Fiery Furnaces

I don't know what to expect - there's been some very positive press about the band lately, and they had very nice blurbs in both the Voice and the Onion this week, so I'm nervous that there will be a lot of people turning up for this gig.

...not until the next time.

I *need* a copy of this or any of their other shows. I'm hungry for FF bootlegs now, especially since it's so different live.

Nate, give them another chance! They are their own thing, not much like the Stripes at all.

Oh man, I hope that I didn't miss "Inca Rag/Name Game." That would break my heart!

White Stripes? White Stripes wish they could be as original and just plain fucking cool as FF. No contest bro.

Considering the source, now I'm back to the ambivalence I had before Perpetua nearly convinced me. Thanks a load.

I saw both the White Stripes and the Fiery Furnaces this week, and I just don't think they are as similar as some people make them out to be. There's some similar influences (the Stripes are heavy into blues and 70s riff rock, the Furnaces touch on the blues and 70s riff rock here and there, but not quite as literally as the Stripes), but the approach of the bands are very different. I think the two bands compliment each other very well, I don't think they need to exist in opposition to each other at all. The two bands just feel very different.

also what'd people think of franz ferdinand? i thought they were kinda boring!

I Love Lucy seemed like they had some potential to be a good pop band. I talked to the drummer for a bit, and he was telling me that they weren't signed yet. Somebody really ought to snap them up.

Man, I wish I knew what you folks looked like. I was all alone the whole night cos my friends had to bail due to a) illness b) the hassle of the L train not working after midnight c) birthday parties.

I bet the Fiery Furnaces were nervous, Geeta. Eleanor seemed a little uneasy, and I get the feeling that they aren't comfortable with their new drummer and keyboard player. At one point Matt yelled at the other guy for starting a song with the wrong chord, and then on the last song, Eleanor had to step over to block the guy's hand so that he'd stop playing for a moment to make one part of the song more dynamic. Maybe they will fire him too.

So, Franz Ferdinand--a little too grim for me, for the most part. I liked the the more dancey songs, they were alright. I loved the pint-sized powerhouse on stage left. He looked like he could have been in the Dave Clark Five. And the drummer was cute. Did you see the band before that? They were the weirdest twee pop band I've seen in ages. The singer had this mincing Jeremy Piven thing going on, it was quite captivating after awhile.

The songs weren't half bad for twee pop. There was one song in the middle which I'd really love to get a recording of - I think it was called "I Want A Girl" or something like that.

If you use Soulseek, I have all of my FF rarities shared, including the b-sides to the Crystal Clear single. I'm "perpetua" there.

Something interesting to me about this band (if I may pontificate) is how they always seemed to be bubbling just under the surface of “mainstream” success, even by the standards of 2000s indie rock. They were on a string of cool but slightly odd labels (instead of the Matador/Merge/Sub Pop axis)... I don’t think they ever performed on TV, in the U.S. at least (though please send me a YouTube link ASAP if I’m wrong!), in a era when bands at their level were regularly appearing on late-night shows (though maybe not as commonly as today; e.g., look at someone like Parquet Courts).

The Furnaces did press and got some attention (and toured a lot, of course); but it felt like somehow they were always just below the threshold of “top-flight” indie rock notice, in a time of Animal Collectives, Arcade Fires, and Wolf Parades. I don’t think they played many festivals, maybe that hurt them?

Of course, some people may feel they got just the right amount of attention (or even too much!) — but for me, they were the band of the decade, and I was always wishing they had a little more exposure.

I guess I would put them at the level of someone like Unrest in the ‘90s.

I did my part to raise awareness, btw. These are two examples of T-shirts I owned and wore until they became unwearable:

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/6e/f6/d9/6ef6d9e51bbaca6b63723878763e1555--t-shirt-tee.jpg

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/d9/43/67/d94367597d3788d5f3722b9e5f3f6282--navy-t-shirts-candelabra.jpg

chris dahlen at pitchfork was basically their link to the outside world. at least they had one

i mean i also recall them getting features in uk newspapers and what have you but most publications saw them as an amusing curio to distract us in between arcade fire albums

and let's see who's still remembered in fifty years eh

I will concede their albums could be pretty weird, and required a deeper initial engagement than just “hey this sounds cool”.

and not helped by the fact that live, they likely alienated many of the 'casual' fans by not sticking to the 'script' of their records.

