Fiery Furnaces

Maybe a mixed genre poll? Don't know how to call it yho... Quirky, slightly Psychedelic pop from the 00s onwards? I don't know how to classify it. Of Montreal, Flaming Lips and Fiery Furnaces seem compatible.

great idea, can't wait until you do it :-)

Amen, self
Love several, but Rehearsing My Choir is rock of ages, in more ways than one. Granny Olga in Heaven, you rule!

― dow, Friday, January 9, 2015 9:11 AM

Olga really delivers her stories, with editing and rocking settings by Matthew.

Since “ranking” is all the rage ’round here:

1. Widow City (Side 2)
2. Rehearsing My Choir
3. I’m Going Away
4. Bitter Tea (Side 1)
5. Blueberry Boat
6. Gallowsbird’s Bark
7. Widow City (Side 1)
8. EP
9. Bitter Tea (Side 2)

Not counted: Take Me Round Again; Remember [but it’s great!]

(Also, having now bothered to look up how the vinyl actually breaks down — please sub “LP1” / “LP2,” or just “First Half” / “Second Half,” for “Side 1” / “Side 2” in both cases.)

Also, to give you an idea of the grading curve here — I’d rate “Gallowsbird’s Bark” an 8/10

haha, I like that

EP is good

Is I'm Going Away that good? I was too scared to ever hear it. Blueberry Boat is still my favourite album of this millennium

Happy to see Rehearsing My Choir get its rightful due. Blueberry Boat has become one of my fave records, period.

I've been listening to I'm Going Away. It's...alright. Even In The Rain (where I'm up to) is lovely. I can't remotely see how anyone could prefer it to any of the previous four albums (and EP) but it isn't bad music.

Lost At Sea is good too

Yeah, the album ends strong I guess but it's not quite there for me. Still! Hell of a run they had

I’m Going Away is a great album, with some of their best playing (and it’s the one I’ll still throw on the most often)

Stylistically, it revisits the tight, bluesy rock of Gallowsbird and the “empty musical theatre rehearsal room” aesthetic of (some of) Blueberry Boat... making for a nice closure.

(Also — the sarcastic guitar solo in “Even in the Rain” always makes me laugh, and is a perfect expression of Matt’s “personality”; for better or worse.)

Gawker style:

1. Widow City
2. Blueberry Boat
3. Gallowsbird's Bark
4. EP
5. I'm Going Away
6. getting hit by a bus
7. Rehearsing My Choir
8. Bitter Tea

That must be some bus, lol

Poor lovely Bitter Tea

Don't sleep on the Mr Fried Burger album fyi, fans of TFF's weirder stuff

Here https://mfriedberger.bandcamp.com/releases

It's second to BB in my ranking tbh

Bitter Tea sounded terrific at the time, and still does. The only “problem” is some of the songwriting in the 2nd half...

(and that damn whistle)

(The 2nd half does have "Police Sweater Blood Vow," tho -- one of their best)

First Rehearsing My Choir show from 2005 at the 40 Watt in Athens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-2etKWgW20

and also the first FF Show with Jason on bass and Bob on drums

!

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