Though arty dance-rock quartet Franz Ferdinand insist they are "the softest band" in tough-guy Glasgow, they actually tell several stories that end with the phrase "We had to run from the police!" Like the time a party at their warehouse-cum-rehearsal space got busted. "These big, overweight policemen were coming up the stairs," says singer/guitarist Alex Kapranos, "so we were trying to get the crates of booze down the other staircase."

Then there was the time when Kapranos was talked into punching a friend in the eye, then fainted at the sight of the blood. And when guitarist Nick McCarthy evaded a gun-toting mugger, and when Kapranos nearly killed McCarthy by feeding him poisoned mustard. Let's just say that Franz Ferdinand are very lucky.

But it wasn't luck that sent their single "Take Me Out" to No. 3 on the British charts, leading one publication to declare, "This band will change your life!" Their self-titled record-an electrifying synthesis of searing guitar lines and jaunty choruses-picks up where 2003's Darts of Pleasure EP left off, with stinging hi-hats and tight riffs (think the Strokes in a disco with a handful of Ecstasy). "We don't use any pedals or any of that rubbish," Kapranos says. "Pedals are for people who can't write good tunes." He would also like to add: "I've never committed any crimes-in case my mom reads this."