Pitchfork

Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos is on top of the world right now. Not only is he the dapper frontman in a white-hot band, and was recently featured in Esquire magazine's best-dressed list, but the saucy Scotsman has begun writing a food column for London newspaper The Guardian. Oh, and his band's highly-anticipated (or not--it's been highly-downloaded, too) second album, You Could Have It So Much Better...With Franz Ferdinand will hit stores October 3 in the UK, and October 4 here in the USA.

Kapranos, who once worked as a chef, will document the good, bad, and odd food FF experiences over the course of their current tour, in a column entitled "Soundbites" that runs every Friday. Hmm... he cooks, cleans up nice, writes great pop songs--shit, some cute girl from an overrated American indie rock band better snatch that boy up quick!

In last week's installment, he wrote, "The best preparation I had for touring with a band was working as a chef alongside Bob Hardy, way before he become Franz Ferdinand's bassist, in the kitchen of a Glasgow restaurant. We wielded knives, hot fat and broccoli inches from each other in a small, windowless kitchen through 9am-1am shifts. We poured cooking brandy down our throats and scorn upon the waiters. Sharing a claustrophobic tour bus, as we do now, is tame in comparison... We learned that a great group dynamic is worth more than the merits of any individual, that langoustines fight back when you kill them, and that boiled marrowbones make the jus that glues together a good menu." Like all Franz Ferdinand songs, the column doesn't really get good until about 20 seconds in.

In less gastronomical news, Franz Ferdinand will drop a live double-DVD November 14, according to NME.com. (That's the UK release date, a US one is still being determined.) The set will contain a slew of live performances, interviews, easter eggs, karaoke film versions of "Matinee" and "Take Me Out," and a behind-the-scenes documentary entitled "Tour de Franz" (oh come on guys, leave the puns to us, sheesh!) The second disk will also contain complete performances from London and San Fransisco.

Hold up, though: a karaoke version of "Take Me Out"? Throw that on for your cousins during Thanksgiving dinner, and you got your own Kidz Bop!

DVD tracklisting:

Disc One: Franz Ferdinand Live

01 Michael (London - Brixton Academy)
02 Tell Her Tonight (New York - Pianos)
03 40 Ft (San Francisco - The Regency Grand)
04 Take Me Out (Scotland - T in the Park)
05 Cheating on You (Belgium - Rock Werchter)
06 Love and Destroy (Los Angeles - The Avalon)
07 Matinee (Scotland - T in the Park)
08 Van Tango (San Francisco - The Regency Grand)
09 Auf Asche (London - Brixton Academy)
10 Come on Home (Glasgow - Barrowlands)
11 Darts of Pleasure (San Francisco - The Regency Grand)
12 Shopping for Blood (Belgium - Rock Werchter)
13 Jacqueline (Glasgow - Barrowlands)
14 This Fire (Los Angeles - The Avalon)

Disc Two: Franz Ferdinand Live At Brixton Academy

01 Michael
02 Tell Her Tonight
03 40 Ft
04 Your Diary
05 Take Me Out
06 Cheating on You
07 Matinee
08 I'm Your Villain
09 Van Tango
10 Auf Asche
11 Come On Home
12 Love and Destroy
13 Darts of Pleasure
14 Shopping for Blood
15 This Boy
16 Jacqueline
17 This Fire

Franz Ferdinand Live At San Francisco

01 Cheating On You
02 Tell Her Tonight
03 40 Ft
04 Van Tango
05 Auf Asche
06 Matinee
07 Jacqueline
08 Love and Destroy
09 Take Me Out
10 Michael
11 Darts of Pleasure
12 Shopping for Blood
13 Come on Home
14 This Fire

Franz Ferdinand and their label are attempting to lure all those godless file-sharers into buying You Could Have It So Much Better... on cold, hard plastic by prettying up the disc with all sorts of goodies. Those who pre-order the American version through Sony Music will receive a bonus CD featuring the B-sides for the "Do You Want To" single. And they are...

