Future_of_the_Left

Future of the Left

Future of the Left is an alternative rock supergroup based in Cardiff, Wales.

Members

It consists of singer/guitarist Andy "Falco" Falkous and drummer Jack Egglestone, both previously of Cardiff band mclusky, alongside singer/bassist Kelson Mathias, formerly of the Ammanford-based group Jarcrew. The band previously featured Hywel Evans, who has since gone on to start one of Cardiff's only notable math-rock bands, Truckers of Husk - he was also a former member of Jarcrew towards the end of Jarcrew's tenure, replacing fired bassist Ben Milner (Evans is also credited as a writer on Fingers Become Thumbs' B-side, The Fibre Provider). The band formed in mid-2005 after both Mclusky and Jarcrew split up within two months of each other at the beginning of the year - this was due to tensions within both bands. The band were signed to Too Pure who had also signed Mclusky, however the umbrella company Beggars Group disbanded Too Pure transferring the band to 4AD; most famous for signing the Pixies in the mid eighties.

First performance

Future of the Left played their first concert at Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff on the 2nd of July 2006. They used the alias the Mooks of Passim to avoid the concert being attended by large numbers of expectant mclusky and Jarcrew fans. Further secret gigs occurred with the band using aliases such as Guerilla Press and Dead Redneck. The first official headline show (and the first show the band played under the name Future of the Left) was played in Camden Barfly to a capacity crowd on September 1st, 2006 (it was also the only show of the tour - which hit Southampton, Bath, Brighton and the band's hometown of Cardiff - to sell out; the Cardiff show was inexplicably ill-attended, possibly why Andrew Falkous later went on to call it "[their] worst show so far" in a MySpace blog entry).

Myspace

The group have posted songs on their MySpace account - Falco has also taken full advantage of MySpace as a communication medium, frequently posting blog entries with his thoughts on past shows, political situations and incidents from his youth that he feels are worth sharing with the band's fanbase.

Singles

The band released their debut single, the double A-side "Fingers Become Thumbs/The Lord Hates A Coward" (along with B-side The Fibre Provider) on 7" vinyl on 29 January 2007 in extremely limited quantities. A Too Pure newsletter sent out in March announced that the Future of the Left live set-closer "adeadenemyalwayssmellsgood..." would feature on a split 7" alongside Fierce Panda Records' Winnebago Deal on May 10th. However, Falco stated that it would only happen "over [his] dead body".

The song was released as a 7" single on June 4th 2007, however it was not split with Winnebago Deal, or anyone for that matter; the B-side was a BBC Radio Wales session track entitled "March Of The Coupon Saints".

On September 10th, the band released Small Bones Small Bodies as a single on 7" vinyl (with The Big Wide O - a former MySpace demo - and I Need To Know How To Kill A Cat as B-sides).

Debut album

Their debut album, Curses, was released on September 24th, 2007 in the UK and October 1st in Japan. A surprise to some fans of Jarcrew and mclusky was the band's occasional move towards songs with a synthesizer, namely a Roland Juno-60, in favour of Falco's guitar - this has been met with mixed reactions both live and on record, but reviews

and discussions on the band's messageboard have, on the whole, been extremely positive (including some lucrative - and favourable - coverage from the NME, who have been surprisingly complimentary about the group when considering their apathy towards the members' prior groups). On August 8th 2007, Too Pure released a podcast of Falco discussing Curses - as well as his opinion on a number of other topics - with Radio Wales DJ Huw Stevens.

After Curses

Falkous revealed in an early 2008 online blog entry that work had commenced on the second album - new material began to creep into the band's live performances, including a number of songs that feature distinctively more ambitious use of Falkous' synthesizer. The band's bolstered profile with the NME led to the group being invited onto the bill of the NME Awards tour, supporting Les Savy Fav at London Astoria.

On a tour of Australia, the band surprised one audience with a cover of signature mclusky track Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues - the performance was recorded and a video appeared on YouTube shortly afterwards.

On April 8th 2008, their fourth single "Manchasm" was released (with album track "Suddenly It's A Folk Song" and new recording "Sum Of All Parts" as B-sides), receiving a single of the week recommendation from the NME.

They appeared at the Reading and Leeds Festival's on the NME/Radio 1 stage on Friday 22nd and Saturday 23rd of August. The band is touring in the United States with Against Me! and Ted Leo and the Pharmacists till the end of October 2008.