Future Islands: The New Wave of the Future

Many thanks to fellow copywriter and music lover David Stemler for pointing me in the direction of a great band I’d never heard of: Future Islands. I’d heard that they were on David Letterman that week, but had missed the show and moved on with my life.

So I checked out their performance on YouTube and was totally mesmerized (as was Letterman), for a couple of reasons.

One, the song “Seasons (Waiting on You)” is irresistible, a hook-filled New Wave synth-pop delicacy that took me back to those weekly Tuesday "New Wave Nights" at Huskies Bar & Grill at the University of Connecticut.

Two, the band’s singer, Samuel T. Herring, is one of the more unusual frontmen to make the scene in some time. He’s one of those people whose body doesn’t match the voice, and vice versa. 

Herring looks like Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront, sounds like Roland Gift from Fine Young Cannibals (with some neanderthal-ish vocal inflections) and dances in a style that is completely sui generis. (More on that later.)

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I was trying for days to think of what Herring's dancing and grunting reminded me of, but I couldn’t figure it out. 

Then it hit me: it was the cringe-worthy, deeply disturbing dance "for charity" that David Brent (aka Ricky Gervais) did on the original, far superior BBC version of The Office. With both Brent and Herring, I am horrified yet cannot look away.

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I was going to say that Future Islands, who formed in North Carolina and are now based in Baltimore, is a very promising new band. But, after doing a little research, I’ve learned they have already released three albums. 

Their fourth, Singles, which contains “Seasons (Waiting on You),” comes out  March 25 on the prestigious 4AD label. I will be picking it up and you should too. 

You can pre-order Singles by Future Islands (and get “Seasons” now) on iTunes here.