Artist of the Month Franz Ferdinand

Franz Ferdinand has been selected as our August Artist of the Month and will be performing in Phoenix on August 22 supporting Green Day.   Fan reviews have been poping up all over the internet since they started their supporting role of this tour, and it appears that Franz Ferdinand lives up to their 2006 NME award for’ Best Live Band’, which makes From the Crowd even more excited for the upcoming concert.

Formed in Glasgow, Scotland the band is composed of Alex Kapranos (lead vocals and guitar), Bob Hardy (bass guitar), Nick McCarthy (rhythm guitar, keyboards and backing vocals) and Paul Thomson (drums, percussion and backing vocals).  The band is named after the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, whose assassination preceded World War I.  The band picked it after seeing a racehorse called The Archduke Ferdinand. They began discussing the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria assassination and World War I and eventually decided to use the name as their band name

You might be thinking, this band sounds familiar, and they should be.  In January, they released their third album, “Tonight: Franz Ferdinand” which debut at #9 on the Billboard charts. Anything?  Their sophomore album, “You Could Have It So Much Better” also hit it big on the Billboard charts in 2005. Ok, remember that song in 2004 that had everyone seeing ‘I donno’ and then bopping around, well maybe that was just us, however, this Scottish rock band hit it big that year with single ”Take Me Out”.  The addictive beat and lyrics helped them cross across the pond to become fairly main stream here in the states.  If this still doesn’t ring any bells, you might remember their performance at the Grammy Awards in 2005 where they performed “Take Me Out” as a live medley with Los Lonely Boys, Maroon 5, Black Eyed Peas and Gwen Stefani. Still not there, play guitar hero? “Take Me Out” is a featured song.  Yes…  see you do know them.

Coming back to present day,  “Cant Stop Feeling”  is the third single to recently hit the airways, released on 6 July.  You can hear it playing on 103.9 in Phoenix.  Then again, just go out and grab their latest CD, you won’t be disappointed.  Better yet, grab a ticket to the concert on August 22.  Two great bands in one night?  Well worth the price.

We will be sure to link our concert review and photos shortly after the August 22 performance.  In the mean time, here is the Franz Ferdinand official bio, to provide you with a more intimate look at the band:

The marquee of a theatre before a show.

It’s music of the night: to fling yourself around your room to as you psyche yourself for an evening of hedonism, for the dance-floor, flirtation, for your desolate heart-stop, for losing it and loving losing it, for the chemical surge in your bloodstream. It’s for that lonely hour gently rocking yourself, waiting for dawn and it all to be even again.

By the end of 2006 we were exhausted – physically, emotionally and creatively. We’d been in the studio or on the road for three years without a break and we needed one. Alex went to Vancouver with the Cribs, Paul raised a family, Bob made a film and Nick disappeared in South America. We met up again in Glasgow a few months later, happy to be in each other’s company and excited about creating something new.

Nick found a building for our HQ. He has a knack for it. It was a crumbling Victorian town hall, recently vacated by the drug rehabilitation unit that was the last tenant. The flock wallpaper was peeling a little and the psychedelic municipal carpet was browned with fifty years of council nicotine, but the vibe was great and the monthly rent was half the daily rate of a London studio. There was a noise complaint from the nearby home for the deaf after our first session, but after we blocked the windows with fibreglass and rockwall nobody knew we were there. Daylight disappeared and night became permanent. We didn’t notice it, but the mood of the record began to form.

We started writing, but there wasn’t a plan. There has never been a plan. As we wrote songs, we played them out at gigs – not huge gigs, but sweaty pub basements and social clubs, keeping it word of mouth and chaotic, giving the new music room to live or die. You don’t realise what’s good about a song until you play it to people. You also don’t know if a song’s crap until you play it to people. ‘Anyone In Love’ died in the Captain’s Rest, but Turn It On turned us on. ‘English Goodbye’ died in the British Aluminium Club, Fort William, but Ulysses became something more than it was when we left Glasgow.

We spent a few days with Brian Higgins and his Xenomania team in Kent. We enjoyed the time and it was inspiring, but it became clear to both of us that we shouldn’t make a record together. Our worlds are too different.

The HQ evolved into a studio with the help of Paul Savage. Paul was drummer of the Delgadoes and the engineer at Chem 19, the Chemikal Underground studio in Glasgow. We brought over an old Flickinger console that Bill Skibbe found for us in Michigan and Allen Johnston wired the rooms.

Then we met Dan Carey. He was perfect as a producer – a mad mixer, a chaotic experimenter. Recording with him is like breaking into a science lab with a mischievous brainbox who wants to see what we can blow up. We had a laugh.

Nick climbed into the rafters of the hall to hang a mic from a thirty foot cable which Dan swung across an amp kicked over and feeding back from Alex’s guitar, so we could warp the sound with the Doppler effect of a passing racing car or a diving spitfire on What She Came For. A gaggle of obscure and long forgotten 70′s synths were mobilised for the likes of Can’t Stop Feeling & Lucid Dreams. Superslinkies hung from the ceiling as primitive spring reverb. Sometimes, on the likes of Live Alone, we’d go super hi-fi and tight in the dead room, then, on tracks like Send Him Away we’d rock out in the cellar under the stage, playing to one mic, so it sounded like it was just you and the band in the room when you played the tape back. We rattled human bones for percussion on No You Girls and sang into the darkness, nothing for company apart from the tingle on your spine and the ghosts of the Saturday night dancing.

