The Yummy Fur
August 20, 2012 8:39 PM Subscribe
If you only have three minutes to spend on this post, listen to this song.
The Yummy Fur was an unfairly obscure Scottish art-rock group active from 1992-1999. The group is best known for having two band members who currently comprise half of Franz Ferdinand, but that says little about the Yummy Fur proper. The group has a low-fi, angular, sound with mostly-spoken lyrics - the most familiar analogue might be the verses from Pavement's "Stereo"
The song linked above is a live performance of "Shoot the Ridiculant". from the group's final release - the 1998 Sexy World.
The group's first EP, "Music By Walt Disney But Played By Yuri Gagarin, Thus A Political Record" was released on indie label Slampt in 1995. Four songs from the release. The EP contains ten songs in total, each less than one minute long.
Their first two albums, Night Club and Kinky Cinema, each feature many more super-short songs: The second has a whopping 60 songs in 69 minutes! Highlights from Night Club include Kirsty Cooper and Roxy Girls. (Kinky Cinema is available as a free download off Last.fm, so I'll leave you to discover that for yourselves.)
The group's third and fourth albums, Male Shadow At Three O' Clock and Sexy World, have longer songs that could've been major indie hits in another universe. Highlights include Department and Vacuum Cleaner off Male Shadow and Deathclub, The Ballad of Piggy Wings, and Shoot the Ridiculant (a different version from the live one at the top of the post) off Sexy World.
This post would be incomplete without the amazing single-only track, Policeman.
The group reunited in 2010 to perform some tour dates in anticipation of a best-of compilation titled "Piggy Wings" - which was apparently unreleased, as there isn't a track listing or cover image online.
Because the group is inactive and not familiar, their releases are nearly impossible to find in record stores. If you can't find a physical release or a download, the next closest thing is a high-quality recording of a live show from WYNC's "No Cover" series, where they perform all the songs that would probably have been on their greatest hits album.
The group also recorded a Peel session.
Currently, members of The Yummy Fur perform as part of the groups
Franz Ferdinand and 1990s.
This is only a starting point, and I didn't go into depth on the band's history or other releases. If you're looking for more detail, the official tribute website is remarkably complete. However, it doesn't include audio, and it's hard to find the group's albums even through illegitimate means.
Some songs don't have readily available Youtube uploads. Live versions were included where possible to make up for that.
(TL;DR: a Scottish indie band for fans of Pavement's "Stereo")
The song linked above is a live performance of "Shoot the Ridiculant". from the group's final release - the 1998 Sexy World.
The group's first EP, "Music By Walt Disney But Played By Yuri Gagarin, Thus A Political Record" was released on indie label Slampt in 1995. Four songs from the release. The EP contains ten songs in total, each less than one minute long.
Their first two albums, Night Club and Kinky Cinema, each feature many more super-short songs: The second has a whopping 60 songs in 69 minutes! Highlights from Night Club include Kirsty Cooper and Roxy Girls. (Kinky Cinema is available as a free download off Last.fm, so I'll leave you to discover that for yourselves.)
The group's third and fourth albums, Male Shadow At Three O' Clock and Sexy World, have longer songs that could've been major indie hits in another universe. Highlights include Department and Vacuum Cleaner off Male Shadow and Deathclub, The Ballad of Piggy Wings, and Shoot the Ridiculant (a different version from the live one at the top of the post) off Sexy World.
This post would be incomplete without the amazing single-only track, Policeman.
The group reunited in 2010 to perform some tour dates in anticipation of a best-of compilation titled "Piggy Wings" - which was apparently unreleased, as there isn't a track listing or cover image online.
Because the group is inactive and not familiar, their releases are nearly impossible to find in record stores. If you can't find a physical release or a download, the next closest thing is a high-quality recording of a live show from WYNC's "No Cover" series, where they perform all the songs that would probably have been on their greatest hits album.
The group also recorded a Peel session.
Currently, members of The Yummy Fur perform as part of the groups
Franz Ferdinand and 1990s.
This is only a starting point, and I didn't go into depth on the band's history or other releases. If you're looking for more detail, the official tribute website is remarkably complete. However, it doesn't include audio, and it's hard to find the group's albums even through illegitimate means.
Some songs don't have readily available Youtube uploads. Live versions were included where possible to make up for that.
