I, too am so tired of trying to either turn other people on to the Fiery Furnaces, or defending them from those who find them difficult or annoying or overly precious. I get why people don't like them

I, too am so tired of trying to either turn other people on to the Fiery Furnaces, or defending them from those who find them difficult or annoying or overly precious. I get why people don't like them, I **really** do. Once in a while they totally aggravate me too, like when they play shows and deliberately butcher their own exquisitely crafted material for __no reason__ other than to be contrary. But SERIOUSLY, if you hate this band, or have no desire to put in the /effort/ required to get the most out of their albums, • I • DO • NOT • CARE •. Go enjoy whatever it is that you enjoy in whatever way that you want to enjoy it, and I'll look the other way.

YAEH

DEAL WITH IT

did perpetua write that?

jon reads fluxblog

I avoid most modern American indie-rock records for the same reason I avoid the ham-and-cheese wraps sold at my local supermarket: They are bland, poorly made, and dependent on limp and soggy ingredients. I only bought the Fiery Furnaces' 2004 release Blueberry Boat because I kept hearing complaints about how long the songs were; in my bizarro world, I read this as code for "risky" or "ambitious." Brooklyn brother-and-sister tag team Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger's breakthrough was a tricky, wordy mix of basement prog and jittery pop, with a charisma that didn't fit the first-class Postal Service stamp of mediocrity so many MOR alternative acts stick on their work with misplaced pride. It didn't apologize for its braininess, and it wasn't afraid to fall on its face.
The Furnaces' latest resembles Boat more than it does last year's partially spoken-word family-history oddity Rehearsing My Choir. The band's style, though, still largely consists of nervous tics, never settling for one tune when 10 will do, unleashing sickly funhouse synths at inopportune moments, and rushing to get all those words out. It's a unique and occasionally maddening formula, but what makes this supremely rinky-dink fourth-grade-production-of–Pirates of Penzance racket captivating is the unflappable way they sell all this circuitous dream logic, instead of just reverting to uncaring, insufferable twee, like undergrads with toy instruments busking in the commons to the amusement of no one. Plus, Eleanor's half-deadpan, half-flushed vocalizing gets stronger with every album—she's a grand eulogizer for a dead music-hall style that probably never existed, a perfect fit for the conversationally surreal words she speaks/sings. Tea's Rory Gilmore rock might not be O.C.-friendly, and there are definitely moments when I wish they'd pick an angle and stick with it. But as far as I'm concerned, they can fly to the moon and back as often as they please, as long as the results are this energetic and inventive.

that was the last time i was an indie-rock apologist. i've never looked back.

i don't think i ever heard a fiery furnaces song

they r good

I went to see Drive By Truckers instead, this was probably a mistake?

they r good too

the only song i like is "benton harbor blues." what else should i try, chaki?

rw, they're from oak park, i've heard way more of them than i ever needed to. towga had a major clit-on for them. there was one song that referenced a bunch of north/western suburban locations that annoyed me less than the others but that was about it.

lmbo

And then Bob Nastanovich came out! There's a word for that, and that word is SKWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

jon was ranting about this at the dumpling party

i heard one song i thought i liked, tropical iceland? then i realized the broad was singing "it's just ice cream, no not coke".

wtf?

I liked the first fiery furnaces lp before they got all short-attention-span-theater deconstructed spaz

there's a version of tropical ice-land on it

http://img48.imageshack.us/img48/1351/pokinsperpetuate1.jpg
^ kudos 2 optinz