One of the most intriguing UK guitar bands to emerge in the early years of the twenty-first century, Franz Ferdinand derive their name from an Austro-Hungarian royal whose assassination proved to be the catalyst for the World War I (via a racehorse named Archduke Ferdinand that the band had seen on the television). The Glasgow, Scotland-based quartet, Alex Kapranos (b. Alexander Paul Kapranos Huntley, 20 March 1972, Almondsbury, Gloucestershire, England; vocals/guitar, ex-Karelia), Nick McCarthy (b. Nicholas Augustine McCarthy, 13 December 1974, Blackpool, Lancashire, England; guitar, keyboards, vocals), Bob Hardy (b. Robert Byron Hardy, 16 August 1980, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England; bass) and Paul Thomson (b. Paul Robert Nestor Thompson, 15 September 1976, Edinburgh, Scotland; drums), coalesced through the Glasgow School of Art where Hardy studied painting and Thomson was employed as a life model. Although their stated desire to usurp the significance of their namesake seemed fairly implausible, the band's intent was nevertheless admirable. Drawing overt inspiration from early 80s punk funk artists such as Gang Of Four and James White, mixed with a liberal dose of early Roxy Music and Sparks, the band operated to a principal of "cutting away excess crap" and forbidding the presence of solos and "clutter" in their songs. From this ethos, the band created a music that was terse, concise and, for the most part, genuinely enthralling. Echoing the Chic-worshipping post-punk band Josef K, the quartet's wired and angular guitar pop was shot through with the impulse of disco and nervy tension of funk. Although they rejected the tag of "artiness", Franz Ferdinand's sharp attire and pithy lyrics nevertheless suggested inventiveness, dexterity and smartness (in more than one sense) that was not evident in most of their peers.
Even before the release of 2004's self-titled debut album, Franz Ferdinand's history had acquired the status of near myth. The band reportedly came together after two of the members were involved in an altercation over a bottle of vodka. They played their first gig in a bedroom-cum-art show in front of 80 girls, and hosted shows/mixed art events on the seventh floor of a disused art deco warehouse dubbed the Chateau. Nicely, given their rapid ascent to the pages of the UK's tabloids and broadsheets, the band held a healthy disdain for celebrity culture in the twentieth/twenty-first century: "So I'm on BBC2 now/Telling Terry Wogan how I made it/But what I made isn't clear", sang Kapranos on the track "Matinee". What initially appeared to be a boast of "I am the new Scottish gentry" on "Shopping For Blood", was suffixed by the line "Anglicised vowels, sub-London thoughts" and was apparently (sarcastically) directed at those in Glasgow who simply aped their peers in London. Although signed to independent label Domino Records (partly, it transpires because the label head cooked for them rather than taking them out for a flash meal), Franz Ferdinand's second single, "Take Me Out", reached the Top 3 in the UK singles chart, showing the band could take their edgy, kinetic pop into the mainstream. Further reward followed in September when Franz Ferdinand was awarded the prestigious Mercury Music Prize.
By the end of 2004, Franz Ferdinand was playing arena-sized shows and making inroads into the American market, completing their remarkable rise from humble origins to mainstream acceptance. The band spent most of 2005 working in their Scottish studio on the follow-up to their debut album. The first release to emerge from the sessions was the upbeat stomper "Do You Want To", a UK Top 5 single in September. The attendant You Could Have It So Much Better debuted at the top of the UK album chart the following month.
