Take that, Spencer Krug/Sunset Rubdown/Swan Lake people!

FACE CONTROL is the second album by Montreal’s Handsome Furs, 2007’s Plague Park was their first. Alexei Perry and Dan Boeckner wrote the songs on FACE CONTROL together. The album was recorded and mixed by Arlen Thompson at Mount Zoomer. It was mastered by Harris Newman at Hotel2Tango. It will be released on March 10th, 2009.
1. Legal Tender
2. Evangeline
3. Talking Hotel Arbat Blues
4. (Passport Kontrol)
5. All We Want, Baby, Is Everything
6. I'm Confused
7. (White City)
8. Nyet Spasiba
9. Officer of Hearts
10. (It's Not Me, It's You)
11. Thy Will Be Done
12. Radio Kaliningrad

I have no links. But I can say having heard most of this in awesome live performance last August, there are few albums in 2009 that I am anticipating more than this one.

Jesus Christ, I wish I could directly embed the Flash gallery of photos on the Handsome Furs SubPop page. HOTT.

i didn't listen to Plague Park near enough to form a coherent opinion about it

i will try with this one

again, first album wasn't as good as it could have been, but have absolute faith in this being better.

now this excites me... and those pics are pretty exciting too.

Boeckner > Krug

Highly anticipated. This album should be much more of straight-ahead RAWK if their live show is any indication. Loud, fuzzy, dirty rock, as sexy as those press photos.

terrible album cover


still, i'm pretty stoked for this. the first HF disc was overlooked by too many people. the thing is a solid disc from start to finish. i definitely look forward to hearing this whenever it decides to rear its ugly head. until then, though, i'll probably forget all about it and be pleasantly shocked when it does pop up.

no one take this bait

I will not argue the merits of Spencer Krug in a Dan Boeckner thread

i found it too slow initially, but the more and more i returned to it, it grew on me like no other. def was an underrated record and can't wait for this one either.

Dan has a quintessential rock voice imo.

edit: oh shit. Bob, those photos are available in hi-res under the Press column:

http://www.subpop.com/artists/handsome_furs

but that's like their thing... horrible covers on all of their releases.


it's true

those press photos are pretty nauseating

if by nauseating you mean giving me a huge boner.

sure.

i feel like only old dudes are into "kinky" lingerie and all that bullshit. i've never talked to a young dude who was like, "oh, i love a woman in frilly lacy underwear." obvs boy shorts are the best female underwear. it's a product of you all being kids and being turned on by victoria's secret catalogs and racy movies while leading your relatively sheltered childhoods, while i was downloading massive amounts of hardcore pornography at 15.

All the new stuff sounded brilliant at the show I caught in the summer - can't wait for this. Though I also still listen to Plague Park almost weekly. Terribly underrated album.

I think this is one of your most astute posts.

i'm going to start taking my boarding on the SOMB seriously again. watch out for more posts like that.

If by "frilly lacy underwear" you mean that ripped, two-sizes too small t-shirt Alexei is wearing in the photo Simakos posted...umm...yeah, this old dude is into that.

Alexei's boob popped out when I saw HF this summer.
Just sayin.

thank god i didn't have th internet when i was 15! scary to think how i may have turned out...

by the way, i just like here legs and ass in those photos.

I'm really looking forward to this, mostly for the fact that I loved Boeckner's songs from At Mount Zoomer so much.

I'm also excited about Chrono stepping it up for the '09.

i'm singlehandedly turning this around here

this just in...

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?gtbk2k4tyzt

edit: track 10 is missing

omfg.

so far this is awesome. more electronic than the last one

def more electronic. not sure how i feel about that just yet.
some of the electro work is sooo cheeseball retro

i'm biased as all hell, since Dan could sing the phonebook and i'd likely love it

but i do dig on it a lot so far

Def some nice stuff here, not a bad album. Radio Kalininbrad is a monster of a closer.
My only complaint is that nothing really hits as hard as Dan's work on Mt. Zoomer.
I think those expecting more of a straightup rawk album will be disappointed.

as talked about above, i was definitely disappointed w/ the first Handsome Furs at first, but did a complete 180 on it after a few months. this one however i'm taking to right away.

really looking forward to DL'ing this when i get home


i don't see how this could be a bad album

This is pretty great so far.

great so far. looking forward to seeing them live. missed em last fall.

Fuck yeah, this is great.

