History Music / FranzFerdinand

* UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}}: ''Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action'' is a free adaptation from the Noble Eightfold Path.

* {{Ending Theme}}/{{Real Song Theme Tune}}: "Do You Want To" is the ending theme to ''Manga/ParadiseKiss''.
* EvenTheGuysWantHim \ StupidSexyFlanders: "Michael".

* FiveTokenBand: Sort of. Paul is the only one that's purely Scottish. Bob is English, Nick was raised in Germany, and Alex is half-Greek. Note that they don't really play this up, certain...[[YaoiFangirl ahem, fangirls]] do.
* FourTemperamentEnsemble: As further defined:
** Alex: Sanguine
** Nick: Choleric
** Paul: Melancholic
** Bob: Phlegmatic
* GratuitousGerman: the ending of "Darts of Pleasure".

* OlderThanTheyLook: Bob is 35, Alex is 37, Paul is 39 and Nick is '''41'''.

* OopNorth: Other than Paul (who is Glasgow born and raised), the whole band originally hails from here. Alex spent his first eight years in Tyne and Wear,[[note]]Partially in the small city of Washington. As in [[UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington George]]; it's where the first POTUS' ancestors came from. So Alex can claim to be "from Washington" and not be lying.[[/note]] Nick was born in Blackpool (and then grew up in Germany), and Bob is from Bradford in West Yorkshire.

* ViolentGlaswegian: Subverted by how the band started. Nick drunkenly stole Alex's bottle of vodka at a drunken party in (where else?) Glasgow. On the edge of a fight, Alex asks Nick : "Can you play the drums?" (as Paul was the one who originally played the guitar). It turned out he really couldn't, but they switched things around, and a band was born. This fight may or may not have also ended with the two kissing.

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: As Kyle McGovern of Spin magazine noted regarding the "Evil Eye" music video:

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: As one person noted regarding the "Evil Eye" music video:

* OlderThanTheyLook: Bob is 33, Nick is 37, Paul is 39 and Alex is '''41'''.

* TheBackwardsR: In, at minimum, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haW_ruZ_Be8 the video for "This Fire"]].

** ''I'm on [[Creator/TheBBC BBC Two]] now/Telling Radio/TerryWogan how/I made it and/What I made is not clear now/But his laughter is and his deference is...''

* ViolentGlaswegian: Subverted by how the band started. Nick drunkenly stole Alex's bottle of vodka at a drunken party in (where else?) Glasgow. On the edge of a fight, Alex asks Nick : "Can you play the drums?" (as Paul was the one who originally played the guitar). It turned out he really couldn't, but they switched things around, and a band was born. This fight may or may not have also ended with the two kissing.

* Yandere: The FFS song "So Desu Ne".

-->'''FFS''' She's a mountaineer of love \\

* ReligionRantSong: "The Fallen". As Alex would have it, JesusWasWayCool, and were he alive today, would be hanging with the poor and downtrodden, and not the self-declared Christians drinking champagne and riding in limousines. (In other words, [[Creator/FriedrichNietzsche the last Christian died on the Cross]], and [[MahatmaGandhi Christ is so unlike the Christians]]).

* CrossOver: They are currently recording an album with Music/{{Sparks}}.

* ViolentGlaswegian: Subverted by how the band started. Nick drunkenly stole Alex's bottle of vodka at a drunken party in (where else?) Glasgow. On the edge of a fight, Alex asks Nick : "Can you play the drums?" (as Paul was the one who originally played the guitar). It turned out he really couldn't, but they switched things around, and a band was born.
** This fight may or may not have also ended with the two kissing.

* AscendedFanboy: The whole band are one to Music/{{Sparks}}. Around the time Franz's debut came out, Alex wrote a flattering article about them in the NME. Flash forward ten years, and the two bands have recorded an whole album together.

* AscendedFanboy: The whole band are one to Music/Sparks. Around the time Franz's debut came out, Alex wrote a flattering article about them in the NME about them. Ten years later, the two bands have recorded an whole album together.

