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For the historical figure, see Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. For other uses, see Franz Ferdinand (disambiguation).

Origin	Glasgow, Scotland
Genre(s)	Indie rock[1] Pop[2] Art rock[3] Post-punk[4]
Years active	2001—present
Label(s)	Domino Records (UK & Europe) Epic Records (USA) Sony Music (Japan)
Associated acts	The Karelia Embryo Yummy Fur
Website	www.franzferdinand.co.uk
Members
Alex Kapranos Nick McCarthy Bob Hardy Paul Thomson

Franz Ferdinand are an indie rock band, formed in Glasgow, Scotland in 2001. Named after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the band comprises Alex Kapranos on lead vocals and guitar, Bob Hardy on bass guitar, Nick McCarthy on rhythm guitar, keyboards, and backing vocals, and Paul Thomson on drums, percussion, and backing vocals.

After the poor charting of their first single "Darts of Pleasure", the band saw chart success after their second single "Take Me Out (released 12 January 2004)^[5] reached #3 in the UK Charts^[6] followed by their debut album Franz Ferdinand (released 9 February 2004)^[7] which debuted on the UK album chart at #3^[8]. The band went on to win the 2004 Mercury Music Prize^[9] and two BRIT Awards in 2005^[10] for Best British Group and Best British Rock Act. From the album, three top ten singles were released, the smash hit and critically acclaimed "Take Me Out", "The Dark of the Matinée", This Fire (download) followed by "Michael" which reached #17 due to CD1 breaking chart rules which led to sales of that format being disqualified.

The band's second album, You Could Have It So Much Better, charted at #1 in the UK^[11] selling 101,884 copies in its first week, giving birth to top ten hit "Do You Want To" and other hits such as "Walk Away" and "The Fallen". Despite their debut album making them a household name in America, You Could Have It So Much Better broke the charts making it to #8,^[12], in a market which ignored British bands such as Blur and Pulp.

Contents 1 History 2 Debut album and mainstream success 3 You Could Have It So Much Better 4 Next album 5 Collaborations 6 Name 7 Art 7.1 Videos 8 Discography 8.1 Studio albums 9 Awards 10 Usage in the media 10.1 Games 10.2 Campaigns 10.3 Previews 10.4 Television 10.5 Film 10.6 Books 10.7 Other 11 Music samples 12 Notes 13 References 14 External links

Apart from Hardy all the members of Franz Ferdinand were in various non-mainstream bands during the 1990s including The Karelia, The Yummy Fur, 10p Invaders and Embryo.

Some time around the end of 2001, Bob Hardy was sitting in Alex's kitchen in Glasgow. Alex had just been given a bass by his friend Mick, on the condition that he did 'something useful' with it. So he asked "Do you want to learn to play the bass then, Bob?", to which he replied, "No, I'm an artist, not a musician." Alex responded, saying, "It's the same thing", which eventually led to Hardy giving in.^[13]

Kapranos met co-guitarist Nick McCarthy at a party. Alex went with his own drink, as was tradition in that particular place, whereas Nick had a different idea: to try and steal other people's drinks without getting caught. Nick tried to steal Alex's vodka, but he was caught and a fight broke out. When asked if he knew how to play the drums, McCarthy said that he could. However, when they met up in McCarthy's flat, this didn't seem the case. "...when he said he could play the drums what he meant was that he could hit them but in no coherent order". Undeterred, they began to rehearse together at McCarthy's house.^[14]. McCarthy was classically trained on the piano and double bass but initially tried to play drums. The trio met up with Paul Thomson who had played drums with Yummy Fur. Thomson was originally going to play guitar because he wanted to try something other than drums.

Nick and Alex decided that they needed somewhere bigger than Nick's home to play music in. Hunting for property, they went for a walk along the disused railway line that crosses over Paddy's market and the Clyde. They discovered two things: that the line wasn't disused after all, and a huge abandoned art-deco warehouse that overlooked the Clyde. They tracked down the landlord, and they persuaded him to give them the keys to the 6th floor. They were successful, eventually naming their new residence "the Château", and they made it their home.^[15]

After evicting the pigeons and fixing the windows, they found an electrician who managed to wire the building in a way that left the electricity board innocent of the knowledge that they were supplying the power.^[16] Eventually, though, the police went driving around the block, trying to find a way into where the noise was coming from. After some weeks, they found their way in and shut the events down because of the band running an illegal bar and contravening various health and safety, fire hazard and noise abatement legislation. Alex took most of the blame because he was the only one who didn't run away. When he was talking to the police down at the cells, they said that they had been looking for the place for a month.^[17]

