After a three year absence, dalliances with Xenomania and rumours of a radical new direction, arena-filling Scottish four-piece Franz Ferdinand are back with…well, more of the same really. I only got to hear the album once all the way through (and they played it in the wrong order, so the tracklisting may be slightly awry) but here, extrapolated from my hastily scrawled notes is a brief rundown of what to expect from Tonight: Franz Ferdinand. Continue Reading

Franz Ferdinand have announced details of a UK tour in March 2009.

The dates follow the release their third album, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand through Domino Records on Monday January 26th 2009.

The 12-track album will be preceded by a single, ‘Ulysses’, on January 19th.

The full list of dates are as follows:

FEBRUARY
28th Limerick Dolans

MARCH
1st Dublin Olympia
4th Glasgow Barrowlands
6th Manchester Academy
8th Birmingham Academy
9th London Hammersmith Apollo

Tickets for the shows will be priced at £20 (except London where they will be £22.50 and Ireland where they are 30 euros) and are available for general sale via www.ticketmaster.ie (for the Irish shows), www.ticketmaster.co.uk (for Glasgow & London) & www.gigsandtours.com (for Manchester & Birmingham) on Friday 12th December at 9.30am.

Franz Ferdinand have announced details of the release of the first single from their forthcoming album.

‘Ulysses’ will be released on January 19th 2009 on Domino, a week before the release of their third album, Tonight: Franz Ferdinand.

The single was produced by Dan Carey and the band as part of the album sessions which took place at the band’s own HQ in Govan, Glasgow and Carey’s South London studio.

Additionally the band have announced a remix competition with the website Beatport, www.beatport.com.

Remix parts of Ulysses will be made available to buy on Tuesday 4th November 2008 allowing people to put together their own unique version of the track well-ahead of the track being heard on any radio station.

These remixes will then be judged by Beatport and the Beatport community and the overall winner will then be picked by the band. The winning entries will then be released digitally to coincide with the single release in January.

Currently about to embark on a run of European dates, U.K. shows will be announced shortly.

Franz Ferdinand have announced details of the release of their third album.

Titled Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, the 12-track album will be released on Domino Records on Monday January 26th 2009.

Produced by Dan Carey and the band, the album was recorded at the band’s own HQ in Govan, Glasgow and Carey’s South London studio.

The full track-listing for the album is as follows:
1. Ulysses
2. Turn It On
3. Kiss Me
4. Twilight Omens
5. Send Him Away
6. Live Alone
7. Bite Hard
8. What She Came For
9. Can’t Stop Feeling
10. Lucid Dreams
11. Dream Again
12. Katherine Kiss Me

Alex Kapranos of the band commented - “Tonight: Franz Ferdinand is music of the night: to fling yourself around your room to as you psyche yourself for a night 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.”

Single release plans and U.K. dates will be announced shortly.