[photo]

When Beck’s nod to the composer/instrument creator Harry Partch recently surfaced I was taken aback by the impressive experimentation, and — I presume — timely writing and production of such a complexly orchestrated piece of music.  I also appreciate the moments that ’sound’ a little like Beck might (hypothetically) be saying “I can make music that sounds like the Fiery Furnaces if I want to” (see the 1:18 mark).

If this song is actually the result of Beck being dissed by the Fiery Furnaces, here’s hoping more relevant artists diss Beck in the near future.  I mean the man is obviously feeling prolific these days, so why not inspire him?

“Harry Partch”, according to Beck’s website, “uses a 43 tone scale in reference to Partch’s innovations with alternate tonalities. A peregrination across disparate territory to ascertain an unassumed frame of reference.”  Basically that means it’s really interesting and deserves a listen.

MP3: Beck “Harry Partch” (192kbps)

[via]

IRC Exclusive: Legendary Producers Martin Bisi & Bill Laswell Team Up with Fiery Furnances and Dresden Dolls

Martin Bisi is a famed producer who built a recording studio with Brian Eno three decades ago, producing albums for some of the best bands of the 1980’s and early 90s underground rock movement, including Sonic Youth, The Swans, Dresden Dolls and The Boredoms, to name just a few. Bisi, who is also a musician, songwriter and engineer, recently jumped into the sound tank himself to record tracks with folks like Fiery Furnances’ dummer Bob D’Amico, prolific producer and bassist Bill Laswell (The Ramones, Iggy Pop, Mick Jagger and many others), and members of The Dresden Dolls and Balkan Beat Box. Laswell was also instrumental in creating the studio with Bisi and Eno.

In fact, Bisi and Laswell collaborated with Herbie Hancock to record the 1983 Grammy Award-winning song, “RockIt” – the first hit song to feature turntable scratching. Jumping forward to this year, all of this talent in one room is a combination sure to result in something interesting, which is exactly what these next songs, “Mile High – Apple of My Eye” and “Drink Your Wine,” prove to be. The songs are from the recently released five-track digital only EP Son of a Gun, and were sent to IRC by Bisi himself. The first song featured below is a perfect track for Halloween, or even The Twilight Saga: New Moon soundtrack, while “Drink Your Wine” is more of an uptempo rocker that is fun and infectious at the same time (watch the video above).

“Mile High – Apple of My Eye” - Martin Bisi & Bill Laswell from Son of a Gun (2009)

“Drink Your Wine” – Martin Bisi & Company from Sun of a Gun (2009)

Get Son of a Gun from iTunes.

Of the recording of the EP, Bisi said: “With Laswell, I did the ‘modern’ approach of sending him files, letting him do whatever, and then adjusting. He really surprised me. I was expecting his usual very groove or dub oriented bass, and he gave me something very ambient, laden with effects and trippy. That pretty much sums up the M.O. on this EP…With “Mile High- Apple Of My Eye,” I asked Butterface (the keyboardist on the EP) to give me some programmed rhythms and sounds with a trip-hop vibe, specifically for Laswell to play on, and he turned it around in 30 minutes.”

Went to see The Fiery Furnaces last night and I’m too pooped to pop out new Gumshoe updates, seeing as I just cranked out a MAGICAL live review for Tiny Mix Tapes (which will run Monday).

I did, however, procure the setlist from Matthew Friedberger. Actually my wife did (I’m just not CUTE enough, dammit); either way you can check it out above and, you know, be in TOTAL AWE.

Here’s an excerpt from my review:

“You just don’t hear bands twitch, stutter, double back, dip, dive, dodge, duck, deep-dick, stop-start, jump-kick, side-swipe and twitterpate rock the way Fiery Furnaces do; it’s just not DONE. This is why they bake my brain like a brick-oven rye … “

Heyo!

I was listening to the download 15 on Sirius radio and Jake Fogelnest brought up the douchetastic remarks made from the Fiery Furnaces’ Matt Friedberger toward Radiohead and their song Harry Patch. Friedberger thought that the song was about experimental music composer Harry Partch.

Friedberger tried to cover his remarks by releasing a statement that said,

“Matt has not heard the Radiohead song about Harry Patch, but if he did, he is sure he wouldn’t like it. No doubt Radiohead and their fans can ignore his opinion of this matter and continue with their triumphant artistic interventions. Matt would have much preferred to insult Beck but he is too afraid of Scientologists.”

