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Fuck Bunny – Video

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Fuck Bunny
Fuck Bunny The Society Islands Stephan Kriegeskorte Boris Rogowski Released on: 2010-02-19 Artist: The Society Islands Producer: Boris Rogowski Producer: Stephan Kriegeskorte Composer:...

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Fuck Bunny - Video

Future Islands review cult synth-rockers cross over

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Everyman misfit: Samuel T Herring at Shepherds Bush Empire. Photograph: Ollie Millington/Redferns via Getty Images

This year has been a productive one for the lovelorn. The unrequited passions of Sam Smith have transported the Hertfordshire soul man to giddy heights both here and across the Atlantic. Are We There, Sharon Van Ettens slow-burn tales of mutually assured destruction, has lit up the blogosphere.

But perhaps the most heartwarming tale of romantic despair in 2014 has been that of Future Islands, a trio based in Baltimore (for the cheap rents). Their fourth album, Singles the title is playfully polysemic started the year as a cult synth-rock offering and is ending it as communion, with 2,000-odd people dancing like nobodys watching from the stalls to the gods, following the example of frontman Samuel T Herring. We hear most of Singles, a record full of synthetic bittersweetness and yearning, delivered by a frontman who goes in for Cossack head-banging, Italianate hand-gestures and belly-flops on to the stage.

It would be crass to call Herrings antics a shtick, but in the eight months since Future Islands emerged into public consciousness, his shtick has not got old, nor dulled by repetition. Tonight, Herring beats his chest, licks his arm, gyrates like a pole dancer. He shakes the hands of everyone in the front row. During songs such as Tin Man, an older cut, or Fall from Grace, he unleashes gargled screams that recall the Pixies Black Francis. The rest of the time, he acts out the emotions in his songs, which alternate between raw and resolved. Between songs he beams.

Future Islands pack one of those narrative arcs that rekindles your faith in the natural justice of pop. They self-financed the recording of Singles. They were then snapped up by London independent powerhouse 4AD (the National, Grimes) and looked set to do a little more business than last time around On the Water (Thrill Jockey, 2011) when fate pressed the fast-forward button.

This tipping point happened last March, via an appearance on David Lettermans talk show. The trio plus touring drummer performed their single Seasons (Waiting On You). As the band lined up epic, watery synth chords and propulsive bass reminiscent of both the Killers and Underworlds Born Slippy, Herring fixed the cameras with Ian Curtis eyes, unburdened himself of inhibitions and sexy-danced his way into notoriety.

His display one-third motivational speaker, one-third punk rock and one-third supplicating vulnerability quickly became the stuff of tweets and gifs. His hairline (further back than his 30 years would warrant) and dress sense (schoolteacher shopping in hardware store) received the kind of unforgiving scrutiny usually devoted to actresses cellulite.

Naturally, Herring has been carrying on like this in front of audiences for years the band began in 2006; last May they had clocked up more than 900 gigs, according to Q magazine but his antics grabbed thousands of unaffiliated onlookers by the lapels and reintroduced the idea of the everyman misfit as a great pop frontman, absent since Jarvis Cocker left the fray.

This London show is Future Islands biggest ever, notes Herring a fast-talking North Carolinian by birth. He notes many more things throughout the course of one-and-a-half triumphant hours, but its hard to make them out because hes drowned by whistles and cheers. Its the sound of vindication, and it must be music to Future Islands ears.

From their intro tune to the final notes of Spirit, a goth-pop take on Kraftwerk, this band of 2014 come across as fantastically old-fashioned underdogs. Its not just their sound plangent, percolating synth-pop with its roots in the Cure, New Order and the 80s charts. FI come to this bigger stage unadorned. There is no set to speak of, no band name on Mike Lowrys drum kit, nothing fancy save a guest vocalist, Katrina Ford, from support band Celebration, who duets with Herring on Doves and Fall from Grace. Impassive keyboard player Gerrit Welmers stands behind a synth rig so chunky it looks 30 years old. Inscrutable bassist William Cashion only moves his face when his bottle of fizzy drink threatens to douse his instrument. Lowry rattles what look like clacking wooden snakes during the intro to A Song for Our Grandfathers. They are hugely effective, and hugely affecting.

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Future Islands review cult synth-rockers cross over

Powerful storm blasts Alaska islands, then weakens – FOX NEWS WEATHER CENTER

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Published November 08, 2014

Nov. 5, 2014: This photo provided by NASA shows a picture captured by NASA's Aqua satellite of Typhoon Nuri. (AP)

A storm fueled by the remnants of a powerful typhoon was losing power Saturday after blasting remote, mostly uninhabited islands that are part of Alaska's Aleutian Islands chain with hurricane-force winds.

The storm was forecast to move slowly eastward, then help generate a high-pressure system that will allow Arctic air to blanket the central plains, starting with eastern Montana and the Dakotas on Sunday. The frigid temperatures are expected to spill south into the central plains on Monday.

The storm's strongest recorded winds were on Shemya Island, where 120 civilian contractors staff an early warning radar installation for the U.S. military.

Sustained winds of 70 mph and gusts up to 96 mph were recorded on Shemya, said Shaun Baines, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Anchorage.

The storm peaked Friday night, Baines said.

Eareckson Air Station on the island 1,500 miles southwest Anchorage suffered minor facility damage, Alaskan Command public affairs officer Tommie Baker said.

The corners of a roof were bent back and some dumpsters moved around, but no roof was torn off and the dumpters didn't slam into any vehicles or buildings, Baker said. Workers locked themselves inside to wait out the storm.

Workers had yet to conduct a full assessment of damage around the entire island, Baker said. But workers there are accustomed to extreme weather, including 100-mile winds. The community averages six weather-related lockdowns a year.

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Powerful storm blasts Alaska islands, then weakens - FOX NEWS WEATHER CENTER

Battle of the Cocos Islands: Australians, Germans commemorate centenary of HMAS Sydney's destruction of SMS Emden …

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In the Cocos Islands, almost 3,000 kilometres north-west of Perth, 200 people have gathered to remember the Royal Australian Navy's first victory at sea - HMAS Sydney's destruction of the German cruiser SMS Emden on November 9, 1914.

Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove, the chief of the Navy, Vice-Admiral Tim Barrett, and the German ambassador to Australia were joined by descendants of the crews of both ships and Cocos Island locals for the service.

The Sydney was in a convoy escorting 29,000 Australian troops to Europe when it encountered the feared light cruiser Emden, which was intent on destroying the telegraph station on the Cocos Islands.

The Emden was much feared by the allies and had been wreaking havoc on trading ships in south-east Asia since the outbreak of war.

The battle was a huge victory for the Royal Australian Navy, which was then less than three years old; 136 Germans and four Australian sailors died in the battle.

Speaking at the ceremony, Sir Peter Cosgrove said it was a victory the Navy still celebrates today.

"This was a coming of age for Australia's fledgling Navy. It proved to us that we could hold our own in the heat of a battle against an experienced adversary," he said.

The Governor-General also paid tribute to the skill and humanitarian spirit of the Emden's captain, Karl von Mller, who had successfully sunk or captured 27 ships with the loss of only one life.

"To be remembered alongside his crew as the last gentlemen of war is something he, his family and the German people can be very proud of," he said.

The German ambassador to Australia, Dr Christoph Mller, gave a moving speech on the battle that took place 100 years ago.

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Battle of the Cocos Islands: Australians, Germans commemorate centenary of HMAS Sydney's destruction of SMS Emden ...


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