Alex Blog Entries

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== FranzFerdinand.co.uk ==
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=== Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Radio On
A couple of weeks ago we recorded a cover for a Radio One compilation. Contemporary bands were asked to cover a song from each year of Radio One's forty-year history. We were asked to choose a song from '77. It was an incredible year for music which, in a way, made it harder for us to choose. At one extreme you have God Save The Queen, at the other I Feel Love. While we love those songs, they are almost impossible to cover as those versions are so established in our consciousness. Eventually, we chose Sound And Vision by David Bowie. This song came from a period when he wasn't as much a resident of the pop charts as he would be a couple of years later with Ashes To Ashes and Let's Dance, or as he was a few years earlier with Rebel Rebel or John I'm Only Dancing, but it's a side of 1977 that had a massive impact on music that was to come. It's not always the music that makes the biggest noise when it appears to have any worthwhile impact on our memories.
So we went down to England to record with the guys from Xenomania. They have been behind some of the most adventurous and fun songs that have appeared in British charts over the past few years, courtesy of Sugababes and Girls Aloud, subverting and pushing our ideas of what pop is. It was a good laugh and ended up being pretty informal – just the four of us playing live in Brian's living room and recording that way. Of course, it doesn't sound like the Bowie original (again I'm afraid it's untouchable) but that's not the point of this sort of thing is it? You're not trying to better the original, just bring a new angle to it and, well - have a bit of fun. I'm curious to see what the other groups have done. Kylie and Calvin. That's got to be worth a listen.
Nick and I played a few acoustic songs at the premier of Hallam Foe in Edinburgh on Wednesday. We sang a couple of oldies – Dark Of The Matinee and Jacqueline, Hallam Foe and the new song Katharine Kiss Me. There was a distinctly surreal moment when I looked up to see a shockingly glamorous Tilda Swinton dancing along.
Alright, back to the new songbook.
Laters,
Alex
PS I don't know who put up that embarrassing bulletin on the ff.co.uk site. It wasn't anyone in the band. Fortunately we still have the keys to turn the bloody thing off. ===
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