So what does Beck do? He fires back with this:

He also just release his new music video with Charlotte Gainsbourg called “Heaven Can Wait”.

Why aren’t people as productive as Beck?

Beck acaba de publicar una canción “Harry Partch”, dedicada al compositor e inventor de instrumentos Harry Partch utilizando su escala de 43 tonos. Partch creó su propio sistema de tonalidades utilizando frecuencias y notas con distintas resonancias. Sin embargo, es más que probable que el origen de la canción no sea la grandeza de su escala, sino una respuesta a los comentarios del grupo Fiery Furnaces sobre una canción de Radiohead.

Fiery Furnaces, más concretamente Matthew Friedberger, criticó la canción de Radiohead “Harry Patch” alegando que escogían un tema que se consideraba “cool” como herramienta de marketing, sin esconder (claro está) que a Matthew no le gusta en absoluto un grupo al que califica de falaz.

El problema es que metieron la pata ya que la canción de Radiohead se llamaba “Harry Patch” y no “Harry Partch”, es decir, no iba dedicado al compositor, sino al último superviviente de la Segunda Guerra Mundial.

Fiery Furnaces volvió a lucirse cuando lanzó un comunicado, suponemos que a modo de disculpas, donde no se les ocurrió otra cosa que explicar “Matt habría preferido insultar a Beck pero tiene demasiado miedo de la Cienciología” (una broma suponemos).

¿Qué pasó después? Beck publicó una nueva canción “Harry Partch” (esta vez sí, dedicada al compositor) que dura como 10 minutos, es experimental y se puede escuchar de forma gratuita a través de su página web.

A pesar del ‘miedo a la cienciología’ de Mattew no pudo dejar de escribir un blog en su MySpace sobre el asunto. En él dice que la enemistad creada es imaginaria y que, por supuesto, el incidente lo ha conocido por “alguien” que le mencionó la canción subida por Beck.

Mais um capítulo da novela. No blog do MySpace do The Fiery Furnaces, o vocalista, Matt Friedberger, decidiu dar a tréplica à réplica de Beck (entenda melhor aqui). Ao longo de dois posts, o cantor escreve sobre a atual indústria da música e critica o fato de Beck ter lançado a música Harry Partch em seu site, alegando que a prática é ‘tão ano passado’.

Matt deu voltas e voltas e pouco disse. Se quiser se aventurar a ler os posts, estão aqui e aqui.

“You might believe these things you say!” Generally, one hopes people mean what they say, but there are certain times when generous thinking would mean hoping that people don’t necessarily do so. Take Matt Friedberger, of the Fiery Furnaces. It’s one thing to confuse Harry Partch with Harry Patch, and when I first saw the news about the new Radiohead song, I did a double-take myself. But ye gods, lad, just say you don’t like Radiohead and quit while you’re ahead. The incoherent, rambling complaints and justifications reveal a pretty profound ignorance of Partch’s work and an insecure, infantile antagonism to the band. But then, musical incoherence, limited aesthetic horizons and a kind of smug ignorance about the voices who came before and are around are staples of a lot of indie-rock (and indie-cinema). And since musically incoherent bands like Fiery Furnaces and Dirty Projects garner praise and admiration, these must be qualities to admire and aspire to. I prefer knowledge, ambition and musical coherence, so I’ll stick with Radiohead (perhaps Beck does too, but his musical response is the most incoherent thing of all in this dumb dispute).

Think of it as a debate, forget the facts, and focus on the rhetoric. Rhetoric is an essential tool and can convince on its own, but it must be as coherent as pure logic. Even if the rhetoric is disingenuous, it must make sense. Look at Sarah Palin, desperate to please everyone she speaks with, to tell them what she thinks they want to hear. She’s completely disingenuous, but doesn’t have the skill to run for President, much less win and govern – she can’t think and speak coherently, she can’t make any sense. Politician as indie-rock front-woman, it’s a curious phenomenon. Making sense, communicating clearly, is a matter of craft, and craft may go out of fashion but it never goes out of style.

The craft of Ralph Shapey, the latest composer feted in the Composer Portraits at Miller Theater, is an example of this. His art is bracingly crusty and uncompromising and completely sincere, and it’s never been in fashion (a Pulitzer Prize was, amazingly, overruled). Liking or not liking his music is a matter of personal taste, but he unquestionably wrote good music. The works on the program were a fine representation of his career; concentrated in size, ambitious, challenging for musicians and audiences, extremely well crafted and always coherent. Agree or disagree with what he says, but what he says is always clear.

