Siblings Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger—known to fans of disjointed, art rock-influenced, psychedelic pop as The Fiery Furnaces—are exhaustingly prolific. They've released seven full-length records in as many years, they tour relentlessly, and they're known for making concept albums and sonic experiments so novel that one might occasionally wonder if these be the bastard children of prog rock's founding fathers: The Friedbergers collaborated with their grandmother for a record, and they're currently working on both a silent album—yes, you read that correctly—and an album comprised of "covers" of their own material from their latest release, I'm Going Away. Try that on for size, Peter Gabriel's Genesis.
OK, that was an awful lot of crazy shit to take in from just one paragraph. But before you dismiss The Fiery Furnaces as just another wacky garage-rock troupe with big ideas and a tinge of pomposity, consider the enormous amount of work ethic and talent required—especially in the Blog Boom years—to produce over a half-dozen records that keep fans and critics alike engaged.
"You could put a record out every five years to keep people interested in you," says Matthew Friedberger. "But now you have to record even more, because there's so much more information for free available to people. You might as well take advantage of that, and recording a record is fun."
I'm Going Away, released in July by Chicago's Thrill Jockey Records, has been labeled as the Furnaces' most accessible release to date. One might initially wonder just what in the hell the words "Fiery Furnaces" and "accessible" are doing in the same sentence, but a thorough listen to I'm Going Away reveals that perhaps it's not an egregious mischaracterization. The record's haunting vocal melodies, rich organs and inventive guitar licks echo the likes of old soul and Top 40 standards, and the gloriously optimistic, pounding pianos on "Lost at Sea" and "Even in the Rain" feel vaguely familiar.
"[Our albums] are all accessible," quips Matthew. "You can get them for free or for money on the Internet, or if a store exists you can go down and get them. On our past records, the simple rock songs...are much more elaborate. On this record, the songs are not elaborate, so really it's all about making the listeners work much harder. They have to elaborate the songs themselves in their own imaginations."
Eleanor, who serves as the Furnaces' primary vocalist, has always played with phrasing and literary devices in a manner that is remarkably unique and intriguing. The lyrics of I'm Going Away seem less purposefully verbose than those of 2007's Widow City, but they remain smart narratives and existential quandaries. They just happen to be tucked into what closely resembles a conventional pop format. Well, conventional by The Fiery Furnaces' standards, anyhow.
It seems likely that this more conventional approach to song structure—this room for elaboration, as Matthew puts it—is why the Friedbergers have elected to do some elaboration of their own. While The Fiery Furnaces don't yet have a release date or even a specific format in mind for their album of I'm Going Away covers, its production is already underway. The Furnaces are known for retooling their songs and introducing new instrumentation for live performances, so perhaps a record full of retranslations isn't quite as absurd as it sounds.
"[When playing live] in the past, we...just kept the words and I made up a new arrangement for them," explains Matthew. "I don't know if we're going to be giving this record away or if it's going to cost something very low on the Internet...but we thought we'd put a record out with that approach because that's what we do live."
And the silent album? Well, perhaps that one is roughly as bizarre as it sounds, but you have to credit the Friedbergers for providing such an innovative participatory release to fans. "It'll have conventional sheet music and rock tablature. Simple tunes with the chord tabs," says Matthew. "It'll have things scored out [and] graphic notation, which is stuff that uses the visual element of conventional notation.... It will have illustrations, or sort of reports or reviews of hypothetical interpretations. There will be these little stories or drawings of example performances." The Friedbergers have invited fans to nominate themselves as potential performers of the silent album, and they say the response has already been strong.
Though most of I'm Going Away's melodic core is keyboard-based, Matthew says they won't be playing with a keyboardist on this tour. "The last two tours I only played keyboard, so now I'm playing the guitar...the songs aren't especially re-arranged. The main difference is that it's arranged for guitar and drums."
No matter your take on the Friedbergers' atypically proactive approach to garage rock, their endlessly resourceful and tireless production of new material must be applauded. Sure, rock 'n' roll fans with particularly discerning taste might have to cherry pick the best songs from The Fiery Furnaces' ever-expanding catalog. But when they're on, their cerebral, ultra-literate variety of rock perfectly demonstrates just how expansive an umbrella term "pop" can be. And they're not going away anytime soon.
Email prodgers@nashvillescene.com or call 615-244-1989, ext. 366.