On Tobago Street there is a Victorian courtroom and gaol. When McCarthy discovered it, it had been abandoned for over 30 years. It was ideal for the band.^[18]

In a 2004 interview with VH1, Alex Kapranos described the sound they were seeking. "On songs like 'Come on Home,' we wanted to sound like Donna Summer and Link Wray mixed together, but it doesn't sound like that at all! We thought we could sound like Prince, too, but what we were really trying to do was take on the attitudes of different bands and combine them in our own way."^[19]

In April 2003, the band put up a gig in the Glasgow School of Art that was intended as a sign of gratitude towards their fans rather than anything else. Alex remembers, "we were expecting it just to be another gig at the art school, then we saw the guest list and there were about forty labels on it. There was a guy holding up a mobile phone to the stage while we were playing. We arranged to meet some of these guys and it felt like some daft Carry On film, or a Terry and June episode. You had to keep them separate. They were all giving each other dirty looks. One asked us to sign on the night and I never thought that would happen." Paul said, "We hadn't really thought of record label deals at the time, we were just doing for the fun and sheer excitement".

In May 2003, the band signed to Laurence Bell's small but respected independant label, Domino, Alex said "Laurence had a totally different attitude from the other labels. He never said he'd buy us some big fancy meal - he cooked us dinner instead. We liked him and his deals. He has real enthusiasm and genuine love for music."^[20]

The band had recorded an EP worth of material which they intended to release themselves. Domino Records offered them a contract to release an EP called Darts of Pleasure in the latter part of 2003. NME editor Connor McNicholas said, "My first contact with Franz Ferdinand was when someone was playing the Darts of Pleasure demos, in the NME office, and it was genuinely one of those moments when a track goes on and I come bundling out of my office saying "what the hell is this because this is amazing" it was therefore no surprise the band won the "Phillip Hall Radar Award" at the NME Awards of 2004 (announced in late 2003). Furthermore, the NME described the band as The Next Big Thing and featured the band on the front cover describing them as The Band That Will Change Your Life. After the first album was released in the USA on Domino, the band signed with Sony Music Japan in Japan and Epic Records for the United States in late 2004.

Franz played the Carling stage in 2003 alongside bands such as Razorlight and Keane. Kapranos came onto the stage and sang "I am the new Scottish gentry" [the first line from b-side Shopping for Blood], and the crowd erupted into excitement. The band then performed Take Me Out, Alex was astonished at the reaction it got, "You could tell there was some sort of buzz. We were playing in a tent and it was crammed, the single wasn't even out yet...". Afterwards, Dotmusic (now Yahoo! Music) remarked, "With their thermometer currently as hot as Jay Z with MDMA goggles, eyeing Beyonce's almost illegal booty cut-down denims, the word on this Glaswegian four piece. Indeed, Dot Music finds itself in an almost partisan tent, buzzing with... anticipation." "Franz Ferdinand do little new and are surfing on the New Wave 20 years late."

Darts of Pleasure was released on 8 September 2003 as an EP, the cover art was designed by Thomson. With the release, Franz were acclaimed as "the saviours of rock and roll" John Peel gave them airtime. It reached #43 in the UK chart; the band were chuffed, saying "we couldn't believe we were in the UK top 50".

The band moved to Tambourine Studios in Malmö, Sweden with Cardigans producer Tore Johansson and started to record their debut album, and planning their next single, the single that would change everything. In January, Franz Ferdinand's single Take Me Out would propel them into the charts with a pop consciousness that no guitar band had done for years. The lyrics could have been a metaphor for two people exchanging glances across a dancefloor, however, it could have been a straightforward reference to the thought of two snipers, each trying to take each other out. Alex however cancelled out any attempts of clever lyrics, "The music we hate is that of earnest boys making complicated music for other earnest boys. there's nothing finer than seeing people dancing to your song; so we make music easy to dance to".

Take Me Out eventually reached #3 in the charts, it was a single "made for the radio" and dominated airwaves in that time. It appealed to a wide audience and it is claimed that it helped indie fans and pop fans comprehend each other.

