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The Super Furry Animals went on hiatus in 2010, while band members pursued other musical projects. SFA played their hits at a series of festivals last year, but they have produced nothing new since 2009's excellent Dark Days/Light Years.
In 2008, SFA drummer Dafydd Ieuan and bassist Guto Price invited actor Rhys Ifans (who was the Super Furry Animals' original singer) to form a band called The Peth. In the Welsh language, The Peth means The Thing, but the similarity to "the piss" was surely intentional, considering the album cover and its title, The Golden Mile.
Impish puns are part of the Super Furries' world. The name of SFA singer Gruff Rhys' earlier band Ffa Coffi Pawb is literally translated as "Everybody's Coffee Beans" but sounds like "fuck off everyone" in Welsh. One of the Peth's songs is subtitled "Flock of Zeigheils". A second Peth album was supposedly recorded and christened Crystal Peth, but it has never been released. SFA is also known for making up stories for gullible reporters.
The music of The Peth is similar to the early Super Furries' sound: upbeat and irreverent rock songs with great harmonies. Rhys Ifans is a capable singer, as good or better than other actors who have dabbled in music. Ifans was apparently a bit of a wildman back when he was SFA's singer, and the Peth song "Let's Go Fucking Mental" might be a personal anthem. (If you've never seen the 1997 movie "Twin Town" with Rhys and his brother Llŷr Ifans, I highly recommend it. Reviewers dismissed it as a "Trainspotting" ripoff, but it's much better than that, and it has a brilliant ending.)
For me, the Peth song that has stuck in my brain the longest is "Sunset Veranda", and I've tacked a remix onto the end of the album. If you're a fan of the Super Furry Animals or the actor Rhys Ifans, or if you're just curious about a group that Ifans described as a "Satanic ABBA", have at it and go fucking mental! If not, you can peth off.
https://mega.nz/#!uN5mBSYT!atW0sVm1U6SNe428VQCMsBe8PeGiJl9Y7irjyIWmzRU
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