The Futureheads Biography

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Biography The Futureheads

The Futureheads


The Futureheads are a four-piece English indie rock band from Sunderland. Their name comes from the title of the The Flaming Lips record Hit to Death in the Future Head.

Biography

The band began as a trio of Barry Hyde (vocals and guitar), Jaff (bass), and Peter Brewis (drums). Ross Millard (vocals and guitar) joined soon after having been in a band with Jaff in college. They used the Sunderland City Detached Youth Project building (where Brewis and Hyde worked) as a free practice space, fitting since the project was intended to get young people off the streets by using music. They first performed in 2000, and through word-of-mouth their reputation in the local area grew. Hyde's younger brother Dave (who replaced Brewis, who went on to join fellow north east rockers Field Music) joined later, and their first single was released in 2002.

In an interview with Channel 4?s 4Music, Barry revealed that Dave was given a gold guitar by his parents when he was young. But Barry had taken it off him to learn to strum his first chords. Dave was left with nothing, forcing him to take up the drums.

The Futureheads released their self-titled debut album in September 2004. Five tracks on this record were produced by Andy Gill of Gang of Four. Their music has been described by some as energetic, witty, and cheerful in style. The song "Decent Days And Nights" from the album was featured in the videogame soundtrack to Burnout 3 on PlayStation 2 and Xbox as well as EA's Rugby 2005.

In February 2005, "Hounds of Love", a cover of a Kate Bush song, was released as a single in the UK charts. It reached Number 8 in its first week. It was named best single of 2005 by NME. The band recently toured the US and later supported the Pixies, Foo Fighters and Snow Patrol on their most recent UK tour.

They performed at BBC Radio One's One Big Weekend, held in their home town of Sunderland over the weekend of 7-8 May 2005. 8 May 2005 also happened to be the day Sunderland A.F.C. were to pick up the Coca-Cola Championship trophy on the final day of the 2004-5 season. In tribute, the Futureheads performed a set live at the Stadium of Light as pre-match entertainment.

A stand-alone EP "Area" was released in November 2005 while the band were working on their second album News and Tributes (name inspired by the Munich air disaster in 1958), which, according to NME in February 2006, took only five weeks to produce. The first single from the album was Skip to the End released on May 15. The album News and Tributes was first released on June 13, 2006.

The Futureheads were dropped by their label in November 2006. They have said they are pleased about this because it gives them more freedom as a band, and they have the opportunity to find greener pastures.

In June 2007, they reportedly completed work on a third album, which is expected to be released early 2008. Ross Millard from the band said that the new album is expected to be punkier than the last album. He also revealed that the band were close to splitting during the time after the second album was released.

The band made a free download called "Broke Up The Time" available from their website on November 9, 2007. They also announced 3 gigs in the U.K followed by a full U.K tour and are now signed to Fantastic Plastic Records. In December 2007, as a Christmas treat for fans the band released a video of them walking around Sunderland City Centre, single the forthcoming single The Beginning of the Twist. It was also acompanied by a free download of a song called Crash.

Musical style

The band is influenced by New Wave and Post-punk bands such like Kate Bush, Devo, XTC, The Jam and the Post-hardcore of Fugazi.

The Futureheads abuse of Telecaster's angular sound, the guitars have a extremely twangy sound, very common on Gang Of Four and Fugazi songs. Other characteristics of Futureheads are the herky-jerky beats (a lot of differents catchy beats on the same song) and the backing vocals high appearance.

Dado Villa-Lobos, ex-guitarrist of Legião Urbana in a interview do Rede Globo described the band as "a arena rock band playing math-post-punk-pop band"

Discography

Albums

  • The Futureheads (July 12, 2004) 679 Recordings #11 UK
  • News and Tributes (May 29, 2006) 679 Recordings #12 UK
  • TBA (early 2008)


EPs

  • Nul Book Standard EP (2002) Project Cosmonaut
  • 1-2-3-Nul! EP (2003) Fantastic Plastic Records
  • Area EP (November 28, 2005) 679 Recordings


Singles



Free Downloads

  • Broke Up The Time


Compilations

  • Mix 4 (2005 · Warner Bros./Wea)
  • Grandma's Boy Original Soundtrack with the song "Meantime".


External links



English indie rock groupsEnglish musical groupsFantastic Plastic Records

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The Futureheads
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