Shapey began his musical life playing the violin, and his writing for the instrument is almost impossibly fine. Two of the strongest works on the program, “Etchings” for solo violin (finished when he was in his mid-twenties) and “Five,” for violin and piano, are works that show an intimate familiarity with what is possible on the instrument. These are works at the edge of playability but are never showy. The challenges are not endless runs of notes and chromatic scales but immediate, broad intervals and quick shifts to and from harmonics. This is virtuoso violin music like that Stravinsky wrote for his Concerto, demanding more speed from the mind than the fingers, and emphasizing quickness of the bow from string to string rather than dramatic twirling of the left hand fingers. The early work takes a graceful, ultra-Romantic, melody reminiscent of the gripping opening of the Bartok solo violin sonata and repeats it through several variations of tempo and rhetorical quality – grander, sweeter, syncopated – complete with a surprise authentic cadence. The surprise is because Shapey’s work, while mostly not atonal, is highly dissonant, and although that necessarily means that there is consonance and diatonic melodies and chords to be found in his music, the emphasis is on a craggy, confident and very American dissonance. His sonorities, especially for combined winds, are astringent to the point of peeling paint. “Five” is a real masterpiece, a work that seems effortlessly virtuosic in performance but which clearly demanded a great deal of blood, sweat and tears. An explosive, breathtaking opening statement consolidates into a more introverted soliloquy in the violin, and then the ideas begin to come with a speed and density which rivals Beethoven, and there is a sense of an ongoing, constructive debate between the two instruments. There is almost constant activity between the two and a bit of rhythmic conflict, especially in the Scherzo movement where the violin bickers with short, punchy diatonic phrases from the keyboard. The work says more in ten minutes than many symphonies do across an hour. Violinist <a href="http://www.artistsinternational.com/miranda_cuckson.html”>Miranda Cuckson and pianist Blair McMillen played with the command and ease that comes from dedication to the music and understanding what it is they want to say; coherence in composition breeds coherence in performance.

Shapey shares a something with Elliot Carter, in that good musicians are drawn to the quality and challenge of his music. The spirit of his music is serious, rigorous, clear-eyed, far less playful than Carter but with a greater tenderness and humanity, both in specific moments and as a consistent underlying his voice. There’s a sense of the individual declaring themselves to the universe, then exploring the territory around them, speaking up for and defining their own existence. He’s a Romanticist who writes in a highly Modern language, a sort of generational progeny of Samuel Barber. Even in muscularly atonal works like “Movements” for woodwind quintet and “Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Group” (featuring the New York Woodwind Quintet and the Argento Ensemble), there is a quiet lyricism in the middle of the strident, high E’s blasting from the flute and the roiling Romanticism of the clarinet. The “Quintet” is full of disorienting wide intervals, which are fodder for good wind players, and since the music makes such sense to the musicians it quickly makes sense to the ear. Shapey does familiar things in extreme ways; he favors rondo forms and passages, and so music that first seems like neurotic chattering soon reveals itself as a fascinating chase. The “Concerto” has parts for two percussionists, playing bass drums, and the soft but full bodied sound of their stubborn rhythms is both a mysterious echo of the ensemble and a musical response and ground its own right, like the ‘druids’ in Ives’ “The Unanswered Question.”

The percussion writing is surprising and usually effective. The second half opened with the weakest piece on the program, his later “Interchange” for percussion quartet. His scoring for metal instruments is attractive, the sonorities of tubular bells, orchestral bells and vibraphone sounds great, but here Shapey is locked to true atonality, a 12-tone row he described as his mother lode, and the row seems to lead him around, rather than vice-versa. There’s an interesting eeriness to the sound, but the overall effect is mechanical, and that’s enhanced by a particular dotted-eighth/sixteenth/triplet rhythm (which sounds very much like Partch) which appears too often with too little variation. The piece doesn’t breath with life and spontaneity like the other works, including the concluding “Three for Six,” with it’s lively, demanding woodwind writing and provocative timpani phrases. It begins with a familiar tactic, and explosion of sharp sounds and forceful figures, a combination of announcement and march. The ensemble seemed slightly stiff at first, but then found their way to an unforced pace and really began to speak the music. There is a lovely, haunting viola solo in the middle movement, dazzling clarinet solos, and always the music is answered by the timpani, supported by the piano, asking “is that what you mean to say? Is that what you mean to say?” Shapey, as a composer, clearly asked himself that question, and answered “yes, I mean to say exactly this.”

