Gruff Rhys plays "Dim Probs" solo @ Montreal's Casa del Popolo, Nov 22

A solo Gruff Rhys presents songs from his latest album Dim Probs at Casa del Popolo... time for a road trip? Get tickets here.

Gruff Rhys plays Toronto's Longboat Hall tonight (Monday, April 14)

Super Furry Animals' mainman Gruff Rhys plays songs from Sadness Sets Me Free tonight with Chris Forsyth opening at 7 pm. 

Here's the scoop on Sadness Sets Me Free...

Gruff Rhys released his latest solo album Sadness Sets Me Free via Rough Trade Records back in  January. Amazingly enough, this is the 25th album of his career (individually, collaboratively and as a member Super Furry Animals and other bands) that has spanned 35 years. 

And so it was that Gruff and his band – Osian Gwynedd (piano), Huw V Williams (double bass) and former Flaming Lips drummer turned Super Furry Animals archivist Kliph Scurlock (drums) piled into a van driven by the late, legendary tour manager “Dr” Kiko Loiacono and raced from Dunkirk, where they had just played the final show of a tour of Spain and France, to the outskirts of Paris in the early hours of a March morning in 2022. There, in La Frette Studios, a recording facility installed in a 19th-century house, Gruff and his road-hardened group tracked Sadness Sets Me Free in just three days. Backing vocals were added along the way by Kate Stables from This Is The Kit along with additional strings and orchestration and it was mixed between Marseille and Cardiff. What finally emerged from these intense bouts of cross-continental activity was Gruff’s most accomplished and beautiful record to date. 

In a career that has taken him from the slate-mining towns of north-west Wales, down to the expat communities of Patagonia, up to the Mandan tribe of the Great Plains of North America and across to the Tuareg rock groups of the Saharan Desert, Gruff Rhys, one of Britain’s most beloved and successful singer-songwriters, has always been willing to follow an opportunity, wherever it may lead him. “At this point I quite like working with serendipity,” he says. “Not in a cosmic way, [but] I try and leave things open to chance encounters and chance geography. As I'm around 25 albums in I’m always looking for ways to make a different-sounding record.”  

Get a copy of "Sadness Sets Me Free" via Bandcamp right here. Remaining tickets for the Gruff Rhys show at Longboat Hall in Toronto are available via the Dice app by following the link below. 

 

Get tickets for Gruff Rhys' solo show with Chris Forsyth at Longboat Hall in Toronto April 14th right here. 

Gruff Rhys just played a surprise show in Hamilton – here's what you missed

Gruff Rhys previewed his forthcoming album Sadness Sets Me Free with an acoustic in-store at Into The Abyss in Hamilton. 

Sadness Sets Me Free is slated for release January 26 via Rough Trade. Watch the video for "Celestial Candyfloss" below.

Gruff Rhys – Sadness Sets Me Free

1. Sadness Sets Me Free

2. Bad Friend

3. Celestial Candyfloss

4. Silver Lining (Lead Balloons)

5. On The Far Side of the Dollar

6. They Sold My Home To Build A Skyscraper

7. Peace Signs

8. Cover Up The Cover Up

9. I Tendered My Resignation

10. I’ll Keep Singing

Gruff Rhys is pleased to announce his new album Sadness Sets Me Free, which will be released by Rough Trade Records on January 26, 2024. Incredibly, this will be the 25th album of his career (individually, collaboratively and as a member of various bands) that has spanned 35 years. 

And so it was that Gruff and his band – Osian Gwynedd (piano), Huw V Williams (double bass) and former Flaming Lips drummer turned Super Furry Animals archivist Kliph Scurlock (drums) piled into a van driven by the late, legendary tour manager “Dr” Kiko Loiacono and raced from Dunkirk, where they had just played the final show of a tour of Spain and France, to the outskirts of Paris in the early hours of a March morning in 2022. There, in La Frette Studios, a recording facility installed in a 19th-century house, Gruff and his road-hardened group tracked Sadness Sets Me Free in just three days. Backing vocals were added along the way by Kate Stables from This Is The Kit along with additional strings and orchestration and it was mixed between Marseille and Cardiff. What finally emerged from these intense bouts of cross-continental activity was Gruff’s most accomplished and beautiful record to date. 

In a career that has taken him from the slate-mining towns of north-west Wales, down to the expat communities of Patagonia, up to the Mandan tribe of the Great Plains of North America and across to the Tuareg rock groups of the Saharan Desert, Gruff Rhys, one of Britain’s most beloved and successful singer-songwriters, has always been willing to follow an opportunity, wherever it may lead him. “At this point I quite like working with serendipity,” he says. “Not in a cosmic way, [but] I try and leave things open to chance encounters and chance geography. As I'm around 25 albums in I’m always looking for ways to make a different-sounding record.” 

