EZRA FURMAN – unveils new track ‘Restless Year’ – Listen

EZRA FURMAN - unveils new track 'Restless Year' - Listen

Bella Union are thrilled to announce the signing of Ezra Furman, whose 2013 album Day Of The Dog and riotous live shows with his band The Boyfriends won numerous 5 star reviews. Furman, who The Guardian has called “a punk-fired rock’n’roll classicist,” has just announced news of his biggest London headline show to date, at O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire in October.

This show will follow the summer release of his as-yet-untitled first album for the label. The first taste of its unfettered melodies and charisma can be heard in the forthcoming single ‘Restless Year’, listen below…

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The news is the latest chapter in a musical career that redefines slow-burning. Day Of The Dog was already the American’s fifth album; looking back, it seems extraordinary that these early records passed relatively under the radar, given Furman’s inspirational blend of seminal influences, from Fifties skiffle and doo-wop to Sixties garage and the righteous mix of urchin charm, winning melody and caustic humour of Jonathan Richman and The Violent Femmes. But Furman is a true original, equally tapping the godheads of power pop and country blues, with honking saxophone as much a lead instrument as guitar.

Day Of The Dog was dedicated to, “all those who are rejected, abused, destitute, misunderstood, bullied, forsaken, broken-hearted, hopeless, sick, strange, lonely, alienated, widowed or orphaned,” and Furman gives emotionally charged voice to the aforementioned while penning lyrics that jump off the page. The punchy middle-eight of ‘Restless Year’ – “Death is my former employer / Death is my own Tom Sawyer / Death waits for me to destroy her / I never wanna die and I never grow older” – is brilliant testimony to his mixture of outsider-angst and life-affirming energy, which is always reflected in his electrifying stage persona.

Summer 2015 will see the release of Furman’s most fully realised and streamlined record, chock-full of snarling, zestful tunes and invested with the feeling that, this time, people are paying attention. “One of the main things my music is about is feeling totally insane!” Furman concludes. “I feel desperate a lot – desperate to try to explain something, I’m not sure what it is. You can hear it in a lot our songs; that I’m trying to shake people by the shoulders and explain something. And when you feel like that, here’s some music to put on!”

Xsnoize Author
Mark Millar is the founder of XS Noize and looks after the daily running of the website as well as hosting interviews for the weekly XS Noize Podcast. Mark's favourite album is Achtung Baby by U2.

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