The fnormidable (groan...) Fnords will be playing at the Franklin Fest 2016 afternoon showcase on Saturday 25th at The Leith Depot from 1:30pm with other Scottish based bands The No-Things, Fanny Pelmet & The Bastard Suits, Geek Maggot Bingo, and the mysterious The Nettles. I spoke with the band to check out excitement levels, and take a wee peak into their secret psychic world...

Debbie: What's imminent for The Fnords?

We're still working towards the notoriously difficult second album.  Fnordstime runs at a much slower pace than reality, so it's to be expected that it's us taken a long time, but we've got enough new material written now (about soviet spysex, horror movie icons, victorian seance tricks and some other stuff...) that we're gonna be thinking about recording soon (hooray).  Whatever soon means... Gigswise, we've playing at the Flying Duck in Glasgow on July 23rd, and we're playing with teen riot grrrl sensations Bratakus in Elvis Shakespeare on August 14th!

Debbie: What makes The Fnords, The Fnords? (please show answers numerically)  

Number of Fnords: 3 - Caz, Derek, Sarah

Number of years together: 10

Number of cats owned by various Fnords: 4

Number of Fnords albums: 1 (Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Fnords, 2010, Kovorox Sound)

Number of gigs played: over 100, skewed by the fact that we only played once in the first 2 years in a village hall in darkest Stirlingshire.  On bonfire night.  We ate in a hotel that looked like the Overlook, but with added taxidermy.  Spooky.

Number of horror films seen by various Fnords - at least 2000 (probably)

Number of mistakes in the average Fnords show: 5

Number of fucks given about said mistakes: nil

Debbie: Have you been rehearsing tirelessly for your stint at the Franklin Fest?

We may rarely rehearse (it keeps us 'fresh'(ahem)), but we have been in special psychic training as part of a secret governmental control scheme.  We'll know if you don't come and see us, and will instigate a bizarre form of telekinesis that will cause you to lose small but important objects from your home.  This will prove annoying.  So it's probably in your own interest to come and watch us play.

Debbie: Big up the organisers...

Franklin Fest is putting on some of the best current wave of garage bands, it will be a joy and a pleasure to be part of it this year. Plus, it's always good to catch up with friends in Edinburgh!

Main photo copyright Liz Tainsh 2016

With many thanks to The Fnords for their contribution. I can't exactly remember the price of the afternoon show as a separate entity, but you can buy tickets for the whole weekend here... tickets-scotland.com details of further upcoming shows can be found on their facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/The-Fnords-182418645133589/

In the run up to this years Franklin Fest in Edinburgh, our very own Girl in the Garage @ Muso's Guide will be profiling some of the acts taking part, as well as chatting to the organisers and DJ's (or at least the one's who replied to my questions!).   

First up are Brazilian and Danish garage rock duo - The Courettes, who will be playing on Friday 24th June (that's a week on Friday already!) before hot-footing it down to the Big Smoke to play at the Weirdsville club night with Les Darlings on Saturday 25th. 

Daringly describing themselves as 'A blast of Jungle wildness & Scandinavian rock 'n' roll! and ‘Riot grrrl in the garage’. Let me introduce to you Flavia Couri on atomic fuzz guitar and screaming raw vocals, and ‘Beat! Beat! Beat! man’ Martin Couri on loud as hell drums. They are one of the busiest bands on the scene. Juggling gigs and family life, is just a walk in the park... 

Debbie: What are you guys up to at the moment in terms of gigs/releases?

The Courettes will bring the brand new single 'Boom! Dynamite!' + B-side killer 'T-C-H-A-U' recorded at Toe Rag Studios and produced by Liam Watson. And for those who still don't have we're also bringing our debut album Here are The Courettes, released in 2015. Still unreleased split 7' 'Hoodoo Ho' by The Courettes + 'Big Butt Bonnie' by Powersolo is also in our suitcase.

We played this year at The Cosmic Trip Festival in France, the Garageville in Germany, the SPOT Festival in Denmark - from where we got a great review by Rolling Stone's David Fricke  - and we are gonna be at Gutter Island Festival in Denmark and the great Franklin Fest in Scotland. We have one more show in the UK the 25th in London at Weirdsville.

Debbie: For those not in the know, would you like to tell our readers a bit about yourselves? 

The Courettes' history is full of interesting facts! It all began 10.000 km apart. Flavia (from Brazil) met Martin (from Denmark) on a tour in Brazil in 2013 with our former bands and fell in love. Now together in life and music, we are The Courettes! In February this year, two became three with the arrival of our baby boy Lennon (Debbie: sweeet!! congratulations!!). The very day after his birth, we played a show! We went straight from the hospital to the soundcheck. We're always up to some full-speed garage madness!

Debbie: Love it. Why should we come and see you play at the Franklin Fest (if the above is not reason enough!)?

You should come and see us play at the Franklin Fest if you're up to some wild fuzz guitars, go-go rhythms and riot grrrrl from Ipanema screaming! And I bet you never saw a half Danish half Brazilian band before, huh?

Debbie: You've sold me. What you are looking forward to the most about playing at the Franklin Fest?

We are really looking forward to play in Scotland for the first time! And also to play with so many cool bands, it's really a great line up!

We can't disagree with that. Thank you so much to Flavia and Martin for taking the time out to chat to Muso's Guide.

Links for tickets to the Franklin Fest can be purchased here:

http://www.franklinfest.co.uk/franklinfest2015/ticket-sales/

https://www.facebook.com/courettes

https://soundcloud.com/thecourettes