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By Liam Harrison , Jun 5, 12:29 AM

Ezra Furman, formerly of Ezra Furman & The Harpoons, creates straight up party rock. Half glamoured, surreal rockabilly, half Jesus and Mary Chain-esque saw-wave fuzz, his creations, adequately summed up on his latest album, September’s fantastic Day of the Dog, have the power to propel a room back to the musical outro of Back to the Future or churn up nightmares with his angsty, dragging blues-rock bombast. His show at Glasgow’s Broadcast was a highlight of his tour, as his fantastic opening act; the hyperactive, narcotic-tinged So So Glos pummelled the crowd with sing-along pop-punk madness. Furman’s follow-up; excellent, dynamic frontmanship, however was as multi-faceted as his music. At one part careering a wagon-wheel of a band around musical twists and turns, particularly furnaced by excellent saxophone parts, always frontal but never dominating. However something took me aback: the personal aspect of Ezra’s show. Whilst presenting his maniacal troupe of songs, his clinging to ancient artefacts such as his former Wendy’s shirt, providing him with his first real taste of US-company impersonality, seemed to give rise to something a little deeper and darker in Ezra’s psyche than his love for the rock ‘n’ roll of old. We had a few words with him to decipher exactly what makes him tick.

“So, What’s with the sunglasses you’ve been sporting all night?”

“It’s scary to look at people, standing still…I used to wear them a lot. Most shows I don’t wear them. It’s a little bit of theatre. I’m trying to uncover some sort of metaphor for sunglasses. I feel like they’ve become a symbolic object for me. I’ve got perfect vision, that’s why I’m fucking up my hearing.”

 I feel like [glasses] have become a symbolic object for me 

“What do you think of the cushion-y ceiling of the venue? (Broadcast, Glasgow)”

“I was punching it. I don’t know. I’m glad the cushion is there. I bet they had people crack their skulls on it”.

“What do you think of Glasgow?” “Lots of brilliant Glasgow’s bands. I really like Camera Obscura. Their last album came into my life at a really weird time.”

“Opinion of Las Vegas?”

“I fucking hate that place. I don’t wanna’ go there ever again. I’ve been there twice. Admittedly, I didn’t really do it the right way. I was thirteen years old and like ‘Oh God, this place is awful. What did Hunter Thompson? Las Vegas is what the Western world would be doing if Adolf Hitler won the war. That’s Hunter Thompson. Secondly, I visited there with a horrible cold and laid in bed whilst my flatmates went outside and drank, and I stayed in watching bad movies. It was ‘The Last Kiss’ or something. It’s not even ‘Garden State’. Maybe I can’t judge Las Vegas. The intensity of Capitalism is pretty scary.”

 Las Vegas is what the Western world would be doing if Adolf Hitler won the war 

“Do you enjoy playing on stage sober or under the influence?”

“Uh, I probably get drunk pretty often. I’m divided on that. My whole high school was pretty ridiculous. I didn’t drink until I was 22. The drinking laws are also kinda’ bullshit.”

“Favourite place in Massachusetts that isn’t Boston?”

“I don’t know. I love Boston. it’s like London, it’s all neighbourhoods. I never got to know that place as well as I used to. I’m actually from Chicago, and I’m living there now again. I’m always kinda’ jumping around. My favourite place to hit up was like…Garden Square. I liked gigging in Boston. Somerville was nice, Allston was nice. We played some good shows in both of them. I probably haven’t visited most. We’ll go with Somerville.”

“Do you think more songs should have saxophone in them?”

I don’t know. It’s kinda’ our thing, I hope nobody else steals it. That use to be the main thing before the guitar, and guitar solos became big in the late 50’s. Before then, all the junk bands had a saxophone in them.

“Who are you listening to at the moment?” First recommendation is ‘Krill’, a band from Boston. They’re kinda’ Whales-y. They are so fucking good. They’re hard to describe. They really remind me of the Pixies, honestly. They’re weird and also kinda’ frightening at times, and they’re ‘Modest Mouse’-y. Second band, that’s Tristen. She’s a singer from Chicago but she lives in Nashville. She made a killer album and nobody took notice and she had a record deal and they fucked her over. My favourite song is called ‘Gold Stock’. Tristen is the fucking shit. I toured with her a couple of times now, and she’s one of the best singers I’ve ever met in terms of singing and she writes amazing melodies. She slays me in every way possible.

“What’s been your favourite song to play on tour so far?”

That’s a tough one. I don’t know. I tend to like ‘Walk On In Darkness’. It gets weird, sounds a little dark. That was the first song that we recorded for the album. I didn’t even know there was gonna’ be an album. I was kinda’ surprised, I just had an idea that I was gonna’ record some songs with some saxophone and certain ‘interesting’ rhythms. That was like, ‘the birth of the record’. We just kinda’ banged it out. We basically played it ‘live’ in the studio. It turns the room an interesting colour.

“What happened with Wendy’s to make you brandish a Wendy’s shirt as your main item of clothing”?

“Wendy’s broke my heart. That’s all I’ll say. They stripped me of everything.”