(Paris) Franz Ferdinand, one of the bands that put rock back on the music map in the 2000s, is releasing its best of : the opportunity to look back on his journey, from the independent circuit to the fashion shows.
Posted yesterday at 11:14 a.m.
Having Franz Ferdinand as his stage name (the assassination of the heir archduke of the Austro-Hungarian Empire Franz Ferdinand in June 1914 was a trigger for the First World War), while the guns resounded again on the Old Continent, is a funny nod to history.
But the British group was one of the first on the international scene to cancel its shows in Russia this summer “for one reason only, this invasion of Ukraine by the Russian state”, can we read on its social networks.
The group’s leader and guitarist, Alex Kapranos, makes a clear distinction on his networks between the administration of Vladimir Putin, whom he denounces, and the cultural heritage of Russia, “this great country which inspired our group through its art and its literature.
The cover of their second album, You could have it so much better (2005), like that of their best of Hits to the headscheduled for Friday, have Russian constructivism as a reference.
Hedi Slimane, Olivier Rousteing
Very quickly, their penchant for art earned them recognition outside of the indie rock circuit alone. Around the time of their self-titled debut album in 2004, photographer and stylist Hedi Slimane documented their debut. And last year, it was Olivier Rousteing, stylist for Balmain, who invited the group to perform in concert at a fashion show in Paris.
But how did it all start? To see them on stage outside the UK in their early days, you had to, as so often, be in the west of France. Jean-Louis Brossard, patron of the Trans Musicales festival, is also the programmer of a club in Rennes, Ubu, where he brought “FF” in 2004.
“I had bought a 45 rpm (the man has a large vinyl collection), take me outand I said to myself that it would be good to bring them to Ubu, a 400-seat club, in 2004, because after that it would no longer be possible, ”tells AFP this outstanding unearth.
Well done, because as Jean-Louis Brossard says, “it became a big group quite quickly”, which then filled XXL halls and stadiums.
On stage, from the start, the electric shock is there. “It’s a real rock band, direct. With them, it’s “3-4” and come on, let’s go. It reminded me of the energy of bands like the Gun Club, Godfathers, Fleshtones, London Cowboys,” recalls this music bible.
Influence of the Kinks
On disc, Franz Ferdinand balances in his texts and melodies between passion and melancholy. “There is a rock side, but also pop songs, like the Kinks did in the 1960s, with riffs of very worked guitars and great texts”, develops this expert.
We find this diversity of tone between the punch of take me out on the first album and the ballad accents of walk away on the second.
Franz Ferdinand was part of the wave of British groups (like the Libertines) that regenerated rock in the early 2000s, when the moribund genre had only just been revived by American bands (The Strokes, The White Stripes ).
Momentum followed by effects. “Since that time, almost every year, there is a British group that tumbles: Idles, Shame, Fontaines DC, first in small venues and then we see them everywhere”, explains Jean-Louis Brossard.
Not to mention the followers. Europhile, Alex Kapranos (British with a Greek father) completes one of the first successes, Darts of pleasure, with a sentence chanted in German. One gimmick then taken over by another British group, The Rakes. Franz Ferdinand, always copied, rarely equalled.