I was instantly hooked on The Fiery Furnaces after hearing Quay Cur, the lead track off their 2004 sophomore masterpiece Blueberry Boat. It may be the greatest weirdo indie prog rock song ever written. Granted, not that much competition in that category, but still, it's a fantastic album. A handful of albums and solo projects later, the NYC brother/sister team will be returning to DC July 5th to grace the Black Cat mainstage. We snagged them for a last minute interview...
Brightest Young Things: Did you guys play Dungeons and Dragons growing up?
Matt Friedberger: Of course not.
BYT: Whatever, I did, I'm not ashamed to admit it. I liked to play a chaotic good Elf/thief in the Forgotten Realms. So, when you guys play live, sometimes you do standard sets of separate songs and other times it's a mash up medley, what's the plan this time around?
MF: Separate medley style
BYT: Right. When you put out [2005's full length with grandma on spoken word duties] 'Rehearsing My Choir' were you thinking "this is probably going to piss some people off" or did the negative backlash come as a shock?
MF: What “negative backlash?” No one ever said anything negative to me about the record. Alternative Press gave that record 5 stars. It's true.
BYT: Obviously I was mistaken... remember that movie Krull?
MF: No
BYT: Oh. It was like this weird 80's sci-fi/fantasy movie with this one-eyed... nevermind. Can you give us a bit of trivia on a few songs, as if you were writing the liner notes of your career retrospective box set 20 years from now?
My Dog Was Lost But Now He's Found
MF: Inspired by walking a dog around a church... maybe.
Police Sweater Blood Vow
MF: The music was written and recorded, complete with my vocals, as a present for Eleanor when she returned to the studio after some sort of pleasure trip.
Tropical-Iceland
MF: About Eleanor's trip to Iceland.
South Is Only A Home
MF: About Eleanor's friend who lived at the southern extreme of a tube line in London.
BYT: If someone built an indie rock themed music park, what would the name of your attraction be?
MF: We would not agree to be in an "indie" rock park. If we were in a rock and roll amusement park the ride would be called “The Fiery Furnace.” The band name is already a ride name.
BYT: I bet the kids will go wild for that one. What's the new material like that you're working on?
MF: The new material sounds cool; it sounds like a million bucks.
BYT: What are some of the songs about?
MF: The songs are about wicker whatnots, swift dromedaries, how many pairs of pants you own, grand juries, ex-gurus, etc.
BYT: Last good book you read?
MF: The last good book I looked at was the nudie-page-filled Terence Conran’s “Bed and Bath Book” from 1978.
BYT: Spicy! Last bad album you listened to?
MF: Why would I listen to a bad album? I’d just turn it off.
BYT: Fair enough. One time when I saw you guys live Eleanor had some sort of little sound effects pad that it looked like she was playing with her fingers - I was kinda far away so I could have the logistics a little off - but what was that and where can I get one?
MF: ELFRee 2000. It was made by sandwich artists in El Paso. It’s got extra horseradish.
BYT: Thanx, I'll ebay it. Do you ever get writer's block?
MF: There’s no time for writer’s block in this business.
BYT: What would be your fantasy concert, fill in the blanks:
Opening act: Beethoven circa: 1798
Headliner: Orpheus circa: 1200 BC
BYT: Besides the upcoming show at the Black Cat, is there anything else you want to shamelessly self-promote?
MF: Michael Goodman - Mikenomics
(Michael is The Fiery Furnaces touring drummer, check out his myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/michaelmayhamandthemike)
BYT: Finally, we do one last thing where we get my day job co-worker Hui-Qing (a married-with-kids non-scenester 34-yr-old Chinese lady engineer) to review one song from the band we're interviewing. She'll give it a rating of 1-5 dumplings. You have to pick out the song for her to review though, so choose carefully, she's hard to please.
MF: Seven Silver Curses. She has to listen to the whole thing. She'll be mad at you!
BYT: She's pretty much always mad at me. Take it away Hui:
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What is it? Some epic story? Couldn’t finish the whole song, don’t understand what they are sing about, and not even curious about it. okay, need to clear my head now.
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Decide for yourself:
Black Cat - Thu July 5- THE FIERY FURNACES, DIOS, ORPHAN $15 Mainstage 8:00
http://www.thefieryfurnaces.com/
http://www.myspace.com/thefieryfurnaces
God loves a cheerful giver.
Krull deserves to be mentioned in every interview in the universe...
Why didn't you ask them if they've done "it" together or not?
is it just me or does the guy seem like kind of a prick?
Fine, don't answer. Maybe I'll go and, if I do, then I'll ask them myself.
wow, just reading it made me nervous, what the hell? some people need a shot of vodka and a tickle session
I gave three songs a go and then left. That's right: I left a bar where I drink for what amounts to "free" because the suck was so great.
I didn't even want to ask if they ever did it. You know they did - they were probably 7 or so so it doesn't really count, but they still did it.
If not liking the Fiery Furnaces makes me uncool (not that I ever thought I was), the so be it.
Michael,
I don't think they're from W.VA.
But neither were Catherine and Chris Dollanganger.
Besides, I saw you sleeping on Chad's bar. Don't lie.
I can admire their musicianship, but I didn't like their songs. It's like putting Proust and Shakespeare* in a room and having them write stories, then editing them all together willy-nilly. While the writing would be great, the story would no doubt make no sense and also suck.
*I am not saying that the FF's are as good at making music as Proust and Bardolomew were at writing. They were just examples ti prove a point.
official show review posted: http://www.brightestyoungthings.com/live-dc/show-reviewphotos-the-fiery-furnaces/
Did the interviewer actually get paid for this article?
If i was being interviewed by this ignoramus, i'd seem like kind of a prick too.
Maybe I am biased since I am running this site and all (this being a favorite turn of phrase to start explaining how things work these days) BUT I think Cale does amazing tongue in cheek interviews.
BYT has slowly but surely built up a solid backlog of irreverent, not-taking-themselves-seriously, intended-for-the-internet-generation's-attention-span interviews.
You want some brown nosing, waxing lyrical about people's albums...go to Rolling Stone or the like (or our Fujiya and Miyagi interview for that matter)
You want to see celebrities answer questions about Krull, Breakfast foods, fill out myspace surveys and "gay porn or clint eastwood" questionnaires and read (amazing) Hui reviews- welcome to BYT.
All interviewees are pre-warned and should know what to expect.
Not playing along with it (because when they do-IT IS AMAZING-check the Menomena interview for example) - tough luck for them.
There, so everyone deal with it.
And Matthew more so than anyone.
I love the Fiery Furnaces. I don't understand how anyone can not like them. So catchy. So good. I love the way the guy was answering so curtly; hilarious. I'm sure he's not a prick. And if he is.. well he's a rock star so he's allowed. I think he's admirably cool.