Yes, for sure (which was something I loved!)

Something I just now realized is that I've listened to the Furnaces 30-40x more over the years than Beefheart or Soft Machine.

Just came across this nice (duo) performance, from the waning days of their run:

https://www.amoeba.com/live-shows/detail-2423

(I think they played at Largo that visit to L.A.; it’s the only time I missed them...)

oh word? pic.twitter.com/gtGyxLhJqI

— Davin Kolderup (@dkolderup) February 18, 2020

They have a new (or newly active) Instagram acct, too...

The Dallas Morning News article at this post has a great Matt F. quote:

“If there was a pit orchestra at Chuck E. Cheese, that’s what we’d like to sound like.”

@pitchfork @pitchforkfest #p4k pic.twitter.com/Fp328dVytf

— The Fiery Furnaces (@Fiery_Furnaces) February 19, 2020

Let's hope this is more than just a live reunion!

They never broke up! They’ve just been, uh, on a long hiatus...

It’s very “on brand” that the Furnaces aren’t among the headliners at a major indie-rock festival — a “hometown” show, and their first performance anywhere in a decade (they’re not even 2nd-billed on the day they’re playing!).

Pitchfork also didn’t write a separate article about it, or mention the band in the first paragraph of their festival announcement.

i'm more irked by The National getting billing over Big Thief on Sunday (and I like the National!)

yeah, that’s also wack... who has more heat in Pitchfork World right now than Big Thief??

All-new album, or maybe just a best-of thing? (Given the title and that it’s on Third Man, my money is on the latter):

@Fiery_Furnaces x @thirdmanrecords 👀 pic.twitter.com/FuOLTsufNV

— Eleanor Friedberger (@EleanorOnly) June 14, 2020

(afraid it'll be a $$$ collectible 4-LP–plus–tchotchkes box set, with a locked-groove "Clear Signal From Cairo.")

I hope it's new stuff. Eleanor's time in the solo trenches would add a fascinating wrinkle

IT'S A CLEAR
IT'S A CLEAR
IT'S A CLEAR
IT'S A CLEAR
IT'S A CLEAR
IT'S A CLEAR
IT'S A CLEAR

My original impression of FFs was that they looked like the Carpenters, whose method was cool x cool, but FFs built toward effective contrast: she's cool, never minding the weird shit he's slinging all around her---an extension of, say, Les Paul and Mary Ford. But then Bitter Tea was more like the Carpenters living to fill out more of their forever autumnal penumbrae: she, now slightly husky-voiced, still thin, but still here. wearing her usual cardigan, standing at the window and sipping her bitter tea, looking out over the bay---kind of an Edward Hopper scene, though of course less melodramatic.
Widow City more of an Indie Rock return and advance, don't remember others, except Rehearsing My Choir was already one of my all-time favorite and most effecting and effective wild cars and cards ever.

They should get Jack White to play their grandmother and redo Rehearsing My Choir in the Third Man straight-to-lacquer-or-whatever-the-hell phone booth

I happen to be listening to RMC right now (in midst of a chronological revisit of their catalog).

Hi! We’re excited to share something new with you this week. pic.twitter.com/AQzb68i0fF

— The Fiery Furnaces (@Fiery_Furnaces) June 15, 2020

^^^CRAIG D SO OTM^^^ Either Jack or Neil, who made his own phonebooth album there.

"Don't remember others" after Widow City, that is.

omg, just stumbled across this collegetown show preview I wrote in 2010---is this true about I'm Going Away? Don't remember that one at all, well maybe a little, reading this:
The Fiery Furnaces
Wednesday @ Outland
The Fiery Furnaces’ “Rehearsing My Choir” was a soulfully microcosmic pop collaboration of TFF’s central siblings Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger with their late grandmother, Olga Santoros. “Bitter Tea” less challengingly served up Eleanor’s more sultry tones, suggesting a ruefully surviving Karen Carpenter. “Widow City” turned her into a brooding, b-movie troublemaker. The Furnaces’ current “I’m Going Away” has Eleanor channeling the early, innocent fervor of Smokey Robinson and Michael Jackson, simultaneously foreshadowing later detours. Matthew’s cinematically edited catchiness keeps credibility crackling, as relationships burn on (ditto in their volatile shows).
re: "cinematically...crackling...burn on," think I was thinking of old nitrate film stock, this writhing along the edge of frames you can see even in digital transfers sometimes, the stock eating itself in real time (or digital stills of same, in the family album for inst)(pages fluttering like crazy onstage)

cmon FFs just tell us what the fuck yer up to

https://d1wtzzt4oxg683.cloudfront.net/images/covers/originals_optimised/29/181779.jpg

