The Fiery Furnaces
Albums
Few bands ever have been as daring as the Fiery Furnaces. They have a no compromise attitude from the get go that establishes them as unique individuals, and if you don't like it they don't care. I saw the band live in early 2006, and never before have I seen a band destroy and completely rework their own songs on stage like these guys did, and I mean they totally changed almost everything about them. The band dares to be different while being naturally likeable, and I think the wrong impression is made about them right off, they are not hard to get into, so much of their material is super melodic and accessible.
Being composed of the powerful personality of brother and sister duo might lead some to believe that they can guess what the band will sound like or do next, but really there is no telling at all. Even though I have influences listed below, the band is odd in that they really don't sound like anyone, but have spawned imitators already and make people say, "That sounds like the Fiery Furnaces." In the years between 2003 and 2009, the band was very prolific and made an unforgettable impression on anyone listening. It goes without saying that they make great records as well that put the fun back in complexity.
Band Members:
Matthew Friedberger - Lead Guitar, Vocals
Eleanor Friedberger - Lead Vocals, Guitar
alternating assortment of other people who play:
Drums (Ryan Sawyer, David Muller, Nicolas Vernhes, Andy Knowles, Robert D’amico)
Bass - Jason Loewenstein
Piano/Organ, etc., usually played Matt and Eleanor themselves
Best Album:
Gallowsbird’s Bark
Biggest Influences:
Frank Zappa, The Who, Royal Trux, Jefferson Airplane, Cardiacs, Captain Beefheart, Pavement, The United States of America, The Carpenters
Albums Chronologically:
2003 – 97% - Gallowsbird’s Bark
2004 – 92% - Blueberry Boat
2005 – 77% - Rehearsing My Choir
2006 – 79% - Bitter Tea
2007 – 91% - Window City
2009 – 75% - I’m Going Away
Compilations
2005 - 82% - EP
2008 - 90% - Remember (live)
2003
Gallowsbird’s Bark - 97%
This is a monumental debut, displaying one of the most original bands to come along in a long, long time. Fast paced, energetic, sounding like piano led rock band bursting out of your speakers, and a lead singer who sounds like Grace Slick crossed with Patti Smith reciting poetry, but at the same time nothing like them at all. The band weaves together tunes that don't let up for a second but don't feel forced at all. Gallowsbird's Bark makes a miracle of going 16 songs in a row of real quality songs, whether its true avant-rock like "Asthma Attack" and "Gale Blow", ballads like the brilliantly catchy "Up in the North" and "Bright Blue Tie", or straight rockers like, well, the rest. Lead Songwriter Matt Friedberger shows his unique guitar style of to great extent on "Leaky Tunnel" and the dynamic and destructive "Don't Dance her Down", and his piano lines on just about every song. Many of these tunes, but especially “Up In the North” sound immortal.
The spilt in half song "Inca Rag/ Name Game" is a notable feat, showing off Matt Friedburger's unique lyric writing ability (truly an original) as he leads the first half the song and it naturally morphs into the smooth groove of the Elanor led second half. “South is Only A Home” is a powerful opener with its descending piano line and cacophony of instruments over a one chord guitar strum, and introduces a new musical language all its own. “Two Fat Feet” is a much more normal song, bluesy riff with a nonsensical and catchy chorus and background of demented piano. When all of the elements combine and tame themselves, you get a song like “Bow Wow”, which points a future of pop perfection this group could follow. Even small gems like “Crystal Clear” and the effervescent “Worry Worry” with a total 1960’s Jefferson Airplane vibe should not be overlooked.
The last three songs which compose an odd song suite actually ends the whole experience quite well showing off their story tale side to a great extent. “Tropical Ice-land” is the only song here I don’t really care for, just being a little too cutesy for me, “Rub Alcohol Blues” is as introspective as Leonard Cohen. The FF betrays a Dylan like quality in “We Got Back the Plague”, thankfully a bombastic but minimal way to end the album, bringing all the psychedelic by way of being random qualities back to Mother Earth. The band shows how to experiment while staying in the realm of rock music and not flying off into space. Where will they go from here? Well, no one knows but one thing is for sure: as long as they keep it as lighthearted and fun as their debut, whatever the band does will be successful. The thing is, as strange as this band sounds, it is just really original rock music done very well, one of the best debuts of all time and it's definitely one of the more underrated albums of the 00's.
