Franz Ferdinand are the latest to participate in Late Night Tales, the ongoing series in which artists curate a mixtape. Their mix will be out on CD and vinyl on September 15 and digitally on September 12. Hear a sampler above.
The band mixes krautrock, pop, soul, funk, reggae, electronic, and more from the likes of Boards of Canada, Life Without Buildings, Oneohtrix Point Never, Serge Gainsbourg, James Brown, Paul McCartney, Can, and more. It opens with Franz Ferdinand's new cover of Jonathan Halper's "Leaving My Old Life Behind" from the cult Kenneth Anger filmPuce Moment, and ends with a spoken word piece by the band's Alex Kapranos.
Franz Ferdinand's Paul Thomson shared a statement to accompany the release:
When we first got the band together I made Alex a tape for his car, an old Merc estate that we spent a lot of time in, going to and from rehearsal spaces and gigs. All of our gear and the four of us could (almost) comfortably fit inside. It was all stuff I was listening to at the time, Dr Alimantado, Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin, Plaid, Johnny Dangerous amongst others. An eclectic mix or completely random and disjointed depending on your outlook, it was representative of all our individual idiosyncrasies that merged to form the sound of the band, although I wasn't aware of this at the time. With this mix we tried to a similar thing, all of us selected the tunes, based on what we listen to on tour together and at home alone, any sustained moods or flows that occur are purely accidental. Oh yeah, the Merc estate got totalled and towed away with the tape still in the player.
Franz Ferdinand joinLate Night Talescontributors like Belle and Sebastian, Flaming Lips,Metronomy,Air, MGMT, and Ryksopp. Watch a trailer for the release after the tracklist.
Franz Ferdinand:Late Night Tales:
01 Franz Ferdinand: "Leaving My Old Life Behind" (Jonathan HalperCover)
02 R. Stevie Moore: "I'm Only Sleeping"
03 The West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band: "Eighteen Is Over The Hill"
04 Sandy Nelson: "Let There Be Drums"
05 Life Without Buildings: "New Town"
06 Can: "Connection"
07 The Liminanas: "The Darkside"
08 Ian Dury: "Reasons To Be Cheerful Part 3"
09 Disco Dub Band: "For The Love Of Money"
10 Zapp: "More Bounce To The Ounce"
11 Serge Gainsbourg: "Requiem Pour Un Con"
12 Lee "Scratch" Perry: "Disco Devil"
13 James Brown: "King Heroin"
14 Carrie Cleveland: "Love Will Set You Free" *
15 Paul McCartney & Wings: "Nineteen Hundred & Eighty Five"
16 Boards of Canada: "Reach for the Dead"
17 Oneohtrix Point Never: "Zebra"
18 Justus Khncke: "Old Man"
19 American Spring: "Sweet Mountain"
20 Alex Kapranos: "Defibrillator" (Spoken Word)
* CD version only
