To Us The Beautiful

New album from the wonderful (former Hold Steady man) Franz Nicolay which features Against Me!'s Andrew Seward on Bass and Leftover Crack's Ara Babajian on drums and recorded by J. Robbins. Renowned for his unique delivery and absorption of widely-diverse styles, Franz has shared stages and song writing time with The Hold Steady, New York gypsy-punks Guignol, and Against Me!, as well as playing on records by Frank Turner, The Living End, The Dresden Dolls and The Loved One. Taking its title from a rather lucid Ukrainian toast ? "To us the beautiful, and to those who disagree, may their eyes fall out" - the album has far more of the joyous celebration than the dark acid tongue to it. Influences and inspirations for the record, a list that includes: the Waterboys, Leo Strauss, Ivor Cutler, future of the left, a Scottish girl, a pet rat in Southampton, John Cooper Clarke, the Egyptian Book of the Dead and "other things (that) are in there too," says Franz himself.