The next Composer Portraits concert is dedicated to the evocative music of Kaija Saariaho, on Sunday November 22 at 8PM.

Beck estava na sua quando Matt Friedberger decidiu implicar com ele. Tudo começou quando o vocalista do Fiery Furnaces chamou a aclamadíssima banda britânica Radiohead de ‘ridículos’ por lançarem uma música sobre Harry Patch. Esse Harry era o mais velho veterano britânico da 1ª Guerra Mundial ainda vivo, mas veio a falecer em julho desse ano (aos 111), e que aparentemente merecia uma homenagem.

Tudo indica que Friedberger confundiu Harry Patch com Harry Partch, compositor de música experimental. Porém, ao invés de reconhecer o erro, Matt decidiu continuar o barraco, dessa vez atacando Beck. Disse que, nesse caso,

Preferiria muito mais insultar o Beck, mas tenho muito medo dos cientologistas.

Como resposta à agressão gratuita, Beck lançou ontem, em seu site, uma música chamada… Harry Partch! Sim, desta vez em homenagem ao músico. E ele explica:

É um tributo ao compositor, e seu desejo de unificar o corpo e a música no que ele chamava de ‘Corporealidade’. A música emprega a escala de 43 tons de Partch, que expande a tonalidade convencional em uma variação mais ampla de frequências e ressonâncias.

Isso que dá cutucar o leão com vara curta. Ouça a música aqui.

Tropical, icy icy!

Nippy nippy nippy! I haven’t really been thinking about Fiery Furnaces much (though I do recommend this year’s record I’m Going Away- it’s poppy and fun, easy to get into), but this morning I woke up with Tropical Iceland going around my head. It’s a great song and has a fun music video. Fiery Furnaces are great, check them out: Myspace.

Myself and a friend went to check out the group Fiery Furnaces at El Mocambo in Toronto on Saturday night (Nov. 07, 2009). The show was beyond words so i will let the footage speak for itself. here are some videos and photos I took (with one stolen from Jolinne Kearns on the right)

I think the videos and photos speak for themselves. If you have not listened to the Fiery Furnaces, look them up. They are a modest, talented group that can blow your mind!

Over at MobyLives, they talk about Glenn Beck being the new Oprah for a bunch of writers we could really care less about.  We wonder to ourselves if this post was just a genius ploy by Melville House to get Beck to notice Shoplifting From American Apparel?

Lit.

• Daniel Nester and Vol. 1 Brooklyn contributor Claire Shefchik make nice after Shefchik reviews his book.  We think everything is going to be okay.

• James Wood talks about Thomas Pynchon’s characters.  Conversational Reading has a reply.

• I wonder if Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks has read The Magicians yet?  This Boston Globe review makes me thing Gilsdorf’s new book might be an interesting way to companion to Lev Grossman’s book.

• Death and Taxes ask Chuck Klosterman about Balloon Boy

• Atlanta writer Jamie Iredell (Prose. Poems. A Novel) makes up a steak sauce at Deckfight.

• A plan to help indie bookstores.

• Churchill might be the “most exciting” biography of the year according to Huff Po.

Music

• Fiery Furnaces take on Radiohead.  Go Fiery Furnaces!

• Kurt Vile talks to AV Club.  We find out he “grew up listening to Pavement obsessively.”  Wish we would have known that a few months ago.

• Stop Smiling likes Brilliant Colors.

Our home turf.

• Brooklyn Brewery isn’t moving for at least fifteen years.

• MTV is looking for “the most charismatic and actually edgy kids” of Brooklyn.

• I was thinking of joining the Park Slope Co-op.  Now I don’t think I want to anymore.  Maybe I’ll just get this shirt.

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Lui e lei, i fratelli Friedberger, gruppo di New York, gli utlimi due album bellissimi, meglio di tutti quelli precedenti, visti due volte in tour con la formazione a quattro, la prima volta con solo tastiere e niente chitarra, la seconda volta solo chitarra e niente tastiere, anche se l’album è pieno di tastiere, gli arrangiamenti sono tutti modificati, lei canta e basta, lui tiene d’occhio il bassista, sembra, per poi rinfacciare gli errori, ci immaginiamo.

