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. 

Expanded edition of Super Furry Animals' Phantom Power due Sept 8th

To celebrate 20 years of Phantom Power, Super Furry Animals are releasing a 47-track 3CD version of the group's 2003 classic.

Here's the scoop...

The sound of Super Furry Animals arguably hitting the peak of their powers, a whole six albums into a career that started in the heat of mid-nineties Creation Records excess and moved through conceptual and contractual gears to reach new highs of off-kilter-pop majesty, the band’s glorious 2003, 14-Track album, Phantom Power is announced for reissue in sparkling, remastered form on Friday (September 8) via BMG Records.

Re-emerging on double heavyweight vinyl, as well as deluxe 3CD and high-definition digital formats, the album that gifted the world Hello Sunshine, Golden Retriever, Slow Life and more returns to reopen the never-quite-concluded debate on which, out of their nine albums to date, stands up as the best of all.

You can pre-order the massive 47-track Phantom Power 20th Anniversary 3CD set via Amazon Canada for $31.98 right here while the 14-track vinyl version is going for $42.99 right here. Check the tracklistings followed by the original video for "Golden Retriever" and a performance of "Slow Life" and "Hello Sunshine" from Super Furry Animals' set at Glastonbury 2007 below. 

Super Furry Animals - Phantom Power 20th Anniversary Edition

CD 1

1. Hello Sunshine

2. Liberty Belle

3. Golden Retriever

4. Sex, War & Robots

5. The Piccolo Snare

6. Venus & Serena

7. Father Father #1

8. Bleed Forever

9. Out of Control

10. Cityscape Skybaby

11. Father Father #2

12. Valet Parking

13. The Undefeated

14. Slow Life

CD 2

1. Father Father #3

2. Summer Snow

3. Blue Fruit

4. Cowbird

5. Sanitizzzed

6. Motherfokker feat. Goldie Lookin Chain

7. Lost Control

8. The Man Don’t Give A Fuck (Live)

CD 3

1. Father Father*

2. Hello Sunshine*

3. Aluminum Illuminati

4. Cabbages (retitled Cityscape

Skybaby)*

5. Golden Retriever*

6. Hummingbird (retitled Cloudberries)*

7. Billy’s Gone (retitled Out Of Control)*

8. Head First (retitled Paddling Pools)*

9. No Go (retitled Summer Snow)*

10. Father Father*

11. Sex, War & Robots**

12. Bluebird 1**

13. Bluebird 2**

14. Bluebird 3**

15. Bluebird 4**

16. Walk You Home**

17. The Undefeated**

18. Every Building Has Been Built**

19. Blue Fruit**

20. Valet Parking**

21. Valet Parking***

22. Out Of Control ***

23. Paddling Pools***

24. Miami Vice***

25. Slow Life***

*Stiwdio Ofn Demo, Gwanwyn 2002

**AV Happenings Demo, Chwefror 2002

***Rockfield Rough Mix, Mai 2002

Phantom Power 2LP version

1. Hello Sunshine

2. Liberty Belle

3. Golden Retriever

4. Sex, War & Robots

5. The Piccolo Snare

6. Venus & Serena

7. Father Father #1

8. Bleed Forever

9. Out of Control

10. Cityscape Skybaby

11. Father Father #2

12. Valet Parking

13. The Undefeated

14. Slow Life

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.