01 Your Diary
02 Fabulously Lazy
03 What You Meant (acoustic)

According to the Franz website, the UK version of the album will be available as a limited-edition double-disc containing a DVD with a "making of" featurette, interviews, the "Do You Want To" video, photos, and access to a special section of the website with other top-secret fun stuff. For us Americans, we can get all that stuff if we buy the DualDisc. What, Brits can't handle flipping CDs over? Weird.

It's been awhile since we last posted the You Could Have It So Much Better... tracklist, so what the hell, let's do it again. It's already going to take you longer to read this story that it is to listen to the damn thing:

01 The Fallen
02 Do You Want To
03 This Boy
04 Walk Away
05 Evil and a Heathen
06 You're the Reason I'm Leaving
07 Eleanor, Put Your Boots Back On
08 Well, That Was Easy
09 What You Meant
10 I'm Your Villain
11 You Could Have It So Much Better
12 Fade Together
13 Outsiders

And if your eyes haven't glazed over already, here are da Franz's current tour dates:

09-27 Denver, CO - Fillmore Auditorium *#
09-28 Salt Lake City, UT - Great Salt Air *#
10-01 Seattle, WA - Paramount Theatre *$
10-02 Seattle, WA - Paramount Theatre *$
10-03 Portland, OR - Roseland *$
10-04 Vancouver, British Columbia - Orpheum *$
10-06 San Francisco, CA - Bill Graham Civic Auditorium *$
10-07 Los Angeles, CA - Greek Theatre *$
10-08 Los Angeles, CA - Greek Theatre *$
10-09 San Diego, CA - SDSU Open Air Theatre *$
10-11 Las Vegas, NV - The Joint *$
10-14 Upper Darby, PA - Tower Theatre *%
10-15 Boston, MA - Orpheum Theatre *%
10-17 New York, NY - The Theater at Madison Square Garden *$
10-18 Toronto, Ontario - Ricoh Centre *$
10-27 Leuven, Belgium - Brabanthal &
10-28 Paris, France - Le Zenith &
10-31 Rouen, France - Le Zenith &
11-01 Lille, France - Le Zenith &
11-02 Metz, France - Les Arenes &
11-04 Grenoble, France - Le Summum &
11-05 Dijon, France - Le Zenith &
11-07 Düsseldorf, Germany - Phillipshale @
11-08 Berlin, Germany - Tempodrom @
11-09 Hamburg, Germany - Color Line Arena @
11-14 Cardiff, Wales - International Arena &@
11-15 Brighton, England - Brighton Centre &@
11-16 Birmingham, England - NEC &@
11-18 Dublin, Ireland - Point Depot &@
11-19 Belfast, Ireland - Odyssey Arena &@
11-21 Aberdeen, Scotland - Exhibition Centre &@
11-22 Glasgow, Scotland - Secc Hall 4 &@
11-23 Glasgow, Scotland - Secc Hall 4 &@
11-25 Hull, England - Ice Arena &@
11-26 Manchester, England - Men Arena &@
11-27 Newcastle, England - Metro Radio Arena &@
11-28 Nottingham, England - Arena &@
11-30 London, England - Alexandra Palace &@
12-01 London, England - Alexandra Palace &@
12-02 London, England - Alexandra Palace &@
12-08 Stockholm, Sweden - Arena ^
12-11 Amsterdam, Holland - Heineken Music Hall @
12-12 Munich, Germany - Zenith @
12-14 Winterthur, Switzerland - Eulachhalle @
12-15 Vienna, Austria - Stadhalle @
12-17 Milan, Italy - Palalido @
12-18 Florence, Italy - Saschall @
12-19 Bologna, Italy - Paladozza @
12-21 Barcelona, Spain - Vall D'Hebron @
12-22 Madrid, Spain - Madrid Arena @
01-24 Sydney, Australia - Enmore Theatre

* with Cut Copy
# with Pretty Girls Make Graves
$ with TV on the Radio
% with Sons and Daughters
& with Editors
@ with The Rakes
^ with Arctic Monkeys