The Fiery Furnaces
Down at the So and So on Somewhere
Third Man / TMR684
Having collectively released eight solo albums between them since their last album they released together as The Fiery Furnaces over a decade ago, Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger finally unpause their career together. A brand new 7” single available on Third Man, ‘Down At The So And So On Somewhere’, picks up where they left off brilliantly.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:pJlgbE-tpWMJ:https://www.normanrecords.com/records/181779-the-fiery-furnaces-down-at-the-so-and+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au

Wikipedia also lists a new single titled "Fortune Teller’s Revenge.”

Searching around for those titles just seems to retrieve inactive pages of online record shops; I apologize for being momentarily irked by the garbled webcache link above.

https://thefieryfurnaces.bandcamp.com/track/down-at-the-so-and-so-on-somewhere

kinda disappointing

I like it but it sounds like a demo.

This song is good, not as good as the high points of their oeuvre but little is

Anyone buying tickets to these new shows? I don’t think I’ll have a fully vaccinated household yet by November (and they’re playing in like my least favorite L.A. venue).

I don't mind the El Rey that much, but after seeing them several times back then I'm kinda unexcited? I want to hear how the shows are first. I'm there if they play all of Blueberry Boat.

Fred Armisen on the bill is a huge turn-off.

i have never seen them and hope to one day. i just can't see being inside for a show at the moment and i'm vaccinated. if this was outdoors i might have been more tempted.

I wouldn’t mind seeing them but I’m not going to Brooklyn this year

(Or to any shows this year honestly)

yah, I should reiterate that I'm not going to any shows this year too.

Anyone see any of the shows? Looks like they’re back in the studio (per Eleanor’s Instagram).

I poked around to see if they’ve done any new interviews, but none that I can find. That’s interesting to me—they did a lot of press back in the day, Matt always had a lot to say, they were very active online, etc. Now, their “engagement” seems limited to Eleanor’s social media… Matt is silent, as far as I can tell.

An interviewer would almost surely ask them why they went on such an abrupt (and lengthy) hiatus, and maybe they don’t want to talk about that? There must be a story there. It’s not like they just petered out… they had various projects going in 2009:

The last time we talked you had an extravagant rock opera in the works. Do you still have plans to do this?

MF: We are going to do that. Eleanor was never into it, but now, since we have put out our regular record, we’ll be doing these short little operas live. We might record them live, or eventually record them in the studio, but it won’t be a part of our normal record releasing cycle. Does that make any sense? So we’ll play a different set of shows in which we present our rock opera and maybe we’ll put it out in some form, but really it’s about playing it. Then we have our normal records on the side.

So then what’s the Democracy in America project all about?

MF: That’s a different thing too. It’s actually Dem-Rock-cracy in America. But the next thing we have is a silent record where we don’t provide any audio. In other words, we have a record but the fans play the songs. It will be in book form with sheet music and instructions. Dem-Rock-cracy is a set of us playing music written or determined by things that fans have given us, like bits of paper from their purse or receipts. It’ll be a normal recording, but first it will just be vinyl.

I suspect the spigot will open again once the album is on the verge of coming out, or once wider touring is underway at least.

tickets are half off on goldstar for the la show! im def going to check it out. ill come back with a report keeping mind i only ever heard blueberry boat and loved it but forgot it.

But the next thing we have is a silent record where we don’t provide any audio. In other words, we have a record but the fans play the songs. It will be in book form with sheet music and instructions.

interpreting beck actually doing this a few years later as a continuation of that weird feud they had going for a little bit

Ah - I thought the L.A. show was this past week. I’m tempted, but a Wed. night show is pretty rough stuff…

New live album for Bandcamp Day
https://thefieryfurnaces.bandcamp.com/album/stuck-in-my-head

^^for anyone who's never checked this out... it absolutely rips. 0 guitars, 0 overdubs, 100% rock 'n f'n roll!

(wish I had seen them on that tour)