Best Songs: Up in the North, The South Is Only a Home, We Got Back the Plague, Bow Wow, Bright Blue Tie
2004
Blueberry Boat - 92%
Building on the song suite idea at the end of the previous record, the Fiery Furnaces have made their ambitions known with this double album of radical ideas. Songs within songs appear on a regular basis, and it is easy to get lost with in the album's huge range of styles. Everything from beautiful ballads to harsh rockers and electronic beats exist on here, often within the same song. There are few songs shorter than five minutes on here too, but don't let it throw ya. Even though the band has changed their approach to music some this is still the same brother sister duo that made the last album and the same off the wall kind of humor and unpredictable nature is present throughout. The nursery rhyme like "Birdie Brain", bouncy "Paw Paw Tree", and quintessential "Straight Street" are probably the most traditional songs on here but oddly enough they are not necessarily the easiest to get into. Even the songs with nice melodies have diversions to them, take the ending of “Straight Street” which seems to hum a motif present other places on the album.
The eleven minute opener "Quay Cur" is actually pretty accessible on its own, weaving through layers upon layers of different ideas and some are never repeated within it, but appear in later songs throughout the album. Other magnificent long suites include nine minute "Chief Inspector Blanchflower" with a great back n forth between the two siblings vocally ending with a relationship story gone wrong to a disco backbeat- there really is a long too much of this record. The seven minute "Chris Michaels" complete rock with some excellent drum work by David Muller and a very sweet operatic ending that references many moments on S.F Sorrow by Pretty things or of course more obviously, The Who’s Tommy. The 3 extensive tracks are the albums masterworks that rank among the band's best songs yet, especially the former which has one of the best first two minutes of a song I have ever heard in my life.
Within songs like those and the shorter but still two part "1917", there is the whole essence of why this band is good, because anyone that can make those ideas work are truly among the great songwriters. There are some slightly failed attempts: "Mason City" is too long despite some parts of it being interesting, "Spaniolated" is a bit boring, and some of the title track “Blueberry Boat” is the epic that doesn’t quite match the others though I absolutely love the electronic opening part that repeats again at the end. The closing songs should not be ignored either with “turning Round” channels Elton John’s Yellow Brick Road piano ballad phase and is simple but effective; “Wolf Notes” is an abstract electronic synth background with a grandiose feel to close the proceedings.
As it stands, the album is so complicated it actually seems longer than it is and takes about five to ten listens to get a feel of it, so its not for everybody you could say but it should be for the adventurous music listener. But what great art is? Blueberry Boat is among the most ambitious albums of the 2000's yet, and one of it's most memorable statements to be sure. It is not jazz music or classical, but it owes something to a genre outside of rock music and its not as simple to call it a musical; there is an alien quality to all of this but also uniting one as the siblings definitely are on the same wavelength in creating these soundscapes. If the band can stay this interesting for more albums, they will easily be contenders for best band of the decade, if they are not already there with Blueberry Boat and Gallowsbird's Bark.
Best Songs: Chris Michaels, Chief Inspector Blanchflower, Birdie Brain, Quay Cur, Straight Street
2005
Rehearsing my Choir - 77%
The band's most out-there record so far for sure and judged harshly by critics of its time. I'll tell you though, this is quite the successful experiment. For one thing, few things in rock have ever been this abstract, not knowing where one song begins and ends. Also it is a concept record, telling the story of a girl at her young age (voiced by usual singer Eleanor Friedberger) and an older woman, looking back at her life (Olga Sarantos); the latter is sung by the sibling's grandmother for goodness sakes! Finally it is not like this is a song by song analogy, where one song is the younger girl, and the next is the older, nor is it chronological- the songs jump around in the same song, constantly repeating things from the future tracks and past tracks at breakneck speed. No way in hell could anyone remember the intricacies of this record without constantly trying. The thing is, it sounds relatively (yes, relatively) easy to listen to, at least for the amount of complexity gathered here.
Some songs definitely hold up on their own like "Rehearsing my Choir", "A Candymaker's Knife in my Handbag", and "4823 22nd Street", and could be heard at any time out of the album's context. Most are better heard in the album's natural flow though, and flow it does by the way - it goes by very fast for a 59 minute record. A Zombies influence can be heard on the record, in the song "We Wrote Letters Everyday" that steals the riff right out of that band's "Hung Up on a Dream" on their Odyssey and Oracle album; also there's the whole "zapped by the zombie!" rant in the third song. Humor is present all over the album, and it constantly makes me laugh, even though there are a few songs I skip now and then. To sum up: if the Residents or Bonzo Dog Band make some of your favorite albums this album exaggerates on that record, in fact all concept records, to the point of no return. Some extra engineering help from Tortoise’s John McEntire.
