Let's hear it for The Fiery Furnaces

[kalowski]

Anyone else like this duo?
Gallowsbird's Bark (2003) and Blueberry Boat (2004)  were their first two albums, and both brilliant, but I have recently been enjoying I'm Going Away (2009).
I struggled with Rehearsing my Choir (2005)  but I think I'll give it another go.
I also have a collection of solo stuff from Matthew Friedberger which I've not had chance to listen to.
I saw them in concert around 2003/4 and they were fucking magic.

[Psmith]

On your recommendation I've just listened to Blueberry Boat  for the first time and I'm just going to listen to it all over again.
Thankyou.

[kalowski]

On your recommendation I've just listened to Blueberry Boat  for the first time and I'm just going to listen to it all over again.
Thankyou.

Excellent. It's definitely different enough to properly get your teeth into. I've just remembered that Straight Street is in Blueberry Boat - what a great track.

[Egyptian Feast]

I loved the first two albums and couldn't understand why Blueberry Boat was so contentious at the time, though I now find it a tad overlong. I haven't listened to Rehearsing My Choir since the mess of a show I saw promoting it. It was a curious enough record in its own right, but it really didn't work live. Eleanor did a decent job of delivering both her own and granny's vocals in a breathless spiel, but was buried in the live mix. The support act Kevin Blechdom completely upstaged them. I spoke to Matthew afterwards and he was lovely despite me putting my foot in it.

I saw them again touring Bitter Tea and they were much better. They got over the more complex material by grafting bits of different songs together like a medley, which surprisingly worked really well. Even the stuff off the granny album worked. I spoke to Matthew again afterwards and made an even bigger dick of myself, but he was still really nice. I saw him wandering around at the Os Mutantes show a few weeks later and decided to let him be.

I found Bitter Tea a bit hit-and-miss so didn't bother with Widow City for ages. I picked it up cheap in a sale and left it on the shelf for years, but have really enjoyed it whenever I've given it a spin in the last couple of years. It's probably my second favourite now, perhaps only because I don't know it as well as the others.

I really liked I'm Going Away, but I can understand why they went on hiatus afterwards. It was a necessary step back from the sprawling mid-period albums and a good one to leave us with. It felt like they hadn't a lot of gas left in the tank, and Eleanor needed to do her own thing. I still haven't heard any of her solo albums, but I really should do at some point. What's Matthew up to now? I had his double solo album thing, but didn't listen to it much.

My favourite of theirs now is the singles & B-sides collection EP, which is oddly their most coherent album and was a steal at half-price. Highly recommended if you like the early albums.

[kalowski]

This is what I've picked up recently:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solos_(Matthew_Friedberger_album)

Solos is a vinyl-only boxset of six albums by Chicago-based musician Matthew Friedberger of The Fiery Furnaces. On each of the six records, Matthew only plays one instrument, hence the name Solos. The boxset was released by Thrill Jockey records as a subscription series in 2011, with two bonus albums for subscribers, although small quantities of each album were released individually.

[rasta-spouse]

I love that song Spaniolated. Wait, I mean the song about the lost dog.

Oh yeah, and I always think of 1917 as a great update on the Velvet's Black Angel's Death Song.

[NattyDread 2]

I remember hearing 'Up in the North' from the first album on radio 3's 'Mixing It' and being stopped in my tracks. The presenters afterwards proceeded to give it a proper slagging, especially the production. Put me off those fuckers forevermore. Saw them live too. Can't remember exactly when but the set was a megamix stomp through all their belters. Loved it.

I hear shades of early Feargal Sharkey in her voice.

[dallasman]

Great band! Blueberry Boat is the one for me, and interest faded as they got more streamlined, but it's all good, and people should know about them. In hindsight, the rockumentary "Capturing The Friedbergers" probably did them no favours.