be seen below.

FRANZ FERDINAND SPRING 2018 TOUR DATES:

April 8 – Toronto, ON – Rebel
April 10 – Boston, MA – House of Blues
April 11 – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
April 13 – Philadelphia, PA – The Fillmore
April 16 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Steel
April 27 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
April 28 – Kansas City, MO – The Truman
April 30 – Milwaukee, WI – The Rave
May 2 – St. Louis, MO – The Pageant
May 7 – Dallas, TX – House of Blues
May 8 – Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall
May 11 – Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren
May 13 – San Diego, CA – North Park @ The Observatory
May 15 – Los Angeles, CA – The Wiltern
May 17 – Oakland, CA – The Fox Theatre

Governors Ball Music Festival announces 2017 lineup

A day after Coachella unveiled its star-studded and genre-bending lineup, New York City’s Governors Ball has followed suit. On Wednesday (Jan. 4), festival organizers unveiled the complete artists list for the 2017 edition of the weekend-long music festival. As previously reported Tool will headline the event, marking the group’s first official comeback show. The band’s performance confirmation comes after weeks of rumors and speculations. Phoenix, Cage the Elephant, Franz Ferdinand, Bleachers, Local Natives, The Strumbellas, Saint Motel and others are just some of the many artists who will also perform during the weekend.

Like previous years, the lineup will include a little bit to satisfy everyone’s music taste. Chance the Rapper, Childish Gambino, Wiz Khalifa, Wu-Tang Clan, Lorde, Charli XCX, Flume, Mark Ronson vs. Kevin Parker, Tove Lo, Phantogram,  Rae Sremmurd, The Head and the Heart, Banks and others will also perform at the Governors Ball.

Tickets for the weekend-long event will go on sale beginning this Friday, Jan. 6 at noon, EST. While ticket sales are currently not available, those interested in purchasing passes can take a look at the several options that will be offered on the festival’s website here. Governors Ball will return to its home of Randall’s Island Park during the weekend of June 2-4. For now, the complete lineup for the music festival can be seen below.

Artist Come Together to Support ‘Music Without Barriers’

Going to concerts and seeing our favorite artists in the flesh is something that many, if not all, music fans live for. Sadly, not every music fans can make it to a show and completely relish in the moment because some are deaf or handicap. Though there has been many improvements to help include these normally isolated music fans, there is probably other things that can be done to help include them.

Now, some musicians are joining forces for a campaign to help improve gig access for deaf and disabled music fans.

The online campaign, “Music Without Barriers” is led by the charity, Attitude is  Everything which works to improve deaf and disabled people’s access to live music.

Their new mission is to get U.K. venues and festivals to join the 90-plus who already have, to become invested in the charity’s “Charter of Best Practice.”

The “Charter of Best Practice” encourages event producers to go beyond the basic legal requirements to ensure disabled access to gigs. They also yearn to promote four key principles: that improving access to gigs and festivals doesn’t have to be expensive; that there is a strong business case for improving access; that it’s vital deaf and disabled fans have access to information before events; and to lose the assumption that all disabled people are wheelchair users.

This new mission has gotten major support from some of music’s well-known artists such as The Cure’s Robert Smith, Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos, Alt-J, Frank Turner, Enter Shikari and many more.

Time to step up your game, USA.

Stream Franz Ferdinand’s New Album

A few months back, Franz Ferdinand had given us two new songs that would be featured on their new album, Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action. A few weeks after that, the Glasgow-based band released the music video for “Love Illuminations,” their first new music video in several year.

Now, the band have made their entire album available for streaming over at NPR.

In a recent interview with The Observer, frontman Alex Kapranos, considered disbanding the group after their 2009 tour for their album, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand. In the midst of his decision, Kapranos met up with bassist, Bob Hardy, to discuss the future of the band.

“I wanted to split the band up, because in my head it felt like one of those jobs . . . the ones I had to jack in. I didn’t like the routine and the obligations,” Kapranos explained. ” And whether those obligations lay with my contemporaries, my peers, my record label, the fans, the audiences – or maybe myself . . . I felt . . . It was time to, erm, stop that.”

For some, the band had managed to make a heck of a splash in the world of music, finding themselves in MTV2’s countdowns and going from being a small UK-based band, to being a pretty big group in the US. One thing was sure for their long-tern record label, Domino; they were not ready for the amount of success the band would get over seas.

At the time, Domino was a small label and only had about three people working ta the office in the Us; not enough to help control the popularity Franz Ferdinand had garnered. They ended up on a major label where some payola accusations were thrown around.

In the interview, Kapranos touches base about that incident, “I was like, ‘Fucking hell, here we are in court on some payola charge’ . . . It was exactly the opposite of what I wanted to be as a band.”

While that was happening, things weren’t exactly sparkly rainbows and sunshine in Kapranos’ life; apparently he had been miserable the entire time resulting for the payola incident. Rumor also had it that his split from then-girlfriend Eleanor Friedberger of the Fiery Furnances did not help, but that didn’t mean it was all bad.

At that time, he had been writing a food column for The Guardian and even got to write a book. Guitarist, Nick McCarthy even felt the doom cloud over them during that time. ” I just came down heavily with depression, I think. I just thought, ‘Eurrgh, can’t play music any more.’ Couldn’t stand it. We’d sucked ourselves dry.”

But things don’t look to be that dark and depressing anymore, it seems like all the dark clouds have blown away and the band are back to take on the indie scene by storm once again with their unique, artist take on music videos and the oddity that is their music.

There had to have been a reason they came out of nowhere with “Take Me Out” and managed to stay for a while.

Franz Ferdinand Release Music Video

A few weeks back, Franz Ferdinand released two tracks for excited fans, one of them being the song that would eventually become the first single off their new album,  Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action.

The audio for the new track titled, “Love Illumination” was released weeks ago, but today the band have released the official music video for it. Tim Saccenti directed the video which features a laundry list of weird things including animal masks, weird choreography, people dressed in geometric shapes (who knows why), and nudity (maybe we should label this NSFW?).

Anyways, you can check out the new video/song below.

Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action is out August 26 in the UK and August 27 in the U.S. though Domino Records.

Franz Ferdinand Release Two New Songs

Yesterday, everyone was happy when the Supreme Court ruled that DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) was ruled unconstitutional. Some celebrated, some like Dax Shepherd and Kristen Bell officially got engaged, some gays started planning their long overdue weddings and then there’s Franz Ferdinand that premiere two new songs just in time for the occasion.

The two song are titled, “Right Action” and “Love Illumination” are set to appear in the band’s upcoming album, Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, due out on August 23. This will be the band’s first new album since 2007’s Tonight: Franz Ferdinand.

Videos for both the songs can be seen below.

“Right Action”

“Love Illumination”