Best Songs: A Candymaker’s Knife in My Handbag, 4823 22nd Street, Rehearsing My Choir, The Garfield El
2006
Bitter Tea - 79%
Bitter Tea comes back form the theatrical departure of the last record and hampers down on shorter songs psychedelic touches like the first album. For the most part: The beginning of the record is a bit misleading, first the first five songs forming a type of suite once more. "Bitter Tea" has their awe-inspiring moments, though it rests on a catchy refrain no matter how demented. “Little Thatched Hut” opens the album with a mystery vibe, and “I’m In no Mood” is less a song and more of an exercise in changing tempos and modulation, but its successful experimental music. “Teach me Sweetheart” doesn’t does much for me being one of the weaker songs the band has ever made and “”Black Hearted Boy” is more of a failed take on the backwards vocals that seem to be abound on this album.
The rest of the record is way more successful, combing the pop sound heard on EP (2005) with that old classic FF sound. "Police Sweater Blood Vow" has a punchy punk rock vibe to it with a nonsensical chorus like only FF can get away with, "Benton Harbor Blues" has a relaxed Yo La Tengo lounge vibe that totally works for it for all of its seven minute length , and closer "Whistle Rhapsody?" has a late era Beatles quality and all these are the great examples of this blend of years of rock n roll synthesis. Hell, "Waiting to Know You" is straight up vintage 1960's pop music albeit enhanced in some new electronic noises. "Vietnamize Telephone Ministry" is a new kind of song for the band, with backwards vocals being all the rage and a sort of added dementia a great example of musical nonsense working.
As good as the last 2/3 of the record is, there are still a few skippable clunkers like "Oh Sweet Woods" and the difficult "Borneo" to get past (recalling “Quay Cur” from Blueberry Boat perhaps a little too much), though "Nevers" is a completely unique gem in their repertoire, vocals manipulated to the point where they only make sense to the truly initiated. So Bitter Tea is mostly good to great songs, and a pleasure to rip through for die hard of the group as there is much to love here. The album is not a failure by any means and offers as much as the previous Rehearsing My Choir, but the prolific Matthew Friedberger just might want to relax for a while and take his time with future work, lest he run the risk of going down the pretentious path so many other creative bands have been down. It should be said though that The FF's have never made a bad record and they are perhaps the most daring band around in 2006.
Best Songs: Vietnamese Telephone Ministry, Waiting to Know You, Police Sweater Blood Vow, Benton Harbor Blues
2007
Window City - 91%
With their 6th release in five years (counting EP but not Matt Friedberger’s solo double-LP), this band has become the experimental rock group of the decade for sure. Window City is long and detailed at about an hour in length making it yet another double album technically. It is a song cycle, a concept album, a deconstruction of rock traditions...but none of this is new to the FF's devoted fans. Why this record ranks among their best is the consistency and new ideas put forth. First, the songwriting is noticeably different. The songs are more compact then on Blueberry Boat and more ideas are crammed into shorter songs. There is also a deliberate attempt to ape the sound of 1970’s production with Songs like opener seven-minute "The Philadelphia Grand Jury" contains as many tempo changes and modulations as you might expect form them, six-minute suite "Navy Nurse" with the immortal pyric “If there’s anything I’ve had enough of / it’s today.” "Window City" closes the album in a challenging way and "Ex Guru" might be the catchiest song they have made yet, with Elanor Friedburger sounding like Carpenter (with a self-sabotaging bridge). These songs have zillions of ideas that come at you at a fast pace and challenge you to learn them all.
Secondly, the playing is less "wild" and more "structured". The best example is "Clear Signal from Cairo", a blur of metallic hard rock but also a woodwind driven soft rock that somehow works together, though it appears random to the untrained ear. Almost every song has something experimental in it, like a piece of abstract art that can have many interpretations. Thirdly, this is more difficult music than the band has ever made. Gallowsbird’s Bark through Bitter Tea showed the band getting more and more accessible in many ways, but for the most part this is a decisive left turn. Still, the band is really not as alienating as they might sound; I stick by the opinion that this is very accessible stuff. It's more complicated musically, but still very minimal in instrumentation. Even the more melodic tunes like synth laden tongue-twisting wordplay "Automatic Husband", danceable "My Egyptian Grammar" and flute heavy "Pricked in the Heart" will make most people say ‘what the hell is this?’ “Wicker Whatnots” makes sense of the unsensible, and “the Old Hag is Sleeping” is a radio jingle in an alternate universe.