Franz Ferdinand have been quoted as saying they wanted to make "music that girls can dance to."^[21] This was combined with their art school background on their self-titled debut released in early 2004. It debuted at number 3 in the UK Albums Chart in February 2004 and at number 12 in the Australian album charts in April 2004. While the album had only reached the lowest levels of the Billboard 200 album charts in the US as of early 2004, it reached the top 5 of the indie rock chart and the Heatseeker chart for debut artists. After a couple of North American tours and heavy rotation of the "Take Me Out" video on MTV, the album eventually reached No. 32 on the Billboard 200 later in 2004 and has been certified platinum in the US for sales exceeding 1,000,000.

The Franz Ferdinand album received a generally strong positive response from critics. NME said that the band was the latest in the line of art school rock bands featuring Duran Duran, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Roxy Music, the Sex Pistols, Wire, Travis and Blur. It rated the album as 9 out of 10 and said: "This album is the latest and most intoxicating example of the wonderful pushing its way up between the ugly slabs of Pop Idol, nu metal and Britons aping American bands. What these blossoming bands have in common is the absolute conviction that rock ‘n’ roll is more than a career option."

The BBC's review of the album said: "At only 38 minutes long Franz Ferdinand may not be a particularly long album, but it is a masterpiece of funky, punky, suave cool from the first track to the last."^[3] The All Music Guide rated the album as four out of five stars and said "Franz Ferdinand ends up being rewarding in different ways than the band's previous work was, but it's apparent that they're still one of the more exciting groups to come out of the garage-rock / post-punk revival."^[22]

On September 7, 2004 the album was awarded the 2004 Mercury Music Prize. Take Me Out gained first place in the Australian Triple J Hottest 100 for 2004, winning more than twice the votes of the second-place entry. Franz Ferdinand proceeded to win an Ivor Novello Award in 2004 and two BRIT Awards in 2005. The avant-garde music video for Take Me Out earned them a Breakthrough Video MTV Award.

The NME named Franz Ferdinand the best album of 2004^[23], and also placed it 38th on their 100 Best Albums of All Time list.^[24]

The band spent much of 2005 in the studio in Scotland working on their follow-up album, You Could Have It So Much Better, which was released on 3 October 2005. Throughout the recording process, the band had intended to leave the album self-titled like their debut, but they changed it to You Could Have It So Much Better...With Franz Ferdinand before settling on the current title. The first live performance of their new music came as the band headlined at the V Festival in August 2005.

After the ecstatic reception of their debut, some reviews towards the new album became more polarized, with some complaints that the recording was rushed. However, it generally was critically acclaimed and seen as an album equal to, or better than their first by most critics, including the NME. It entered the UK Album Charts at Number 1 and the US charts at Number 8.

The album is less associated with art music and dance, with the band taking a more raw, indie-rock-style approach. This stylistic change was reflected in more lively live shows, featuring band members jumping off the drum kit, smashing guitars and rolling around on stage.

On the tour that followed the album release, Franz broke the record for the longest run at the Alexandra Palace, North London, by playing 4 sold out nights during November-December 2005.

To support the album, four singles have been released. Included in that set is a double A-side single that contained a video-clip only single as well (both the AA-side "L. Wells" and the video-clip "Jeremy Fraser" are not featured on the album, recorded in early 2006 during the band's tour of Australia in support of the album). Also included is another video-clip-only single called "Wine In the Afternoon" which is the B-side to Eleanor Put Your Boots On, and was also not featured on the album, but recorded on tour in Michigan. "Do You Want To" made it to number 4, while "Walk Away" and "The Fallen" / "L. Wells" entered the top 15 of the UK Singles Chart. The 4th and final single from the second album, "Eleanor Put Your Boots On" peaked at number 30.

Main article: Franz Ferdinand's third album

According to NME in 2005, the band had no intentions to stop and continued to record at a relentless pace.^[25] It was actually in January of 2006 when the band began new recording sessions, coinciding with some dates in Australia and New Zealand: "Then we’ll see how many songs we’ve got together but we’re talking about going into the studio at the end of January." Kapranos explained. "We’re popping over to Australia and New Zealand at the end of January as well, as you do. It’s brilliant, I’m looking forward to that. We get to miss the Scottish winter, which is not a bad thing at all."^[26]

The band revealed in early September 2006 that they were going to take a break after headlining the Carling Weekend^[27] and playing two shows in Brazil.

As of March 8, 2006, the band finally began meeting to work on their third album and March 13, 2007, Alex Kapranos and Nick McCarthy spoke exclusively to Xfm about their next album. Alex had this to say regarding the next album.

