In the post-punk scene, The Psychedelic Furs were a truly special band. Sounding like David Bowie (with a kinda sexy sore throat after too many smokes) fronting a punk band, they enjoyed mainstream success mantaining credibility and a rock sound at a time when 'rock-ism' was an offence. The songs kept an alternative attitude, but had a great talent for accessible tunes, a powerful deep bass, acid noise guitars and most of all a fabulous saxophone player. Their self-titled debut album remains a masterpiece more than 25 years later and still sounds fresh. An interesting frontman, an interesting sound, songs balanced between the innovative and the commercial, the hits came with Sister Europe, Pretty In Pink and Love My Way...
In the late 80s the Furs started having a tough time in a scene which was rapidly evolving and the cruel mainstream system didn't wait too long to reject them. Richard Butler founded Love Spit Love but while the scene kept changing the cult of The Psychedelic Furs didn't cease, it did increase actually. Successful artists like Annie Lennox and Elvis Costello, established and emerging bands like Buffalo Tom, Counting Crows and The Rapture, and a techno guru like William Orbit, they all covered the Furs' songs. The mainstream realised that while they weren't going to sell like in their golden years they still had a considerable following and so their albums got reissued and the band reunited for a tour.
Butler, though, never gave up the idea of a solo career. After a couple of soundtracks, in 2004 he recorded a song for the ironic Johnny Bravo cartoon with Vince Clark from Erasure. Nothing strange if you think 20 years before he was doing synth-pop versions of Kurt Weill's The Three Penny Opera. How cool is daring to be so different?
This year finally sees the release of his debut solo album, simply self-titled Richard Butler (out April 18th), on Kock Records, one of the biggest and most varied indie labels in America (Ringo Starr, Howard Jones, The Kinks' reissues, classical, jazz, country, rap, and... Barney the cartoon!). What we can hear so far is really promising, emotional music and a sophisticated sound for sensitive lyrics and just a more intimate feel than The Psychedelic Furs. Butler wrote and produced the record with Jon Carin, a musician who worked with artists like Bryan Ferry and David Gilmour, and says he had a great influence on this sound.
You can hear the excellent single Good Days Bad Days streaming from a special page on his site, Richard Butler Online.
There's also a contest where you can win handwritten lyrics (framed and signed, with a CD cover), signed promo singles and signed photos.
Check also Richard Butler on MySpace, where you can hear three songs streaming: the single (you also find the breath-taking lyrics, dealing with the concept of undoing your life, rewinding back everything, with words like 'I want to unread every book that my eyes laid on, unsay everything I've said'), Broken Aeroplanes and most of all the amazing California, a touching song with a wonderful keyboard which could be on Bowie and Eno's Low if it was made today.
The Psychedelic Furs site Burned Down Days is also recommended. In the media section you'll find the covers by Costello etc. I've mentioned above and another page with Richard Butler's acoustic sets, interviews, soundtracks and yes, that Kurt Weill song and even that Johnny Bravo thing.
No comments :
Post a Comment