(TL;DR: a Scottish indie band for fans of Pavement's "Stereo")
So this is the other Yummy Fur?
Actual but less known version. Our version changed their name to 'Six Mile High' or something.
They were big, at the time.
posted by Mezentian at 12:24 AM on August 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
Actual but less known version. Our version changed their name to 'Six Mile High' or something.
They were big, at the time.
posted by Mezentian at 12:24 AM on August 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
i did not know that!
posted by radiosilents at 12:24 AM on August 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by radiosilents at 12:24 AM on August 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
They remind me a lot more of The Fall than Pavement, particularly my favourite, Exact Copy of H Friendly. I was given some mp3s of them a few years ago as I was going through a huge Fall phase (albeit The Wonderful And Frightening World Of The Fall, which compared to their earlier stuff sounds like a Westlife album) and they complemented each other perfectly.
Ursula Hitler - there was also Urusei Yatsura, who were another Scottish band who named themselves after a comic book, and were ace - though I think they were known as 'Yatsura' in the US. TYF were a really, really small band, so I'd be surprised if Chester Brown had come across them.
posted by mippy at 1:32 AM on August 21, 2012
Ursula Hitler - there was also Urusei Yatsura, who were another Scottish band who named themselves after a comic book, and were ace - though I think they were known as 'Yatsura' in the US. TYF were a really, really small band, so I'd be surprised if Chester Brown had come across them.
posted by mippy at 1:32 AM on August 21, 2012
And here I thought it was just a comic.
(resumes listening to/reading Love and Rockets)
posted by ShutterBun at 3:42 AM on August 21, 2012
(resumes listening to/reading Love and Rockets)
posted by ShutterBun at 3:42 AM on August 21, 2012
(eep...it seems I was beaten to the punch. Doh.)
posted by ShutterBun at 3:42 AM on August 21, 2012
posted by ShutterBun at 3:42 AM on August 21, 2012
Hands down the best Glasgow band of the 90s, which is saying something given the bands knocking about the city at that time.
They remind me a lot more of The Fall than Pavement
Yeah, if memory serves, John Yummy Fur is a human Fall encyclopedia. I forget which song it's from, but one of my favourite lines of his is 'We rip off The Fall'. My favourite is 'Bourgeois! Spastic! Everything's turning to plastic.', closely followed by 'I'm not American, don't call me Thurston.'
there was also Urusei Yatsura
Two friends and I wrote a fanzine named after the absurdly handsome guitarist from Urusei - one time in the NME there was a full page photo of Lungleg, all of them reading a copy! I remain proud of this.
I wish you'd made this post when I was in the same city as my 7"s.
posted by jack_mo at 3:50 AM on August 21, 2012
They remind me a lot more of The Fall than Pavement
Yeah, if memory serves, John Yummy Fur is a human Fall encyclopedia. I forget which song it's from, but one of my favourite lines of his is 'We rip off The Fall'. My favourite is 'Bourgeois! Spastic! Everything's turning to plastic.', closely followed by 'I'm not American, don't call me Thurston.'
there was also Urusei Yatsura
Two friends and I wrote a fanzine named after the absurdly handsome guitarist from Urusei - one time in the NME there was a full page photo of Lungleg, all of them reading a copy! I remain proud of this.
I wish you'd made this post when I was in the same city as my 7"s.
posted by jack_mo at 3:50 AM on August 21, 2012
Oh, and if you like the Fur, you should probably check out Lungleg, Dick Johnson and Trout (who really were the 'unfairly obscure' Glasgow band of that era).
posted by jack_mo at 3:58 AM on August 21, 2012
posted by jack_mo at 3:58 AM on August 21, 2012
Yuri Gagarin is sort of an indie music touchstone, isn't he?
posted by clvrmnky at 6:45 AM on August 21, 2012
posted by clvrmnky at 6:45 AM on August 21, 2012
1968 garage band fans fans, unite!
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 12:01 PM on August 21, 2012
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 12:01 PM on August 21, 2012
They're also one of those bands that handily name-checks themselves and Liliput was how I heard about the band Liliput/Kleenex.
posted by klangklangston at 2:41 PM on August 21, 2012
posted by klangklangston at 2:41 PM on August 21, 2012
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posted by Ursula Hitler at 10:27 PM on August 20, 2012