"Nick and I are writing some more tunes. We’ve got a wee place in Glasgow where we’re doing some new songs. Its a wee bit different from last stuff but still very danceable, that’s the main thing. It’s always pop. Franz Ferdinand has always been pop".^[28]

On February 14, 2007, Bonnaroo released the initial 2007 lineup, which included Franz Ferdinand, the two confirmed that this would be the only festival they'll perform in that year, despite initial plans to not perform live at all that year. In the same interview held with XFM discussing the next album, Alex said this to XFM.

"We’re gonna play Bonnaroo [in the US alongside The Police, White Stripes and Flaming Lips], but no British festivals. We don’t really want to play any British festivals until we’ve written a bunch of new songs for people to hear. I don’t really see the point of keeping on going out and playing the same old stuff again and again. You wanna come back with something exciting".^[29]

Despite what he what he said, on September 22nd Franz Ferdinand actually not only played a UK festival, they headlined at Loopallu, a festival which at the time was in its third year, held in the village of Ullapool in the north west Highlands. They played a mix of old and new tracks in a tent by the side of Loch Broom.

It was in December, 2006 that the actual band members took control of their own MySpace page, they used it as an advantage to upload video updates and on March 26, 2007, a video of them recording an instrumental song dubbed Flight of the Galvatron was uploaded. On May 9, 2007, Alex updated the band's MySpace blog with brief mentions of two songs, entitled A New Thrill and English Goodbye. Alex clarifies, "The latter is about the expression 'saying an English goodbye', not a call for Scottish independence." The band actually debuted the two songs in Spring 2007 in a live show in Glasgow. In addition, they played "Favourite Lie", "Turn It On", and "Anyone In Love". On May 30, 2007, Rock'n Coke Festival in Istanbul released the lineup, which included Franz Ferdinand.

Alex Kapranos once again updated the bands MySpace blog to inform that at the Hey You Get Off My Pavement show, that they were playing in front of Glasgow's Mono featured three brand new songs. Their working titles were "Live Alone," "Kathrine Kiss Me," and "Ulysses."

At The Edinburgh International Film Festival on August 15, 2007, (the premiere of the movie Hallam Foe) Nick and Alex performed a short acoustic set. They performed a new song entitled "Kathrine Kiss Me" along with "Hallam Foe, Dandelion Blow" and crowd favorites, "Dark of the Matinee" and "Jacqueline."

In late August 2007, the Official Site was simply a black background with "Not Yet" in grey letters at the bottom right. This has prompted plenty of speculation that the third album would be coming soon and some also believed that "Not Yet" may indeed have turned out to be the title of the third album, however as of October 22nd, FranzFerdinand.co.uk took off the words Not Yet and featured instead an image of the band against a brick wall in black and white. The website was still titled "Not Yet".

On November 24, drummer Paul Thomson was featured in the NME as he was at the Hauser and Wirth. He spoke of a song from the next album called "Ulysses" and confirmed that it featured a collaboration from Anri Sala. Paul said, "I liked the idea that the song wasn't out yet, and that it's being taken apart and put back together again by someone who hasn't even heard the original. It will be on the album and may well be a single too, maybe as multiple B-sides... We've recorded a couple of songs with different producers. We're doing a song at a time. Hopefully we'll start recording around December and get it out before the summer. The last album was very much a well-oiled live unit going in and writing a record. This time we've had a chance to reconvene after having six months off and learnt to play our instruments a bit differently."^[30]

The next day Alex Kapranos was interviewed by the Daily Record where he spoke more about the next album. "We've been recording a couple of songs in the last two weeks. We'll keep on recording until Christmas and will have the album out in the new year. The strangest instrument we've been using is an old Russian synthesiser built from spare parts in the Cold War. This guy couldn't get synthesisers in Russia but heard about them and decided to build one from what he heard they were like. He used whatever components he could get hold of. It sounds like a normal synthesiser, only a lot weirder."^[31][32]

In the 3rd issue of the Franz Ferdinand Fan Cub, they put the lyrics of a new and yet unheard song 'Lucid Dreams'.

To meet Wikipedia's quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup because it is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this section to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (December 2007)

• Franz Ferdinand covered the LCD Soundsystem song All My Friends which appeared as a B-side on the single. They have also made covers of Sexy Boy by Air and It Won't Be Long by The Beatles. They have also done a few covers for BBC Radio One, including Pulp's popular single Mis-Shapes, Gwen Stefani's top 5 hit What You Waiting For? and a cover of David Bowie's song Sound And Vision for a compilation disc marking the 40th anniversary of BBC Radio One along with other leading artists.