Thu Mar 12 Mavericks Ottawa, ON
Fri Mar 13 Horseshoe Tavern (CMW) Toronto, ON
Sat Mar 14 Blind Pig Ann Arbor, MI
Sun Mar 15 Empty Bottle Chicago, IL
Mon Mar 16 Off Broadway St. Louis, MO
Tue Mar 17 Mojo's Columbia, MO
Sat Mar 21 The Loft Dallas, TX
Mon Mar 23 Jackpot Lawrence, KS
Wed Mar 25 The Aquarium (Dempsey's Upstairs) Fargo, ND
Thu Mar 26 7th Street Entry Minneapolis, MN
Fri Mar 27 The Maintenance Shop Ames, IA
Sat Mar 28 The Mill Iowa City, IA
Mon Mar 30 Southgate House Newport, KY

pre sale: http://handsomefurs.frontgatetickets.com/

yeah i am going to hit up that Bottle show


thanks for the tip, frogman

ok, just listened to this album


it's really really good


like. yeah. Dan Boeckner knows the score.

Get your simakos on.

I DON'T KNOW BUT I'VE BEEN TOLD
EVERY LITTLE THING'S BEEN BOUGHT AND SOLD
I DON'T KNOW BUT I'VE BEEN TO-OLD

i might go to this. ive been meaning to check out the Furs live show but always end up missing them.
ive seen dan perform as Wolf Parade and he was great, so im assuming the Furs would be a good time live too.

This album is everything that I hoped it would be. Listening to these songs brought back that August Empty Bottle show. "Legal Tender," "I'm Confused," "Thy Will Be Done" were monsters there. The electronics are a bit more pronounced on the recording, but when Dan's guitar and voice kick in...holy shit.

That close of "Thy Will Be Done" and "Radio Kalingrad" may be my favorite moment on album so far this year amongst some tough competition.

I cannot recommend Dan and Alexei in live performance enough. The 3/15 Empty Bottle is the day after I return from a long trip. Whew...that was close.

I want to go to this, hopefully I can make it into the city for a few days for CMW. Right now, I'm halfway through this album and it's a fucking monster. The guitar tone on here is dirty as hell and ridiculously awesome.

Come to think of it, this is the second time this week on the SOMB that I've used "dirty" to describe something that Dan Boeckner has had a part in. I'm pretty proud of myself.

dirty is an awesome way to describe this thing

it's dirty and grimy as hell

in a good way


Boeckner's voice is perfect for this

going to the bottle show. how about the 2 Iowa dates?!

wha?



fixed

pretty much my favorite singer going these days... loving this new record. i was blasting the first HF record in the car yesterday...

i like the inspiration for the album as well
http://radiofreecanuckistan.blogspot.com/2...dsome-furs.html
We found out about this thing called Face Control in Russia.

What is that?

If you want to reserve a table at a bar in Moscow, it’s $5000—and that’s at a normal bar. You do it through PayPal or you can do it by cash. Then when you go to the bar, there’s no guarantee you’ll get in because there’s this thing called Face Control. You line up and if they don’t like the way you look. We became obsessed with this idea. Being in Russia for a couple of days—I’ve always been fascinated by Russian politics. We wrote three songs on the train back, and that’s turned into a whole album. I’m really happy with it.

So all those supermodel daughters of oligarchs pass Face Control every time, I’m assuming.
Some of them do. We were told by Greg, the promoter—who also just did a show with Frog Eyes there and it went over great—that the most notorious Face Control bouncer in Russia works at a club around the corner from that one that Greg runs, and is famous for denying Russia’s most famous supermodel no less than three times. This is a place where it costs $15,000 to reserve a table. There is so much money there. We were walking by an advertisement for Toshiba, and it’s the most expensive advertising I’ve ever heard of in my life. Apparently that billboard costs $2 billion US a year to rent this one space near Red Square.

Legal Tender and Interview

Thy Will Be Done

don't let Monty watch those videos... she is just twisting knobs!

getting around to this a little late, but i'm loving every last bit of this

i can't help but seem to think that this one will not be a record i am still reaching for a year from now, however.

Yeah, I bought a ticket to the bottle show last night in a drunken stupor. No complaints, honestly.




She can twist my knob anytime

so will this break the 8.x mark on Pfork? it should, but considering they only gave PP a 7.2, i could see it getting like a 7.7-8.9.

def more like an 8.3+ record tho

yea i think its great. listening to it way more than FF