There are key changes, insane percussion, blasts of random noise ("Uncle Charlie" is a masterwork of avant-garde music in itself), most of these things happen in the span of the same song but above all Elenor's singing keeps it all grounded (she sings on every song this time where Matt stays in the background). It’s not perfectly consistent, after a while I have come to the conclusion that “Cabaret of 7 Devils” and “Restorative Beer” could have been cut and I would not shed a tear, and “right by Conquest” sabotage a bit too much and the opener is perhaps a bit too impulsive. I showed this album to a friend and his exact words were, "I can't believe people like this music as much as we do". I have to agree with him, it is rare that an obsessive music fan's wet dream of an album is accepted by the general public, but somehow FF's music was at the time. “Japanese Slippers could not have been released at any other time period in music, I feel like they normalize complexity. To sum up, Window City is a complete deconstruction of melodic rock, a masterpiece from start to finish in the mold of Captain Beefheart’s Trout Mask Replica or Royal Trux’s Twin Infinitives. It is good that the spirit of great experimental rock still lives on, and this well made and deliberate attempt to give rock music more complexity and thought is appreciated. “If your gonna be something/ why not be something special?”
Best Songs: Clear Signal From Cairo, Uncle Charlie, My Egyptian Grammar, Duplexes of the Dead
2009
Im Going Away - 75%
Their most simple record and probably their weakest so far, though because of the high quality of their recording output that is very good. To compare to The Velvet Underground, this comes off as their Loaded or something: proving they can do relatively catchy songs. “Drive to Dallas” and “Cut the cake “ are still very good songs, but they feel a bit by the numbers though there is an interesting Pavement influence to some of these. But “The End is Near” and “Even in the rain” are too much of a step into AOR balladry and repeat the same thing ad nauseum. Still the band succeeds more often than not: “Charmaine Champagne” has a bit of funk and swagger to it that gives the band potential hit, title track “Im Going Away” is for sure a delirious trip, and best of all “Lost At Sea” is a successful emotional ballad that transports the 70’s best qualities to the now. “Staring at the Steeple” also has a great rock n roll twist that recalls their debut record, while “Cups and Punches” waylays with a chorus that finally has some nice Matthew vocals again finally. It is concise at about 45 minute with makes it their shortest album release and one does feel the band reached a point of exhaustion a little bit. With about two thirds being good to great it is still very much worthy of being praised, but the lows this time are a bit lower than usual.
Best Songs: Lost at Sea, Cups and Punches, Staring at the Steeple
Compilations
2005
EP - 82%
No way is this thing an EP, I'm sorry. It is ten songs long for one, and it's 40 minutes in length overall! It's a collection of b-sides though, proven by the techno redo of "Tropical Island" from Gallowsbird's Bark, which is an interesting take on the song. I'd say at least six of the tunes are worth hearing, and it is defiantly the band unafraid to show off their pop side. The instant classic melancholy of "Evergreen", punchy catchiness that seems like you have heard it all before of "Here Comes the Summer", Matt’s lead vocal on the upbeat operetta ballad "Sing for Me" and "Sweet Spots" are some of the best songs the band has ever done, and the most accessible.
"Sullivan's Social Club" and the virulent "Single Again" are more forceful interpretations of the band’s evolution, though they are good just do not succeed quite as much. As many misfires as there on here though, there are way more triumphs, and it stands as a hilarious pop contrast to Rehearsing My Choir, the other F.F. album released in 2005. It’s easy to see this as a collections of ideas they didn’t have time to put anywhere else, as each of their albums has a certain flow to it. A must have for any fan of the band; but imagine a whole album of songs like "Evergreen"…. that would be something different!.
2008
Remember (Live Album) – 90%
So the question would be, is a live album still a live album with massive studio manipulation? I would say only in the case of the fiery Furnaces because at this stage in their career their live shows felt like this kind of cut up ramshackle thing. I have seen the band live multiple times and as they evolved, this album is exactly what they sounded like. I have never really seen a band purposefully deconstruct their sound like this: it takes massive instrumental prowess for one thing. The band just can’t miss a single note or beat because the whole thing would derail (and trust me, sometimes it did). It is important to understand that hard work truly pays off and this record is one for the ages.
You have to admire a group that makes music this insane, few in the history of rock music have dared to make music as challenging as this band and who cares if it takes extra effort to absorb it sometimes? There are amazing moments all around: the middle of Blueberry boat” rocks more than the actual song on the album ever did, “Single Again” almost destroys itself and is barley recognizable, “Bitter Tea” is played way faster and all the better for it, “Evergreen” is muted and fragmented. “Quay Cur” is unrecognizable besides the lyrics, while “Chris Michaels” is made to be rocked out and play live, one of the best rock songs of the 2000’s has to be heard in this format. In ends on “Uncle Charlie” because it HAS TO that makes perfect sense. You could find things for days on this record and it is one of the most special of any live record that is not a joke. While listening to the entire discography of the band, it seems entirely logical that this would be their live record. It’s two hours long and completely overwhelming, what more did we want at this point?
Best Songs: parts of all of them!