• In an interview with the Sunday Mail on September 9 2007, Alex spoke of the bands cover of David Bowie's "Sound and Vision" for the Radio 1: Established 1967 compilation album.

“

I asked Girls Aloud to do the famous 'doo doo doo doo doo doo' backing vocals on Sound And Vision. They were in the studio working on their own record so I went next door and asked them. They're pretty laid back so it was a music marriage made in heaven - the song worked really well.[33]

”

Alex also implied that the band was working with Xenomania on the new album, as Alex is a fan of their work with Girls Aloud.^[34]

“

We've been interested in Brian for years. His production of Girls Aloud's Wake Me Up first caught my attention. I remember thinking: 'What the hell is that? It's amazing'. There was something about their sound which was immediate but dangerous - rare in a girl group. It was really edgy. I've a lot of admiration for the Xenomania team. It may seem odd as they're the complete opposite to us but there are lots of similarities. We're both a collection of independently-minded people who want to do things their way. Franz Ferdinand have much more in common with Girls Aloud than certain other bands.

”

• Franz Ferdinand have had remixes by major electronic artists Daft Punk, Hot Chip, Justice, and Erol Alkan.

• Franz Ferdinand recorded a cover of The Fire Engines song Get Up and Use Me. In return, the Fire Engines recorded a cover of Jacqueline.

• Alex produced The Cribs' third album, Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever in Vancouver, along with their single only track Don't You Wanna Be Relevant?.

• The band performed played and recorded with Jane Birkin, covering the Serge Gainsbourg song "Sorry Angel" for the 2005 album Monsieur Gainsbourg Revisited.

• Kapranos sang on the Handsome Boy Modelling School track "World's Gone Mad," and provides backing vocals on the song "Jarhand" by Immaculate Machine.

• In early 2005, Kanye West declared Franz Ferdinand to be his favourite band, and coined the term white crunk to describe the band's gritty drum sounds. West and the band met at the 2005 MTV Europe Music Awards, where they sat down together to share praise and advice. West feels that the white crunk vibe has affected his new work, and is best exemplified on the track "Diamonds from Sierra Leone", from his 2005 album Late Registration. The band itself is also greatly influenced by Kanye and sought advice from him on how to improve production for their 2005 album You Could Have It So Much Better.^{[citation needed]}

• Rapper Snoop Dogg has also declared an admiration for the band, and famously expressed interest in collaborating with the group, though he could not remember the band's name at the time. He stated: "I'm working on an album that I plan to do with a lot of European artists ... I wanna do something with the people that sang "Take Me Out"." In response, Kapranos playfully replied, "Someone told me the guy who does "Drop It Like It's Hot" wants to collaborate with us... That's great. I love that song and like his style."^[35]

• In 2006, Franz Ferdinand, Death Cab for Cutie and The Cribs went on a joint-headline tour, primarily of shows at universities.^{[citation needed]}

• Andy Knowles has served as a live support member of the band, as an auxiliary keyboardist and second drummer. Knowles has not appeared on an album, but drums on "Brown Onions," an instrumental B-side on The Fallen / L. Wells double A-Side single. He is also seen briefly in the video for Walk Away.

• At the 2006 Reading Festival, Madness drummer Daniel Woodgate (Woody) appeared with the band on stage and played on the song 'Outsiders'. When they performed the song on the Jools Holland show, Jamie Hince of The Kills, Ross Jarman of The Cribs and Kieran Hebden joined them as drummers.

• Last October 8 of 2006 Nick McCarthy did a special appearance at a concert for the Mexican band Zoé at the Palacio de los Deportes, where he performed "Human Space Volt".

• At the 2005 Grammies, the band performed Take Me Out as a live medley with Los Lonely Boys, Maroon 5, Black Eyed Peas and Gwen Stefani.

• The band met Gorillaz in December 2005, and interviewed each other for a feature in Observer Music Monthly.^[36]

• The band is also working on an album of Sparks covers, collaborating with the group on the recordings.^[37]

• Franz re recorded the track Brown Onions for David Shringley's compilation album "Worried Noodles".^[38]The band kept instrumentation identical but used lyrics written by Shringley which include the consistent repetition of the word "No" and occasionally "No brains, no teeth, no legs, no eyes...". Hot Chip a band who, it is reported are a favourite of Franz Ferdinand also performed their own version of "No" on the same album.