** In the lyrics booklet, the line "come and dance with me" in "Michael" is preceded by a crossed-out "[[RollingStones come all over me]]."

* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The videos for "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3zzTXNS4Aw L. Wells]]", "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc6l3XeA_94 Jeremy Fraser]]", and "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMfjROpKCnw Bullet]]" and a lot of promotional pictures.

* Unnamed album with Music/{{Sparks}} (In production)

* ''Music/FranzFerdinand2004'' (2004)

* ''Franz Ferdinand'' (2004)

* TheRoaringTwenties: Their first album ''runneth over'' with the references to the '20s--especially in the videos, which are obviously influenced by {{Dada}} and Vkhutemas/Soviet Constructivism.

** "Take Me Out", making use of collage techniques similar to {{Dada}} and Creator/TerryGilliam's animations for Creator/MontyPython.

** ''I'm on [[TheBBC BBC Two]] now/Telling Radio/TerryWogan how/I made it and/What I made is not clear now/But his laughter is and his deference is...''

Franz Ferdinand is a Scottish [[PostPunk post-punk]]/DancePunk band formed in 2002. Their band name is named both after the Austrian archduke whose assassination sparked UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne, as well as a racehorse named Archduke Ferdinand (which was [[NamesTheSame named after the archduke]]).

-->'' "The clip splices together a stomach-turning montage of gross-out footage: Blood spewing from a sink faucet, people getting butchered and dismembered, throats being cut, cannibalism, and frontman Alex Kapranos sporting [[PornStache a dirtbag moustache]].''

Franz Ferdinand is a Scottish [[PostPunk post-punk]]/{{dance-punk}} band formed in 2002. Their band name is named both after the Austrian archduke whose assassination sparked UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne, as well as a racehorse named Archduke Ferdinand (which was [[NamesTheSame named after the archduke]]).

* CaptainObvious: This extract from "This Fire": "Now there is a fire in me, a fire that burns".

* TheCoverChangesTheGender: averted (e.g.: "Womanizer").

* DreamWalker: a common interpretation of "Lucid Dreams" is that it's about a man wanting his lover to join him in dreamland.
* EndingTheme: Surprisingly, "Do You Want To" is the ending theme to ''ParadiseKiss''.

* {{Guyliner}}: all the band members in the music video for "This Fire".

* InTheStyleOf: "Eleanor Put Your Boots On" and "Wine in the Afternoon" have both often been described as [[Music/TheBeatles "beatlesque"]].

* LifeIsButADream: the narrator of "Lucid Dreams" lives in lucid dreams and prefers it that way.
* LongDistanceRelationship: the subject of "Come On Home" and "Eleanor Put Your Boots On".

* OdeToIntoxication: "Ulysses".
** "Wine in the Afternoon" mostly averts this, since it's a pretty standard love song with the drinking thrown in as a bonus.

* OneWomanSong: "Jacqueline" and "L. Wells" (the L. is short for "Lynsey").

* OopNorth: Other than Paul (who is Glasgow born and raised), the whole band originally hails from here. Alex spent his first eight years in Tyne and Wear,[[note]]Partially in the small city of Washington. As in [[UsefulNotes/GeorgeWashington George]]; it's where the first POTUS' ancestors came from. So Alex can claim to be "from Washington" and not be lying.[[/note]] Nick was born in Blackpool (and then grew up in Germany), and Bob is from West Yorkshire (Bradford to be precise).
* PerspectiveFlip: at the end of "No You Girls", the lyrics are sung from a girl's point of view.
* RecycledLyrics: Taken to its logical extreme; "No You Girls" and "Katherine Kiss Me" are ''the same song'', on the same album, with a different melody. In fact, the demo version of "No You Girls" is named "Catherine Kiss me", as seen in Alex's Soundcloud.

