FORGET for a moment that Franz Ferdinand are the 1990s' biggest fans or that they have already played with the likes of the Strokes, Kaiser Chiefs and Babyshambles, despite not yet releasing an album. What I'm mesmerised by is their teeth. Between them they have a worse collection of chompers than Shane MacGowan and The Darkness put together.
They're the "crown jewels" of the band, says bassist Jamie McMorrow proudly, baring his own precious gems in a horrific grin. Like their teeth, the Glasgow band that is set to be this year's answer to Franz Ferdinand play scruffy, down and dirty - and wonky, for that matter - art-rock, inspired as much by New York in the Seventies as by the post-punk of Glasgow's Orange Juice.
There is zero chance of this trio of indie veterans ever getting dental work done when they hit the big time.
Recently, while supporting Jarvis Cocker in Glasgow, the lead singer and guitarist Jackie McKeown was rushed to hospital after he nearly lost his front teeth in a scuffle backstage.
"They were fixed for two or three days and then I broke them a second time kissing a girl," he explains, which produces toothsome guffaws from band members McMorrow and Michael McGaughrin. It's no wonder that one journalist has already referred to the 1990s as the band most likely to date Kate Moss.
There is definitely a whiff of Pete Doherty about them.
We're in Glasgow's Mono, a bar where vocalist and drummer McGaughrin and McMorrow used to work until a year ago when they quit to form the 1990s. McKeown used to work as a supermarket shelf-stacker.
Things have changed somewhat, then, in the past year. They were snapped up by seminal label Rough Trade - home to the Strokes - at their sixth gig (one of the label bosses said she wanted to sign them as soon as they walked onstage). Their first limited-edition single sold out in a day and next week they are headlining the Scotland Rocks New York gig at the Bowery Ballroom in Manhattan, alongside Sons and Daughters and DJs from Mogwai and Belle and Sebastian, as part of Tartan Week.
"Ailidh from Sons and Daughters told me it's nearly sold out and she thinks it's because of us," says McGaughrin. It's not bad going for a band who had decided they were "past it" and that the music business was "ludicrous".
"We're more like the old leathery faces of the Glasgow music scene than the cool new faces," says McKeown.
"But music has got nothing to do with age, unless you're obsessed with it. Franz Ferdinand were touted as the biggest, freshest thing, but they'd been kicking around for years."
I get the impression that I may have touched a nerve bringing up the age question, and later, when I ask the band how old they are, McKeown seems offended again.
"We're probably older than the average band but you shouldn't be caught up with age," he complains. Although he won't lie about it, he would rather age wasn't an issue.
For much of the Nineties McKeown and McMorrow were in the cult Glasgow indie band The Yummy Fur, which at various stages was also home to Alex Kapranos and Franz Ferdinand drummer Paul Thompson.
Meanwhile McGaughrin, the band's least dishevelled member, was in the equally respected V-Twin. So, even before they existed, the 1990s had pretty solid indie credentials.
THE 1990S ARE already more successful than either band, and that's probably because it combines the best of both of them.
While V-Twin had more of the rock 'n' roll spirit, what McKeown describes as the "Stonesiness" of the 1990s, The Yummy Fur were more of what he calls a "weird, angular beast".
So what do their old Franz Ferdinand bandmates make of their success? "What success?
" laughs McKeown, adding that they were out partying with Kapranos at the weekend and he sent them a text saying he couldn't get their upcoming single 'See You At The Lights' out of his head. "We're getting him back for 'Take Me Out'," laughs McGaughrin. "Ours is even more annoying," says McMorrow.
They obviously enjoy their fair share of partying so it's no surprise that the 1990s started out at Glasgow after-club parties where McKeown and McGaughrin, who met up a tree in the city's Kelvingrove Park, used to make up songs inspired by the New York rock scene in the Seventies. Eventually they came together when they all moved onto the same street in Pollokshields and Damo Suzuki, legendary member of German band Can, invited them to be his backing band. They lasted two gigs.
"We didn't have any interest in being an improv band, and although Damo is a very nice, loveable old hippie, the only thing he won't talk about is Can, and that's the only interesting thing about him," laughs McKeown.
Still, it made them realise they sounded good together, and once they put the scraps of songs written at parties together with the band's shambolic live sound, it worked. "One night I wrote about five songs in an hour using the lyrics I vaguely remembered from parties," recalls McKeown.
"I took them over to the other two and said: 'Here's the band.' Actually, I didn't think the songs were particularly clever, but we're still playing them."
Others disagree, and the 1990s already have a following that other bands would saw their guitars in half for.
The Kaiser Chiefs have dubbed them their new favourite band, describing them as "totally cool in a freakish way". One of the members of the Long Blondes has said listening to them makes being in another band feel depressing. Beth Ditto of The Gossip is another fan, and Lovefoxxx, the lead singer in Brazilian electro-pop outfit CSS, has given her vocals to three of their B-sides.
Their catchy glam-rock, complete with handclaps, feedback and lots of riffing about drugs in ironic American accents is all very witty, but how much of it is a joke?
"None of it," all three protest. Apparently McKeown sings in a New York accent because he is sick of the sound of his own voice and there is absolutely no pastiche involved.
The point, McKeown says, is that they are "a fantasy band".
"It's not about being as studied as, say, The Darkness," he continues. "It's from the heart.
But the music scene now is all about being real and saying 'I'm from Sheffield and this is my accent.' It's like an anvil grounding you down and shouting: 'Your life is rubbish! Don't forget it!
' Our music is the complete opposite of that. We're all about livening you up, making your life a bit better, fun."
They have described their own music as "like a blonde getting out of a car".
"It's like style and panache and glamour," says McKeown, when I ask what that means. "But it's also really clunky. There is nothing streamlined about this band and we're as likely to fall apart as be really slick.
"
"It's more like a pissed-up blonde with no knickers getting out of a car actually," chips in McGaughrin, and the teeth come out again as all three of them start howling with laughter.
The single, 'See You At The Lights', is out on April 16. The 1990s' debut album, Cookies, is released on May 7.
www.1990s.
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