The name of the band was originally inspired by a racehorse called The Archduke.^[39] After seeing the horse run on television the band began to discuss Archduke Franz Ferdinand and thought it would be a good band name because of the sound of the name and the implications of the Archduke's death (his assassination was the most significant of many factors which led to World War I). They discussed it in a very early interview with the Scottish magazine Is This Music?^[40]

"Mainly we just liked the way it sounded," says Bob. "We liked the alliteration." "He was an incredible figure as well," continues Alex. "His life, or at least the ending of it, was the catalyst for the complete transformation of the world ... he was a pivot for history. But I don't want to over-intellectualise the name thing. Basically a name should just sound good ... like music." Paul has a much grander notion. "I like the idea that, if we become popular, maybe the words Franz Ferdinand will make people think of the band instead of the historical figure."^[41]

The song "Take Me Out", on the band's first album, was the second single to be released by the band. The single release of "Take Me Out" came with the B side, "All For You Sophia", based on the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife, whose name was Sophie, not Sophia. The band changed the name Sophie to Sophia to give the song a better ring to it.

The band is notable for its use of Russian avant-garde imagery in album and single covers. Examples include "You Could Have It So Much Better" which references a 1924 portrait of Lilya Brik by Alexander Rodchenko, "Take Me Out", which references One-Sixth Part of the World also by Alexander Rodchenko, "This Fire", which references Beat the white with the Red wedge by El Lissitzky and "Michael", with single art based on A Proun by Lissitzky.

Also, in "Outsiders", the lyrics "In seventeen years will you still be Camille, Lee Miller, Gala or whatever" are a reference to the lovers of the artists Auguste Rodin, Man Ray and Salvador Dalí.

Many of the videos to promote the band's singles take inspiration from Russian avant-garde much like their CD sleeves.

The avant-garde music video for Take Me Out, directed by Jonas Odell, was inspired by Dadaism, Busby Berkeley choreographies and Russian constructivist design.^[42] Alex Kapranos explained the many and varied influences behind the '30s-style promo for second single 'Take Me Out'.

"It's kind of two dimensional in a three dimensional style if that makes any sense. It's a montage of images; ourselves, pictures and things taken from other places and put together in a strange, abstract way. That's what gives the video that strange, jerky, style".^[43] The video for This Fffire is similar to Take Me Out in style.

The lyrics of Do You Want To make reference to parties at the 'trendy' Glasgow art gallery Transmission and the video includes a satire of the work of contemporary artist Vanessa Beecroft.

Main article: Franz Ferdinand discography

• Franz Ferdinand (2004)
• You Could Have It So Much Better (2005)

Year	Award	Category
2004	Mercury Prize	Mercury Prize
	NME Awards	Philip Hall Radar Award
	Q Awards	Best Video (Take Me Out)
2005	BRIT Awards	Best Group
	BRIT Awards	Best British Rock Act
	NME Awards	Best Track (Take Me Out)
	NME Awards	Best Album (Franz Ferdinand)
2006	NME Awards	Best Live Band

• "Take Me Out" was featured in the EA Sports video games, Madden NFL 2005 and NHL 2005, Codemasters Club Football 2005, and Guitar Hero by Harmonix.

• Sony's Singstar karaoke Series on the Playstation 2 featured "Take Me Out" on the "Party" collection and "Do You Want To" was included in the "Rocks" collection.

• "Do You Want To" is included in the lineup of licensed songs in Konami's Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA for the Playstation 2. "Take Me Out" is featured as a licensed track on Dance Dance Revolution Universe 2 for Xbox 360.

• "Michael" was featured in Gran Turismo 4 on the Playstation 2.

• "Tell Her Tonight" was featured in FIFA 2005.

• "This Fire" was in Burnout 3: Takedown, made by EA Games and Criterion Games.

• During the 2005 general election campaign, the band, who feel strongly about environmental issues, donated This Fire as the background music for the election broadcasts by the three UK Green parties. The TV broadcasts, directed by Alex Cox and produced by Kim Ryan, were screened on 28 April, 2005 across all UK terrestrial channels.^[44]

• Take Me Out was used in an ad campaign for Sony's PlayStation Portable game system (PSP). Do You Want To was used in an ad campaign for Sony's Walkman players (in Japan).