You can pre-order a copy of Sadness Sets Me Free while Bandcamp still exists right here. Check out the video for "Celestial Candyfloss" below. 

Cate Le Bon vs. Ffa Coffi Pawb (w/ Gruff Rhys)

Today it's Cate Le Bon taking on Gruff Rhys and his teen band Ffa Coffi Pawb in the battle over Welsh classic "Tocyn" by Brân.

Gruff Rhys previews Seeking New Gods album with "Loan Your Loneliness"

Watch the new Gruff Rhys video for "Loan Your Loneliness" off his forthcoming album, Seeking New Gods, due May 21.    

Here's the scoop...

Gruff Rhys releases his new album Seeking New Gods through Rough Trade Records. This is Gruff’s seventh solo album. Seeking New Gods was recorded following a US tour with his band and mixed in LA with superstar producer Mario Caldato (Beastie Boys).

The album concept was originally driven to be the biography of a mountain, Mount Paektu (an East Asian active volcano). However, as Gruff’s writing began to reflect on the inhuman timescale of a peak’s existence and the intimate features that bring it to mythological life, both the songs and the mountain became more and more personal.

“The album is about people and the civilisations, and the spaces people inhabit over periods of time. How people come and go but the geology sticks around and changes more slowly. I think it’s about memory and time,” he suggests of Seeking New Gods’ meaning. “It’s still a biography of a mountain, but now it’s a Mount Paektu of the mind. You won’t learn much about the real mountain from listening to this record but you will feel something, hopefully.” – Gruff Rhys

Pre-order a copy of Seeking New Gods right here. Watch the video for "Loan Your Loneliness" below. 
 

 

Check out the title track off Gruff Rhys' new PANG! album

Gruff Rhys recorded the PANG! album in collaboration with South African producer Muzi (see interview after the clip).

Super Furry Animals @ The Opera House, Tuesday

Gruff Rhys and his golden retrievers of Welsh rock showed a more sensitive side for a KEXP broadcast below.  

Welsh horror hits Hollywood

No, this has nothing at all to do with Catherine Zeta-Jones. The considerably less famous but infinitely more delightful Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals notoriety and his vinyl-fiend pal Andy Votel who helms the Finders Keepers/B-Music reissue empire are kicking off their festive Los Angeles weekend jaunt with an evening of Welsh horror on  Wednesday (June 1 at Cinefamily (611 N. Fairfax) at 11 pm.

In this case, the potentially frightening bits extend well beyond the screening of the rarely seen 1975 low-budget thriller-chiller Gwaed Ar Y Ser (that's Blood On The Stars to you and me), carrying over to the DJ set in which Rhys and Votel will treat attendees to a selection of hair-raising soundtrack cues mixed with what may prove to be even scarier – genuine Cymraeg folk ditties! According to Rhys, Gwaed Ar Y Ser made a strong impression on him as a youngster and he believes the flick holds up three decades on.  
"It's kind of a Wicker Man meets Celebrity Big Brother cum slasher movie," says Rhys who'll be in Toronto with his new band for a Horseshoe gig on June 11, "about this group of sinister kids who are going around killing the minor celebrities of Wales in the '70s, occasionally with snakes. They electrocute and kill the leading harp player by connecting her harp to the mains; they blow up the most famous rugby player by putting a bomb inside the ball -- I think they blow up Barry John, he’s a rugby legend! The light entertainment TV personalities I used to see on telly every day were being murdered in front of my face, I had to be carried out of the cinema screaming. Now that’s definitely a B-movie. I mean, it’s beyond B-movie. Maybe it’s a C or D. I got a copy of it a few years ago, it hasn’t really been shown anywhere since 1976 and it’s still incredible!" 
The freaky kicks continue for the Finders Keepers posse with a Re-Vamped screening of Jean Rollin's Le Viol du Vampire featuring a live soundtrack performed by Demdike Stare and Anworth Kirk as part of the Erotique Fantastique Masquerade Ball at Cinefamiy on Thursday (June 2) leading up to Friday's Jean Rollin Tribute boasting a blood-sucking double bill of Le Frisson Des Vampires and Requiem For A Vampire and DJ sets from Votel and the ever-fabulous DJ Mahssa starting at 8 pm followed by an after party over in Glassell Park at Verdugo Bar (3408 Verdugo)  where the mysterious Tandy Love (who could it be?) will be cutting loose with sitar-tweaked fuzzy psych head-nodders from 11 pm until the booze runs out. Check out their whole sordid itinerary and consult the Cinefamily site www.cinefamily.org for ticket information. It makes you wonder why this sort of thing never happens at TIFF.

LINKS
Finders Keepers http://www.finderskeepersrecords.com