SFA album's online debut

The Super Furry Animals will be answering questions online

Welsh rock band the Super Furry Animals are notching up two firsts on the internet as they get ready to launch their new album.

The album, Mwng, is the first the band have produced entirely in Welsh, and is being streamed out live on the internet in advance of going on sale in record shops on Monday.

The preview of the album is linked to the band giving their first-ever internet interviews in Welsh, as they spend an hour in BBC Wales's Cymru'r Byd chat room Clecs Cymru on Thursday May 11.

The Super Furry Animals' new album is all in Welsh

Those who cannot speak Welsh will also be able to take part, as their questions will be translated for the band and the responses published in a transcript afterwards.

The five members, Gruff Rhys, Dafydd Ieuan, Cian Ciaran, Guto Pryce and Huw Bunford, will be in the chat room between 1730 BST and 1830 BST

The fact that a group of five Welsh speakers with their roots in the Welsh-language rock scene have chosen to record much of their recent material in English has been a source of controversy in Welsh rock circles.

As a result, their all-Welsh album has been eagerly awaited.

The group members say they have not had a problem with singing in English.

Worldwide audience

Dafydd Ieuan said the group did not want to restrict its audience, and so used both languages.

Lead vocalist Gruff Rhys, said he lived a bilingual life and that it was natural to sing in both Welsh and English.

The NME magazine rated the band's Guerrilla album as the third most influential in the last decade.

Mwng, (Welsh for 'mane') is the first Welsh record released by the band's recording label Placid Casual.

"It's more similar to Radiator than Guerrilla," said Gruff Rhys, "in that the songs lent themselves to a more immediate sound.

"Mwng was mostly recorded live in the studio, but we did not sit down and say it was going to have a specific sound. It just happened that way," she said.

The new album also contains SFA's first cover version - Y Teimlad (The Feeling) by 80s experimental band Datblygu.