• "Do You Want To" is used in a commercial for L'Oreal Vive Pro shampoo and conditioner

• Part of "40 Feet" is used in the TV trailer for the movie "A Good Year"

• This Boy is used in German previews for the TV series Jimmy Neutron.

• The intro of "40' " was used in the Dutch previews for the TV series "Catscratch"

• Part of the song I'm Your Villain was used in a preview for the 2006 film "The Guardian".

• Do You Want To was used in a preview for the 2007 film "Good Luck Chuck."

• "Do You Want To" was also used to promote the films "Fun with Dick and Jane" and "Daddy Day Camp".

• The beginning of "40' " was also used in a television commercial for the film "In Good Company" in 2004 and also for the film "A Good Year" in 2006.

• "Take Me Out`` was featured in the preview of the movie Madagascar.

• The song "Come on Home" features on "Almost: Round Three" , a skateboarding video by Almost Skateboarding Company and played in Cooper Wilt's part. And also features on "Live 8" DVD, the follow up to "Live Aid". Music from the song is played at the beginning of the DVD, during the explanation of what Live 8 was. Also, the intro was used in Brazilian MTV Travel show Mochilão MTVopening. The keyboard solo and intro were also used in Sky One science program "Brainiac".

• The song "Take Me Out" is used as the theme music for Australian Television Program "Any Given Sunday." In Australia it is also used on Channel Ten's Sports Tonight. The song is also used on Eurosport channel, when it advertises Eurosport 2 and was included on the kid-oriented album Kidz Bop 8, and the TV show Video Mods.

• "Do You Want To" was also used in the second episode of the third season of the series The O.C., in an episode of Malcolm in the Middle, on CSI and as the ending theme music to the Paradise Kiss anime television series.

• "The Fallen" is in the episode Party girl of Without a trace and on The Real Hustle.

• The song "Darts of Pleasure" appeared briefly in an episode of Entourage.

• The song "40' " appears in the BBC documentary "Teenagers hooked on porn".

• Hallam Foe Dandelion Blow was written specifically for the film Hallam Foe, other Domino artists contributed music as well. Hallam Foe premiered at the Berlin Film Festival on the February 16, 2007 and competed for the Golden Bear for Best Motion Picture. The film won the Silver Bear for Best Music.

During his break, Alex Kapranos involved himself in various activities such as book writing. His book is called, "Sound Bites: Eating on Tour with Franz Ferdinand"^[45] and in August 2006 Alex and Nick managed to find time to appear at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, and took part in a songwriting session for the festival.

• On November 22, 2007 in an interview with the Daily Record, Alex Kapranos showed interest in writing his own musical. "After we've finished this album, we're definitely going to look more at doing some other things. We hear Belle And Sebastian were working on a musical film and possibly I'd like to write a musical too. Who knows? Maybe I'll write one for the stage rather than for film."^[46][47]

• Take Me Out is featured in "Weird Al" Yankovic's Polkarama! from his 2006 album, 'Straight Outta Lynwood," as the second song in the polka-themed medley.

• The main riff to "Take Me Out" is often sampled during Gym Class Heroes concerts to various songs.

• "The Fallen" was used as the theme song for the internet meme Smash Our Stuff series (SmashMyWii, SmashMyPS3, SmashMyiPod, etc).

• During Fright Fest at Six Flags Great Adventure, the fire breathing show "Toarch" used "This Fire" as one of its main songs.

• Hiatt, Brian (2005). "Hot Scots - Franz Ferdinand get rock fans dancing again" Rolling Stone (accessed June 16, 2006)

• Franz Ferdinand's official website
• Franz Ferdinand at MySpace
• Franz Ferdinand's official website

v • d • e Franz Ferdinand
Alex Kapranos · Robert Hardy · Nicholas McCarthy · Paul Thomson
Studio albums	Franz Ferdinand · You Could Have It So Much Better
Singles	"Darts of Pleasure" · "Take Me Out" · "The Dark of the Matinée" · "Michael" · "This Fire" · "Do You Want To" · "Walk Away" · "The Fallen / L. Wells" · "Eleanor Put Your Boots On"
Other releases	Darts of Pleasure (EP)  · Franz Ferdinand (DVD)
Related articles	Discography · Upcoming third album · Domino Records · Tore Johansson · Rich Costey · Sound Bites: Eating on Tour with Franz Ferdinand · The Karelia · Yummy Fur