Yes, it's true! The Furries have signed a deal to distribute their albums in the USA with Flydaddy Records. This means that they are on not one but two super cool record labels. Their UK company, Creation has been home to bands like My Bloody Valentine, the Boo Radleys and Teenage Fanclub. With Flydaddy, the Furries join the ranks of the US indie elite by being labelmates with the Bevis Frond and Olivia Tremor Control. Radiohead, on the other hand, are on Parlophone, who apparently had some band called The Beetles on their roster at some point (I believe they were a Monkees rip-off band or something...).
Radiohead fans who haven't read a lot like to make a big deal about how deep Thom Yorke's lyrics are. I'm not saying that RH's lyrics aren't great but c'mon...they're so modernist. SFA are postmodern. This means that the Furries can lighten up and have fun!! Just look at their song "Hermann Loves Pauline" - it manages to namedrop Marie Curie, Einstein's parents, Che Guevara and still have time to rip off the guitar line from David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold The World". Other deep thinkers the Furries have referenced include Bertrand Russell, Isaac Newton and Stavros the hamster.
Thom Yorke of Radiohead spells "Tom" funny. SFA's lead singer is named Gruff (Pronounced "Griff"), which is much cooler. Actually, since SFA are Welsh they all have wonderful names like Daf, Cian, Guto and Bunf!
It was blue, with the words "Is Their Peace?" painted on in Welsh. Sadly, they had to sell it. It now belongs to Don Henley of the Eagles. See the tank!
Alright, so the
Radiohead website is neat
in a frustratingly ironic kinda way. But
OK Computer's
cover art
looks like a six-year-old child's school project
that the dog peed on. Certainly Radiohead's b-side collection
Airbag/How Am I Driving? had a nifty inlay with lots of
weird questions but the SFA b-side album Outspaced
came in molded rubber cd case designed by
Pete Fowler. Wicked!!
The Furries are in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the longest record title for their EP, "Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogrychwyrndrobllantysiliogogogocyndofod (In Space)". Also, their song "The Man Don't Give a Fuck" had the word "fuck" repeated over 50 times, making it the most profane single in British history. AND it charted! (I know that some gansta rapper probably released a song with more f-words than that but "The Man" was good!)
Nuff said...
The Super Furry Animals are never called "the new" anything! This is because they are the Super Furry Animals!! They sound like themselves.
I've been told that Thom Yorke sings in English but for the life of me I can't make out what he's saying without a lyrics sheet. With SFA it doesn't matter! Unless you're Welsh you can't understand it anyway!
Radiohead has been involved with hip electronica types like DJ Shadow and Massive Attack. The Super Furry Animals don't need to associate themselves with these people. In fact, SFA grew out of techno band before morphin' into the loveable rock band we know them as today! SFA are practically the band around today who can mix techno and rock and not make arses of themselves.