Sulla batteria c’è scritto Franz Ferdinand, ma in modo storpiato, perché lei è fidanzata con quello dei Franz Ferdinand, e lui, ci immaginiamo, lo chiama “lo scozzese”, lo prende in giro, storpia il nome della sua band, lo scrive sulla batteria, lei allora cancella tutte le lettere, tranne F F, come Fiery Furnaces.

Nonostante tutti pensino che voglia dire “fiere fornaci”, nonostante questa traduzione sbagliata compaia anche su certi siti specializzati, Fiery Furnaces significa “fornaci ardenti” e, fra parentesi, i Fiery Furnaces hanno stampato un libretto con i testi di Blueberry boat tradotti in varie lingue con un traduttore automatico e poi ritradotti in inglese, a formare frasi senza senso, e lo vendono al banchetto dei loro concerti, mai scelta avrebbe potuto essere più azzeccata.

L’Ottobre di Milano sarà un mese fitto di eventi musicali imperdibili e gli incerti avranno di che strapparsi i capelli.

Onde evitare di rimanere senza la mia -non troppo- folta chioma in testa, esporrò qui il mio dilemma per la serata: nostalgica del trip-hop anni ‘90 ai Magazzini Generali o hipster alternativa al Musicdrome?

Insomma, Lamb o Fiery Furnaces?

Voi cosa scegliete?

I am in deep.  Deep in these headphones, much like someone else who posts here, in a land I seldom linger: the land of the full album.  Actually, a few full albums, from the same artist.  The Fiery Furnaces.  In wine tasting lingo this would be a vertical tasting, one in which you taste the same house, same varietal, over several vintages.  My interest was piqued when another writer here foretold intentions of  attending a future FF show.  I own most all of the Furnaces’ releases, save a few recent ones since Bitter Tea, though I believe one is live, and the other is soon to be released.  I could be off here, so feel free to set me straight.  Since I own them all, one would have assumed that I have listened to these “albums”, but yet I haven’t, and therefore we find my situation with all its cosmic jaunts.  See, for the majority of the last decade dedicated to musical listening,  I have lived in shuffle, whether at work or at home.   I’d say that besides the random listen to a live show, ITunes is set to shuffle, and honestly, its my best, and only slightly my worst friend.

I stand by the shuffle like a gay republican does the Christ Fellowship.  My shuffle and I live by illogical tenets cloaked in secrecy; though I am neither gay nor driven by pop spirituals with a driving bass and a female lead(well, maybe the female lead. Ok, the driving bass, too).  Those enthralled by the pop spiritual  should love it for all it is, I will pass.  I’ll take my gospel, my Gregorian and  Buddhist Sutras/Chants.  Chamber Music tickles me silly.  My fondness of bluegrass stems not from spiritual traditions found commonly within, but from instrumentation and harmony, and that old-time story telling tradition.   Hell, even the Grateful Dead and Robert Hunter understood, like Joesph Campbell before, that stories worth retelling will again be told.  And should–through my shuffle tab.

Shuffle is my own version of the “law of attraction”.  More often than not, shuffle plays the correct song at the appropriate moment in my life.  Examples aside, Shuffle in my life is an embodiment of synchronicity.  When single CD players were trumped by disc changers, i got one. A three. Then a five. I never moved into the world of 100+ disc changers:  at that point I was in school, relatively poor, yet still music rich. CD’s never stayed in the trays for more than a song or two, with conversations and inspiration springing from those sessions of boundless play.  And, musically, my play never stands still.  You can will your mood, in part, through equanimity; if you listen to enough music, your player of choice (shuffle enabled) will complement.

In iTunes you now have the ‘Genius” option. This fancy new iTunes Genius which Bruce so rightly expounded on, is total dreck.  I’ve run it through its paces.  Genius and Shuffle must be based on some algorithm, which if analyzed  shows neither randomness nor synchronicity, only some human tendency to find patterns in everything we see or experience.  Sure.  We can go there, but for those that do, you suck and are not fun.  We should never play together.

