Biography

Introduction

Handsome Furs is an electro punk indie rock band from Montreal, Canada. The band is comprised of husband/wife duo Dan Boeckner, from Wolf Parade and Atlas Strategic, and Alexei Perry. The band signed on to Sub Pop Records in late 2006, and released their first full-length album, Plague Park, in 2007. "Handsome Furs" was the title of a short story that Alexei was writing at the time of band's conception.

In a December 2007 interview, Boeckner revealed that the band was in the writing stages of a new full-length album, to be titled Face Control:

"When Alexei and I got back from Russia we were going to do an EP, but we’re also going to do a full album of new songs because we have so many. It’s going to be different than the last record... The last one was so intense and heavy in one direction that we wanted to do something different..."

The inspiration behind Face Control was a peculiar aspect of club culture they observed while on tour in Eastern Europe: if party goers wish to reserve a table at a bar in Moscow, they must pay large sums of money through PayPal or with cash, however their seat is still not guaranteed; bouncers have the authority to turn reserved patrons away from the bar based solely on appearance, which has been termed "face control".

A number of new songs were showcased during their spring tour: "Officer of Hearts", "Heaven", "Legal Tender", and "Radio Kaliningrad". On November 12, 2008, Sub Pop records announced that Handsome Furs' second album Face Control would be released February 3, 2009. Also reported was the album's complete track listing, which includes twelve tracks.

Later the release date was pushed back to March 10; a New Order song is referenced in the track "All We Want, Baby, Is Everything" and this needed to be cleared with the band. The first single from Face Control is "I'm Confused," and the video is directed by Scott Coffey.