Have you been looking for Widow City on vinyl?  Well, look no more!  Come out to one of our shows this week and buy a very limited edition copy of Widow City.  Who said spray painting indoors was a health hazard?  I feel great!

New Year’s Eve in Chicago.  What an occasion.  And the night before New Year’s Eve in Chicago.  What a pre-occasion.

Two shows (with our best-band-friends Cryptacize), celebrating the old, inaugurating the new, in the capital of the American Dream– Chicago.

Go to Schubas on the 30th and Lincoln Hall on the 31st.  Raise a toast to your alderman and buy a drink for your aunt, guy.

Fly on in; visit that fabulous legendary lost land– Chicago. If you are a native English speaker, adopt an unvoiced terminal /s/, adjust many of your vowel sounds, and say hello.  If you are not a native English speaker, talk however you like.

A party like none other,
TFF

The Fiery Furnaces begin their season of holiday cheer this weekend in New York, We play a show at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on Friday, followed by one at the Bowery Ballroom on Saturday. So why not have a real festivus-for-the-rest-of-us? Gather all of your holiday friends together–and come sing along with the Fiery Furnaces!

For instance, if your name is William and you live with your boyfriend by the airport in Atlanta, why not fly on up with a few friends? Or perhaps your name is Daniel and you live in a small town in Switzerland–why not make a weekend of it? Head stateside. New York City and all its holiday glories–which include two Fiery Furnaces’ shows–await you.

But maybe you happen live somewhere in the Tri-State area. It could be that you already have a regularly scheduled holiday party to attend. Well don’t let that stop you–leave that party early! Then come on over to the Fiery Furnaces’ party. We start playing at 11:00, both nights.

There might even be mistletoe at the front of the stage. You might get to kiss Eleanor, or Bob–or Jason’s pet pig, Emmett. Remember, he loves clementines!

Take Me Round Again:  The Friedbergers cover the Friedbergers.

The Fiery Furnaces have been reworking, rearranging, and rewriting their songs live since they first started touring in 2003.  They have taken this practice one step further on their new record, Take Me Round Again.  Recorded separately this past July in Michigan and New York, Matt and Eleanor each recorded 6 songs that originally appeared on I’m Going Away.  All that remains the same are the words.

Eleanor: “I’ve gotten into the habit of rewriting songs Matt has written, just as a way of practicing and singing at home.  Originally, I had wanted to record a folk-style record called Eleanor Friedberger sings the songs of the Fiery Furnaces.  I thought it would make a nice greatest hits record, but reworking I’m Going Away before it even came out seemed a lot more exciting.”

Matthew:  “After asking people to send us their re-write of I’m Going Away before having heard it, I thought we owed it to them to make an actual alternate version of the record.  And not just leave all the new arranging for live shows.”

You can buy the record at FINA or iTunes.

We left our hearts and our Traynor amp at the Red Room last night…  a wonderful show in Vancouver.  Shawn, thank you for the beautiful flowers!

We read this piece in Time Out this morning, and can hardly believe our eyes:  Ray Davies’ response to hearing Charmaine Champagne:

This is fascinating. It sounds like the music I was writing with the Kinks when we first started. I’d like to record with people like this. They’re the sort of band that you look to come on tour with you—it’s so fresh and energized.

The Fiery Furnaces star siblings, just like the Kinks. Do you have any advice for them?
Leave all your quarrels at home. Although inevitably, it’s going to come through in the music.

You famously quarreled with your brother, Dave. Do you regret forming the group with him?
Oh, no. I wanted to do well and let him do well. The best bands are like families—it’s always been that way.

I write you to inform you about the catastrophical situation in France.

What were the surprise when I went to my lycee yesterday : they changed the ex-name of the lycee on Friedbergers school, so here, reign a crazy enthusiasm !

Yesterday, again, manifestants brandished signs where were writen : “Friedbergers presidents, No more Eiffel Tower but Furnace Tower. Don’t go away !” Sincerely, they exagerrate !

Don’t worry, if it’s still very difficult to find Fiery Furnace’s albums in france, it’s because now, childrens learn your songs at school and of course, they know it all so, they don’t have to buy your CDs. I ask myself if this parative don’t break the laws and if it’s legal… ?

FF encourages All Bands to turn All their shows this next month into Pro-Health Care Reform Rallies.

Perhaps even more importantly:  FF encourages all those American music websites to ask all their favorite bands to turn their shows into Pro-Health Care Reform Rallies!

Why not make sure the world knows that all of us true grandmother-loving, pro-American, ‘young people’ haven’t given up our political involvement?

They think that us ‘young people’ (so to speak…) don’t care anymore, you know.  That we have we have retreated to our caves, or communes, or moms’ basements, or new condos in the 11222, or… whatevs.

Show them that it’s not true!  (And there’s a good chance that you don’t have health insurance to begin with…..)

Sure, we can disagree on the details.  But Patriotic American Rock-n-Roll Fans– and bands– and Music Websites– must surely agree that our nation is in desperate need of health care reform.

