A peek into the Futureheads

The working-class city of Sunderland, England, is home to 50 bars, two strip clubs and zero movie theaters or rock venues, placing it exactly nowhere in the minds of most Americans, or Brits for that matter.

But that’s likely to change thanks to a quartet of young lads known as the Futureheads, a group whose “nasty and abrasive” music, as one of the members describes it, is among the most innovative and exciting in the growing post-post-punk scene.

Never heard of them? No worries. If the world is a just place, they should be everywhere soon enough. The Futureheads make some of the smartest, most fun avant-pop around.

Judging from reactions at the group’s first L.A. show at Spaceland last month, the Futureheads have nothing to worry about when it comes to finding an audience. First, the club was packed, even though the group’s debut record won’t wash up on American shores until Oct. 26. Second, more than a few folks in the ordinarily motionless, been-there, done-that crowd even danced. Danced!

“The reaction was a little bit more than we expected,” Ross Millard, the band’s bookish-looking guitarist-vocalist, said the next day on the group’s tour bus. “In cities that are famous for having a burgeoning music scene, you expect people to be a little more standoffish at gigs ... but it was like playing a show back where we’re from. It was the same atmosphere, and the crowd -- there was an intimacy there. We could relax onstage.”

“Relaxed” isn’t the word that comes to mind when seeing the Futureheads perform. The group played with the wound-up intensity of a coiled spring, unleashing its manic energy through quick blasts of guitar that stopped on a dime and harmonized, cuckoo-clock vocals as each of the band’s four members popped in and ducked out of songs for a word, phrase or stanza.

Just two songs in, their tight-fitting dress shirts were already showing sweaty signs of their lightning-fast playing and high-energy performance. Forty-five minutes later, said shirts were in desperate need of a wringing.

If the set were any longer, you’d swear the group would pass out from fluid loss, but with youth, there is stamina. And this group is young -- made up of Millard, 22, and his “best mates” Jaff, 22 (bass), and brothers Barry and David Hyde, 23 and 19 (lead vocals/guitar and drums, respectively).

Friends before they came together as a band in 2000, the group had met a couple of years earlier at the Sunderland City Detached Youth Project, a music program for at-risk youth in the down-and-out northeastern city that was once supported by coal mining and shipbuilding -- industries that closed up shop long ago.

No one in the group fit the stereotypical profile of kids drinking on street corners or stealing cars; each was a musician with another band, simply taking advantage of the free practice space.

Born in a garage

They got together as the Futureheads after their respective groups had split up. A few months of practice in Barry’s garage yielded a handful of tunes and their first gig -- four songs performed in seven minutes at the local cricket club.

“Our horizons weren’t particularly broad,” said Millard, his British accent thick as clotted cream. “We just thought, ‘Well, we’ll get a couple of songs together and we’ll play some shows in front of our friends,’ and then you just gradually take it from there.”

After a year of playing to the same hometown crowd of 15 at various bars and basements, they ventured to nearby Newcastle, where they played at the local university and opera house. Then came a tour of Europe and a string of “squat clubs” in Germany and the Netherlands.

Until that tour, David wasn’t in the band; Peter Brewis was drummer. But when Brewis opted out of traveling, David took his place. It was at that point that the band really jelled.

The group got back home and wrote and recorded their first four-song single, including two songs that also appeared on their album debut. “Robot” and “Stupid and Shallow” are among the record’s standouts -- their fast-paced, staccato harmonies and asymmetrical rhythms defining the group’s sound, which teeters on the edge of art rock but ultimately lands in pop territory.

Rave reviews

Performing songs off the single in London, the Futureheads were snatched up by Fantastic Plastic, an independent label that released two more singles by the group. Those singles went on to receive such rave reviews in the English media that the group was soon signed to an even bigger label, 679 Recordings -- the British affiliate of Sire, which is releasing the band’s debut this side of the Atlantic.

The group’s stock continues to rise. The Futureheads just wrapped their first North American tour, opening for Scottish faves Franz Ferdinand. They’ll play the Troubadour on Nov. 20 as part of their first U.S. headline tour.

In the meantime, they’re just relaxing in Sunderland, where they plan to stay, even though shops close at 4 and, David says, “There’s absolutely nothing to do but go out and eat and drink.”

“It’s nice,” adds Millard. “It just means you’ve got time to yourself without any kind of hustle and bustle.”