The Furnaces–I believe they are lit.  The heat is on.  When a tune from them percolates the speakers and fills the house, I always have to go see who it is.  Same for the likes of Akron/Family (though not as much recently), Midlake, Fleet Foxes, etc.  Any of these so called “indie rock” bands.  The Fiery Furnaces come off  as more avant garde, as do many in the genre. (I’m not one for categories, though: I’ve got that tab turned off in my ITunes.) My friend and artist Popi Feeldz compares their “tonal qualities to The Residents, but more accessible.”  This makes perfect sense to me.  The Residents make my mind bleed, and when they shuffle by, I almost always know who it is, as with the Sun City Girls, The Swans, etc, again.  Where the Furnaces win out here is with the story telling.  Some of the songs come off as music worked over a cut/pasted short story audio book.  Hints of “Isis” or “Lily, Rosemary, & the Jack of Hearts”.  Prose weaving in and out of electrons,  drums, whistles, beats, pianos, moogs – seriously, some of this stuff has to come off a computer or keyboard – which at one time would have crawled my skin, only here i appreciate it.  With the former bands mentioned, The Residents, SCG, Swans, i have always gone there for the music, the edge, tension.  Any tension in the FF’s seems trivial compared to the individual compositions.

Each album continues to reaffirm the FF’s as a band, and so I see the FF’s being able to create more of the tension I often seek..  I feel like The Residents moved in and out of this throughout there career. Wow. In need of the newer FF material at this point. Good thing.

In all, this vertical tasting has reaffirmed the belief in my shuffle. While everything from ‘Widow City’ to ‘Bitter Tea’ is accessible,  I dont yearn, yet, for a whole album take. I need bits and pieces, glimpses at musics past and present along the way, along the day.  Tension and release.  As I finish this piece (did I actually say anything), I will admit I am sonically lost in “Rehearsing My Choir”.  This might be the best vintage of The Fiery Furnaces.  At least for my palate. Young tannins, with a sonic whole head feel; should age nicely over a few decades in you player.

HT

Eu e John sempre trocamos inúmeros e-mails antes de um podcast. Primeiro falamos da vida, depois vem as fofocas, depois horóscopo, moda, Twitter, filosofia alemã, medicina celta, novidades nas pesquisas de células tronco e, enfim, formatamos a pauta do poscast e sua devida playlist.

Como somos ex-publicitários e ultracriativos (metidos, você pode/deve pensar), vamos falando e jogando idéias sem parar. Invariavelmente, a playlist fica imensa. Muita coisa legal é cortada ou substituída por algo que é mercadologicamente mais interessante.

Para sanar esse corte que nos dói a alma, inventamos de transmitir o Mixcast 2 Many Songs!!! Um arquivo mp3 no mesmo feed do podcast com o que ’sobrou’ da playlist do podcast em exercício. Intercalaremos os 2MW pods com os devidos 2MS, pra não demonstrar que o blog está parado. hehe

There’s our solution to broadcast to those who doesn’t understand a word we’re saying in the podcast. At least, it’s a downloadable/iPodble file for you guys!

Listen here:

Tracklist – 2 Many Songs – pod#4 (44m36s)

1. Lali Puna – Toca-Discos
2. Kraftwerk – Das Model
3. Sin Fang Bous – Clangour and Flutes
4. Cornelius – Drop
5. TV on the Radio – Ambulance
6. Olivia Tremor Control – I Can Smell the Leaves
7. Grizzly Bear – Knife
8. No Age – Eraser
9. Fiery Furnaces – Tropical Iceland
10. The Notwist – Off the Rail
11. Microphones – The Moon

Hey there guys and girls. I just got in from Vena Cava’s Fashion Week Show at Milk Studios! It was a  blast and I really enjoyed the myself. The girls from Vena Cava, Sophie Buhai and Lisa Mayock are so cute and down to earth, it warms my heart! I am not a fashion guru or anything and I mean i know about as much as a janitor about fashion, but I think their collection was truly supreme. The models they chose were excellent, the colors, lipsticks and blue fingernail polish, and so on and so on were soo awesome. Gosh, it’s nice to see good people succeed.

And you know the girls did it up with the music, they had the effin’ Fiery Furnaces performing! GUHH!

The image above is straight from my camera as well, no editing on anything yet, everything is still so hectic. I’m supposed to be doing about 8 things tonight, how will i do it all? I can’t get the flu again from stressing out like I did last fashion week…no way!

oh man, and VENA CAVA is having a block party, tonight! CLICK HERE for more details, it’s in Williamsburg and it’s from 6 – 11 on north 1st between bedford avenue and driggs, go! it’s for Fashion’s Night Out! so dope.

Haha, more photos to come, I’m supposed to be doing the Robert Geller show, along with Alexander Wang as well.
Tomorrow is gonna be busy, as hell…all of the above things, including a meeting with Heather Hughes of Supreme Model Management…I love Heather.

Later nerds,
antwan.

