Little Furry Things: Tracks That Shaped My Sound

After a four-year hibernation, Liverpool’s Little Furry Things are back, bringing fuzz-soaked guitars, breakneck rhythms, and lyrics that hit like a lightning bolt to the heart. Fronted by songwriter Alex Hannah, the band fuses ragged punk urgency with acerbic alt-rock melancholy, crafting a sound that twists nostalgia into something sharper, stranger, and unmistakably theirs.

Born from a teenage need to make noise and make sense of the world, Little Furry Things have evolved from bedroom experiments into a ferocious live force, shaking floors, ceilings, and hips in equal measure. Their brand of “millennial trauma rock” speaks to the disillusioned, the misunderstood, and anyone who’s ever shouted into the void and hoped for harmony. LFT doesn’t just make noise — they make it matter.

"Fifteen Minutes" - Mike Krol

In my eyes, or more aptly ears, the three acts I feel I most noticeably rip off the most is Wavves, Guided by Voices and Mike Krol. With “Buckling For Fish”, it feels very much akin to Krol and his sonic hyper specificity. To this day, “Fifteen Minutes” is a song that still electrifies me and gives me goosebumps as if it’s the first time I’ve ever heard it. At this point, it is pretty much my manifesto that I turn to when it comes to how I want my music to sound and feel. I adore the playfully morbid tone of hid lyrics and feel that he strikes the perfect balance of yearning and nihilism which I can only dream of matching within my own work. He’s criminally underrated and a whole lot of fun and is an endless well of inspiration as for as LFT is concerned.

"We Know You Suck" - JFA

• My main “production note” that I gave to Alex Headen (who drummed on “Buckling For Fish”) is that I wanted the energy of the song to be that of a song that would be featured on a Tony Hawk soundtrack. Like many millennials, the Tony Hawk games opened a punk pandoras box of discovery of bands and artists that became our idols after listening to them while button mashing trying to get as high a combo score as possible. From Gorilla Biscuits to 7 Seconds, Circle Jerks to Agent Orange, these soundtracks blew my top right off when I was a kid. While JFA’s “Beach Blanket Bongout” was featured on THPS4, “We Know You Suck” and the whole of “Valley of the Yakes” album provided not only inspiration musically but its artwork was fundamental to the vision I had for the end goal and feel for the song. Ultimately, I just wanted to write a song that could be featured in a Thrasher or Vague magazine video.

  
  

  "Tidal Wave" - The Apples in Stereo

  
  

  I feel fairly late to the party when it comes to The Apples in Stereo. While my late teens and early 20s were bombarded by their label mates Neutral Milk Hotel, my 30s are being spent playing catch up with every fuzzy little gem of pop bliss that I listen to of theirs. As evidenced on “Bucking For Fish”, I’m a sucker for a simple hooky lead guitar line, and I positively drool when one is as scuzzy as the one on “Tidal Wave”. Especially when it starts harmonising and building with another lead line, combining to create a crescendo of noise behind the choppiest garage rock back beat you’ve ever heard.

  
  
  
  
  
  

  "B A D  I D E A" - Militarie Gun

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  In the current era of mainstream acceptance of Hardcore in popular music, Turnstile have been the deservedly dominant break out band. However, I’d really want to give Ian Shelton and Militarie Gun their flowers. To me, they capture all the best bits of 80s and 90s Indie-Rock and Pop-Punk and take their So-Cal Hardcore sledgehammer and bash your ears in within an inch of your life. I was a huge fan of their last record and, I feel they’re a band going from strength to strength. And before you ask - yes - I did steal the room mic & telephone effect drum intro from this song.

  
  
  
  

  "Hit" - The Wannadies

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  Lastly, one of the biggest surprises of the year, for me at least, was discovering that The Wannadies (aka the “You and Me Song” band) are more than one-hit-wonders. One additional hit they have, at least in my eyes, is the aptly named “Hit”. High energy right from the jump, knowing lyrics and pulsating chugging guitars that never let up. I think the thing about “Hit” that specifically inspired me, and what is perhaps the through line connecting all of these songs, is brevity. Getting to the point, and not outstaying your welcome, feels like a forgotten art in rock ’n’ roll and is something I always keep in mind whenever I’m writing. As Funkadelic once said: Hit it and quit it, and “Hit” certainly hit it and quit it. Oh! and be sure to look out for a Little Furry Things song in the future at some point that steals the repeated lyric call and response from this songs second verse - genius.