Anyway, here it is. Tonight: Franz Ferdinand. You can listen to it quiet, but it’s better loud. You can listen to it

A Green Day for Green Day! Tickets on Sale Today

Photo Credit: Maria Chavez

MAY 8 DECLARED “A GREEN DAY FOR GREEN DAY”

 

TICKETS ON SALE TODAY AT 10AM FOR GREEN DAY

US AIRWAYS CENTER – AUGUST 22

 

Phoenix Show Buy Tickets at www.livenation.com, All others buy at Ticketmaster.com

US Airways Box Office, all Ticketmaster Outlets or call 1-800-745-3000

 Mayor Phil Gordon has proclaimed today, May 8, A GREEN DAY FOR GREEN DAY.  A GREEN DAY FOR GREEN DAY is in honor of tickets going on sale for the Grammy Award winning rock band, Green Day who are set to perform at US Airways Center on August 22 and is an effort to help educate the people of Phoenix on the ways to reduce their impact on the environment and to help make for a greener Phoenix. Fans and residents of Phoenix are encouraged to participate in the following eco-friendly acts that will help continue in the efforts to make Phoenix America’s Greenest City.

 Use Alternative Transportation such as Light Rail or Phoenix Metro System:

Carbon emissions from vehicles are one of the worst causes of global warming. A short travel from your home to work may not seem to be a big polluter, but in reality a drive of about 10 miles emits around 19 pounds of carbon dioxide into the air; and when multiplied by the number of daily car users, the number is astronomical. Taking alternate transportation will not only help the environment but will also help you in saving money.

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle:

Reduce the amount of waste produced; Reuse the item, or find someone who can use it; Recycle the product so that our valuable natural resources can be used again and again. These three R’s not only help us reduce the amount of trash we produce, increase the life cycle of products but also help us to reduce our carbon footprint.

Change from incandescent light bulbs to fluorescent light bulbs:

This can prevent carbon emissions equivalent to that of more than 800,000 cars. If even one incandescent bulb is replaced with a compact fluorescent light in every house.

Plant a tree, grass or shrubs:

Planting trees is the best way to go environmentally green as they absorb carbon- dioxide from the environment. Planting trees also help in preventing soil erosion.

Conserve Water:

In a 10- minute shower we consume up to 50 gallons i.e. 189 liters of water. Choose a short shower and you will save up to 200 liters of water, run full loads in your dishwasher and washing machines and make little repairs in your house such as a leaky valve or toilet, which can save more than 500 gallons a year.

Green Day’s Billy Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool have chosen to bring their first tour in three years to US Airways Center in Phoenix, a venue and a city that continue to implement environmentally friendly practices. US Airways Center has purchased Green E-Certified carbon offsets equivalent to the amount of energy needed to power US Airways Center the evening of the Green Day performance on August 22. Below is a list of the many other changes that have been implemented at US Airways Center and throughout the City of Phoenix.

 

 ·         Launched recycling program throughout the venue in December 2009.

·         Development of solar project to be operational in 2009.

 ·         One hundred percent recycling throughout US Airways Center, Phoenix Suns, Phoenix Mercury, and Phoenix RoadRunners offices.

·         All lighting in the US Airways Center parking garage was replaced with an energy-efficient motion activated system in 2007.

·         All exit signage in the parking garage has been replaced with LED lighting.

·         Initiated a carpooling incentive program which encourages employees to take public transportation or carpool.

·         The building cleaning product supplier, Maintenance Mart has put into action a number of “green” practices throughout the building to reduce the impact on the environment, including:

 

o        Using coreless toilet tissue with larger rolls of toilet tissue (with recycled content of 20%)

 

o        Installing hands free towel dispensers with larger hand towel rolls (with recycled content of 40%)

 

o        Using recycled cleaning tools with bamboo handles, instead of hardwood

 

 

 ·         The new Phoenix Convention Center has a 100 kW solar photovoltaic system on its roof.  The system provides power directly into the facility and is designed to offset power purchased from the utility. Inside the Convention Center, they even have chairs made from recycled seat belts.

 

·         Phoenix has the largest alternative fuels fleet in Arizona.

 

·         Phoenix celebrated the opening of the light rail in 2008; taking cars off of the street and improving our air quality. The 20-mile Metro Rail system opened in December on-time and on-budget, and daily ridership numbers have exceeded expectations by over 50 percent.

 

·         The Public Transit Department operates over 3,555 Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) buses, representing 71 percent of the bus fleet.  The Aviation Department’s inter-terminal and rental car center bus fleets are 100 percent compressed natural gas (CNG).

 

·          919 out of the City’s 1,069 traffic signals have one or more LED lamps for the signal head indications. The City been installing LED lamps for the traffic signal heads for about 10 years.

 

 

Help maintain the vision to make Phoenix America’s Greenest City!