Monday, January 17, 2011

Check out the new look Future of the Left

At the top of my list of live shows from the last year or two is the evening I spent with about 50 other people at Local 506 in Chapel Hill seeing Andy Falkous's post-Mclusky project Future of the Left. They were touring on their second fantastic album, "Travels With Myself and Another", which made all the best of lists for 2009. I was disappointed to learn a few months ago that FoTL's bass player, Kelson Matthias, was no longer in the band. Heck, they seemed to get along pretty well -- their on-stage banter was hilarious. And they didn't vent any disappointment in the sparse turnout on those of us who did show up. Just a great show.

Anyway, Falco has gone out and picked up not only another bassist, but another guitarist as well, and the result, as shown on this nice quality vid below, is a pretty dang beefed up sound. The show is from just a couple of weeks ago in Sydney, and if you follow the video to youtube you'll find the rest of the set. They play several new songs, and it doesn't sound like they've lost any of their edge. Falkous hasn't grown tired of erupting into guttural screams where lyrics used to be, and I haven't tired of listening to it. He's the most original voice in punk music in at least the last ten years.



Oh, and here's Future of the Left doing a Mclusky cover. Why wouldn't they?



And what the hell, we all know Japandroids is a great band, as they demonstrate here by doing the same song, which you can hear in stereophonic glory on the 'No Singles' comp. It's a halfway decent recording, with fewer than 300 views.



Website: Future of the Left Myspace

Website: Japandroids

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