Como são as coisas. Essa banda existe desde 2000 e só a conheci essa madrugada. Fui dormir 15 minutos mais tarde, mas valeu a pena. Pelo que o programa “Coluna MTV” falou, é um álbum bem menos ‘viagem’ do que os outros. Aprendi a conter minha ansiedade de sair ouvindo tudo de bandas que acabei de conhecer. Ouvi algumas músicas e gostei. Não só do som, mas da banda, em si.

É um casal de irmãos, tocando rock despretensioso. Lembra o White Stripes, claro, mas é diferente. Me lembraram, muito mais, o Radiohead, no quesito ‘postura’. Darei dois exemplos apenas, devido à minha fase de pequenos textos, sem muitas explicações. Se curtir, clique nos links do texto e conheça mais da banda.

1 – A home deles estranha, a princípio. Ao abri-la, verifiquei o som do computador e, só depois, reparei que é uma mensagem destinada a quem é surdo e quer ler sobre o conceito do novo disco, “I’m Going Away”.

2 – O próximo álbum deles será o Silent Record. A dupla de irmãos explica: “Because file-sharing, or downloading, or whatever, has notoriously, or supposedly, made the production of the conventional ‘with-audio’ record obsolete, the Fiery Furnaces will release a Silent Record.” [Traduzindo: o compartilhamento de arquivos (downloads) fez com que a produção de uma gravação 'com áudio' se torna-se obsoleta. Ou seja, as pessoas não compram mais o ‘áudio’, apenas baixam. Por isso, eles vão lançar um disco 'silencioso'].

Para isso, produzirão partituras, anotações e cifras de como as músicas devem ser tocadas. Não será lançado um disco com músicas gravadas. Ou seja, quer ouvir uma música do Fiery Furnaces, do próximo álbum? Aprenda a tocá-las. A dupla montará ‘auditions’ e concertos de interessados em mostrar como é que interpretaram o Silent Record. Tem até email para você se inscrever. Se não tiver uma banda ou não souber tocar algum instrumento, outro jeito de você ouvir o álbum é ir a algum show de Matthew e Eleanor Friedberger. Assim falou Zaratustra.

Die neue Fiery Furnaces habe ich ja hier schon anderweitig gelobt. Sie ist zwar bei weitem nicht so abgedreht und verspielt wie die Vorgängeralben, jedoch noch immer meilenweit vom 0815 Radiogedüdel entfernt. Grosse Melodien sind garantiert. Auch ganz hübsch, der Clip zu Charmaine Champagne von eben diesem Album.

Hermione Hoby, “Nothing Ventured, Something Gained,” The Observer 16 August 2009 (page 3)

As one band asks fans to fill an album of silence, Hermione Hoby looks at the history of blank art

How to proceed when your eight albums have already plundered pretty much every musical landscape out there? The unflaggingly experimental brother-sister duo, the Fiery Furnaces, have an answer: a silent album – or Silent Record to give their recently announced project its proper name. Yet those seeking balm for overstimulated minds and ears might be disappointed – the “record” is in fact a book of music notation, reports and illustrations and includes plans for a series of “fan-band concerts” where fans will “perform, interpret, contradict, ignore, and so on, the compositions that make up Silent Record.” Sounds noisy. But the history of emptiness is a rich one …

John Cage’s 4′33, 1952

The avant-garde composer’s four-minute, 33-second recording of a pianist not playing the piano wasn’t, in fact, the sound of nothing: its unavoidable ambient sounds indicated the impossibility of silence. And, in a stroke of etymological irony, Cage’s explorations of silence paved the way for the genre of Noise music.

Yves Klein’s The Void, 1958

Klein’s empty, white-painted room at the Iris Clert gallery in Paris had just one concession to colour: blue cocktails at its opening. Thousands queued to see it.

Anne Lydiat’s Lost For Words, 2000

The only words in Lydiat’s book of 100 empty pages are those on the dustjacket: “About this book I have promised myself to say nothing,” is the sagely evasive declaration from philosopher Maurice Blanchot. Many parted with £9.99 to own a copy.

My Penguin, 2007

Judging a book by its cover becomes a tempting exercise when the cover’s drawn by the reader. Penguin’s blank-cover editions of eminently illustratable classics – Alice in Wonderland and Animal Farm among the most popular – drew on the irresistible desire to scribble all over a white space.

Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse’s Dark Night of the Soul, 2009

It was a legal impasse rather than artistic high-mindedness that prompted this pair to bypass their record company and flog a blank CD, including a note encouraging punters to illegally download their album. No marks for meditations on emptiness but all props for so craftily dodging a lawsuit.

Thursday night, August 20, my favorite concert-going friend and I made our way down to Little Five Points to prepare ourselves for the White Rabbits (co-headlining with The Fiery Furnaces) in concert at the Variety Playhouse.

Our first stop was at Criminal Records, where the guys were making a pre-performance appearance.  We were able to say hello, mention what a great show the band put on last year, opening for The Walkmen and Spoon at Center Stage and we were both given posters to get signed.  Very cool.

After drinks and dinner, it was time for the show.  With no opening band, we didn’t have to wait long for White Rabbits to take the stage.  I had forgotten just how many of them there were and the sound, from the first note, was full, with a fullness that can only be achieved by six musicians at their best.  The instrumental interludes, both opening and closing many of the songs were long and satisfying, the kind of thing that makes the trek to see live music totally worth it.

By the time they band started the opening lines of “The Plot” (possibly my favorite of their songs), they were in absolutely perfect form.  White Rabbits have this wonderfully controlled energy, the kind of energy that permeates a room, not stirring the audience into any kind of Bacchic frenzy, but filling us up, making our heads bob and out toes tap.  They play fearlessly, in a way that makes me believe each member was completely present, in that moment, playing their best.

After and hour-long set, I was sorry to see them leave the stage.  The Fiery Furnaces came on shortly after and while I wanted to enjoy them, I just didn’t.  I can see how some people might be fans, but they are simply not my taste.  A Fiery Furnaces fan on twitter called them, “A female lead Fugazi”, which I thought was somewhat demeaning to that great band, who’s sound was both an epitome of their time and something never heard before- but that’s maybe just my opinion.

Fiery Furnaces, White Rabbits
8/18/09
Visulite Theatre, Charlotte, NC

After a thoroughly enjoyable set to open up Bonnaroo for me, I was looking forward to seeing White Rabbits again in my own town. This time through, they were co-headlining a tour with Fiery Furnaces, which at first appeared to be an odd pairing until I read this morning that they are both Brooklyn bands. Still, musically it is still an odd pairing.

White Rabbits opened up on this night of the tour and played for an hour. As was the case at Bonnaroo, they played a high energy set covering songs from both of their albums, as well as switching up instruments for nearly every song – all but one of the six band members played some sort of percussion at some point. The added percussionist/instrumentalist really does add an interesting dynamic to this band that I really haven’t seen of many other bands. Highlights were “They Done Wrong / We Done Wrong” and “Percussion Gun” off this year’s It’s Frightening and “Kid on My Shoulders” from Fort Nightly. Initially I was disappointed that they were they opener on this night, but an hour set seems to really suit them, plus I didn’t end up having to sit through an entire Fiery Furnaces set.

I’ve heard about the band ever since their acclaimed Blueberry Boat album, but never listened. Their brand of hyperkinetic, multiple-shifts-within-a-song music started to annoy after about 35 minutes, so my friends and I decided to head out. I think John was right on when he described them s “very very mediocre.” While they had some interesting moments live, I think my instincts not to listen all these years were right on with this band.

Next up: Drive-By Truckers on 8/28, again at Visulite

Some photos after the jump; the rest can be found here

Whoa! Check it out! We’re going olllllllld school here, homey! Remember this record? It is the Friedberger siblings first on Rough Trade, and possibly first in their hearts. Maybe not, that’s a bit presumptuous on my part. This record has a fun story for me about the first time I heard it. Back in the day at University I worked in a record store. (Street cred!) You know what they do with those discs that sit on the shelf forever and never sell? Well, they ship them back to the distributor to get their money back. They don’t do this every week. Usually they wait until there are enough discs to fill a box before shipping them out. So a lot of times you have these giant piles of discs “in storage” that are already out of the system and just waiting to pile up high enough to be boxed and shipped out. Well, a sneaky coworker/friend realized this was happening and would go through them at night to see if there was anything worthwhile. He would leave with stacks of discs at night, burn them, and put them back the next night with no one noticing. He would listen to most of it and tell me about the good ones. This record was one of the good ones.

You might hear comparisons to The White Stripes, but the comparisons stop at male/female, white skinned, and musicians. Also, Matthew would never make a shitty documentary. (Davis Guggenheim–what the hell were you thinking!?!?!)

Try