Why not have some information at your merch table, letting people know how they can support health care reform?  Why not put someone on your guest list who can talk to people about how they can support health care reform?  Why not mention that sort of thing from the stage, in the midst of one of your charming in-between-song monologues?

Web-sites:  why not ask all those bands to do that sort of thing?  Right up until September 8th, when Congress comes back in session.

Why, just think of how much more fun for everyone it will be if an anti-reform mob, with all their swastika stickers and show-us-your-birth-certificate banners and joker make-up, come on down and picket the show?  I mean, Rally!

What an easy way to expand your fan base!

Tell your managers and interns that you want to turn your show into a Pro-Health Care Reform Rally!

Websites:  make them do it!  (They do whatever you say, you know.)

Sure, we can disagree on the details.  But Patriotic American Rock-n-Roll Fans must surely agree that our nation is in desperate need of health care reform.

We need it for economic reasons, certainly.

But we also need it if we are going to stay true to our values. Our values as Americans, that is.  Because from our perspective, aren’t we the most value-ble people in the world?  That’s got to have to do with the health of our persons, and not just the health of our pocketbooks.

Come on down and pick up some information about how you can show your support for, and talk to your neighbors about, this patriotic, eminently capitalist-friendly thing called Health Care Reform!  And you know, for better or worse, it’s capitalist-friendly.  And pro-Rock-n-Roll.

Talk to the band about it.  Talk to somebody we put on the guest list to talk to you about it.  Talk to the guy texting next to you about it.  Text your friend or congressperson from the show while you ignore the band about it.  In other words, regular old Summertime Fun!

We can’t sit, or stand, or drive, idly by while the most outrageous lies get told in the most offensive manner. And you know us– we love grandmothers.

Let’s make sure the world knows that all of us true grandmother-loving, pro-American, ‘young people’ haven’t given up our political involvement.

By the way, if you happen to be a member of an anti-health care reform mob, why not come down and picket one of the Pro-Health Care Rallies ‘N Rock Shows listed below?  Us Patriotic Pro-Reform– which in this case just means Pro-American–  Rock-n-Roll fans inside the building will raise you a toast.

To your health!

8/16 RICHMOND, VA / The National w/ White Rabbits

8/17 CARRBORO, NC / Cat’s Cradle w/ White Rabbits

8/18 CHARLOTTE, NC / Visulite Theatre w/ White Rabbits

8/19 NASHVILLE, TN / Mercy Lounge w/ White Rabbits

8/20 ATLANTA, GA / Variety Playhouse w/ White Rabbits

8/21 BIRMINGHAM, AL / Bottletree w/ White Rabbits

8/22 TAMPA, FL / The Orpheum

8/23 ORLANDO, FL / The Social w/ White Rabbits

8/25 ASHEVILLE, NC / The Grey Eagle w/ White Rabbits

8/26 CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA / Fry’s Spring Beach Club w/ White Rabbits

SINCE BANDS CAN NO LONGER SELL AUDIO, FF DECLINE TO PROVIDE IT.

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.

The Fiery Furnaces’ next album will consist of instruction, conventional music notation, graphic music notation, reports and illustrations of previous hypothetical performances, reports and illustrations of hypothetical performances previous to the formation of their hypotheses, guidelines for the fabrication of semi-automatic machine rock, memoranda to the nonexistent Central Committee of the Fiery-Furnaces-in-Exile concerning the non-creation of situations, Relevant to Progressive Rock Division, conceptual constellations on a so-to-speak black cloth firmament, and other items that have nothing to do with the price of eggs, or milk, or whatever the proverbial expression ceased to be.

In other words, a Silent Record.  You will note that there have been countless Anticipatory Plagiarisms of this endeavor.  For instance, more than a millennium of sheet music.  We hope to have learned from their numerous mistakes.

Upon release of the record, the band will organize a series of Fan-Band concerts, in which groups of perfectly ordinary Fiery Furnaces’ fans will perform, interpret, contradict, ignore, and so on, the compositions that make up Silent Record.  Write to thefieryfurnacesemail@gmail.com to nominate your post office break room, truck stop parking lot, municipal arts center, local tavern, or what-its-name to host one of these ‘happenings’.  By ‘happenings’ I mean, what will be in the future, perfectly normal rock shows.  And propose yourself for Fan Band participation.

No experience necessary.

Matthew and Eleanor are taking time out from watching season two of Mad Men to record separate, complete, cover, tribute, albums, of, to, I’m Going Away.  Only the words will remain the same.  Though in Eleanor’s case, the singer remains the same.  The song, never.  Or mostly never.

In other words:  complete cover-album versions of the Fiery Furnaces by the Fiery Furnaces.  Or The Fiery Furnaces.  By the two of them, separately.  To be released in two parts, together.

Six songs by one with six by the other.  And then another six by six.  The first batch comes out sometime in New York City–  meaning September.

Tell us when your cover version will come out. Write to thefieryfurnacesemail@gmail.com.