For the past few years, the Tibetan Freedom Concert has arguably been the United States live music event of the year. This year, however, the COACHELLA FESTIVAL seems destined to be the event to remember. The show, which is October 9-10 at Coachella Valley, near Palm Springs, features a lineup including UNDERWORLD, BECK, THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS, SUPER FURRY ANIMALS, GUS GUS, and CIBO MATTO, just to name a few. The event also features a good deal of intrigue. The U.S. debut of the new SPIRITUALIZED live lineup is bound to be interesting.

It's September 1999, and the Super Furry Animals are making their way through the States in support of their brilliant third album, "Guerrilla." During the band's stop in Chicago, Excellent Online got to tag-team SFA frontman Gruff Rhys to find out the scoop on the new records, the current tour, and the whirlwind of critical acclaim that's usurping the band as we head into 2000. A full transcript of the interview is below, from start to finish. Thanks to Adam and all at Flydaddy for the assistance in this interview.

Interview by Shane Brown and Kari Winn

LOTS of new tours to report on... We've got confirmation on a U.S. mini-tour from GOMEZ - It's a quickie - just six dates, major cities only, in late September. Plus we've got the TRICKY tour now being confirmed by the official website. Add to that another confirmed US leg for the CHEMICAL BROTHERS. Beyond that, we've put the BIS tour dates up hopefully in enough time for you to score tickets.

On a bit of sad news, we also need to report on the death of Welsh Councillor and noted poet Ioan Bowen Rees, who passed away last Wednesday. Rees is likely better known to many Excellentians as the father of SUPER FURRY ANIMALS frontman Gruff.

Just as the SUPER FURRY ANIMALS are beginning to promote their second album ("Radiator") in the States, there's already word of a third. Creation is confirming today that the brand new Super Furries single, "Northern Lites," will be released in the UK on May 10. No word yet from Flydaddy on a tentative US release. Be sure to catch the Super Furries on tour in the States (frequently with the OLIVIA TREMOR CONTROL, which is a bit of a double bonus.) See our TOURS page for details.

It's certainly a bit overdue, but the SUPER FURRY ANIMALS have secured a new US record deal with the rising American indie label Flydaddy (home to the Olivia Tremor Control, among others.) The second SFA album, "Radiator," (released in the UK in 1997,) will finally see a stateside release this March. There are plans to package a limited number of the release with "Outspaced," the SFA b-sides/rarities album recently out in Europe.