* TheRoaringTwenties: Their first album ''runneth over'' with the references to the '20s--especially in the videos, which are obviously influenced by Dada and Vkhutemas/Soviet Constructivism.
* SelfTitledAlbum: their first one. Actually, originally every single album would be named just ''Franz Ferdinand'', and the variation would be the cover, but the idea was dropped.
* SharpDressedMan: All four of them. Look at the page picture. Just look at it. Alternately, look at [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haW_ruZ_Be8 the video for "This Fire"]]. It goes with everything they've done, too, from the Soviet Constructivist look of their first album to whatever you call they're doing now.

* ShoutOut: In the lyrics booklet, the line "come and dance with me" in "Michael" is preceded by a crossed-out "[[RollingStones come all over me]]."

** "Walk Away" is rife with references (to Radio 4 and various historical figures).

* StepUpToTheMicrophone: some of the songs (e.g. "Jeremy Fraser", "Fabulously Lazy" and "Van Tango") are sung by Nick, and the German version of "Tell Her Tonight" is sung by Paul.

* SubliminalSeduction: if played backwards, "Michael" contains a secret message ("Call your mother, she's worried about you").
* SurrealMusicVideo: What the hell happened again in "Take Me Out"?
** The deliberate use of collage techniques is reminiscent of [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible Dada "art"]]. Dada is a movement primarily associated with taking place during UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne, and the lyrics can be interpreted as being about the real Franz Ferdinand (although not as explicitly as "All For You, Sophia").
*** The collage technique is probably also a ShoutOut to Creator/TerryGilliam's animations for Creator/MontyPython...
** No mention to "Evil Eye?" even with the whole low budget horror film look, it still doesn't explain MANY of the creepiness going there.
** Their latest B-Side release, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie2JpR7xzvg Erdbeer Mund]] is not only completely in German, but contains effects last seen in an acid trip and contains Nick McCarthy in drag. Click the link if you dare.
* TitleTrack: "You Could Have It So Much Better".
** "Right Action" is a shortening of the album ''Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action''.
* TranslatedCoverVersion: Their [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGcLODDy9Uw German cover]] of "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-SFac3GpxY&feature=related Tell Her Tonight]]," featuring Paul. Strange, seeing as it was Nick who grew up in Bavaria.
* UnpluggedVersion: there is an acoustic version of "Take Me Out" on the "Lucid Dreams" single.
** "The Fallen", "Twilight Omens", "Walk Away", "No You Girls", "Ulysses" and "The Dark of the Matinee" all have acoustic versions.
** As does "Darts of Pleasure", under a different name.

* YourMakeupIsRunning: "mascara bleeds a blackened tear" ("Walk Away").

* NamesTheSame: the song "This Boy", which is not a cover of [[Music/TheBeatles the Fab Four]]. The band is also named after a racing horse called The Archduke, which was named after the original Franz Ferdinand, as noted above.

* RealLifeRelative: The strange woman in [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbTAFqnZkL0 the video]] to their cover of LCDSoundsystem's "All My Friends" is Anna [=McCarthy=], Nick's sister. She also directed the video.

Franz Ferdinand is a Scottish [[PostPunk post-punk]]/{{dance-punk}} band formed in 2002. Their band name is named both after the Austrian archduke whose assassination sparked WorldWarOne, as well as a racehorse named Archduke Ferdinand (which was [[NamesTheSame named after the archduke]]).

* OopNorth: Other than Paul (who is Glasgow born and raised), the whole band originally hails from here. Alex spent his first eight years in Tyne and Wear,[[note]]Partially in the small city of Washington. As in [[GeorgeWashington George]]; it's where the first POTUS' ancestors came from. So Alex can claim to be "from Washington" and not be lying.[[/note]] Nick was born in Blackpool (and then grew up in Germany), and Bob is from West Yorkshire (Bradford to be precise).

** The deliberate use of collage techniques is reminiscent of [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible Dada "art"]]. Dada is a movement primarily associated with taking place during WorldWarOne, and the lyrics can be interpreted as being about the real Franz Ferdinand (although not as explicitly as "All For You, Sophia").