The Fiery Furnaces, a band that consists of siblings Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger, is one of those promising rock bands with a knack for inciting controversy. The two play a sort of indie rock take on The Who, with a child-like sense of wonder for the world and a particular flair for inventive storylines. Their epic sophomore album, Blueberry Boat, was one of the most divisive releases of 2004, with many critics debating whether the lyrical matter and strange instrumentals were genius or just deceptively simplistic. The three records they have planned for release this year will only further the debate. In anticipation of their show this Friday at the 9:30 Club, Voice Leisure called up Matthew in Brooklyn and talked about his favorite music, touring and the difficulties of recording an album with your grandmother.
Voice Leisure: What were your top five records growing up?
Matthew Friedman: The records that I’ve listened to most in my life I guess are The Who Sell Out and Combat Rock, Sandanista by the Clash and Sly & the Family Stone’s There’s a Riot Goin’ On.
Voice: Do you enjoy touring?
MF: Sometimes it’s fun to go places and sometimes you want to go home. I like to drive, or at least I’m used to driving long distances, so I don’t mind that. We’re a little band, and we’ve had to be the opening band, and so the schedule is made by somebody else. We once drove to Vancouver, then played in Portland, went to Denver, and then to Salt Lake City, and then back to Seattle, and then to San Francisco. That was ridiculous.
But you’re always very lucky to get to play in front of people, very lucky. You can never forget that, even though you’ve been there waiting to play in some bar in some place and your life is passing you by. You’re still very lucky to play.
Voice: I went and saw you guys play here in D.C. last fall and I was blown away. You went through the medley of material that you played on that last tour and it was great. I was curious who came up with the idea for just playing all the songs non-stop and in no way sequentially.
MF: Well, um, I did. I like to run through things as quick as possible. Eleanor never liked to stop to talk and I like to keep playing the whole time ‘cause I love the Ramones, so I was big on the idea that you keep playing. We played one show last spring where we just played one song and then we didn’t stop the whole way and everyone seemed to like it.
Voice: Do you change the medley much from night to night or is it pretty much a set form?
MF: In the fall, unfortunately, it was pretty much set. On this trip though, we’re not playing a medley. We don’t want it to be our gimmick, and then we’ll play another one in the fall. We’ll see what happens.
Voice: Have you considered doing a live album or some sort of DVD?
MF: I don’t like DVDs, but yeah, we’d like to make a live record. We’ll see what happens and if we can record the shows better. I think the live versions are as good as the record versions. It’s supposed to be that there’s a version on the record and there’s a version live.
Voice: Are you going be playing a lot of new material on the tour?
MF: No, we’re not gonna be playing a lot of new material. We recorded two albums this winter and they’re gonna come out, hopefully, July 19. We’re gonna record another record in May and we’re gonna work songs from that into the set.
Voice: What can you tell me about the new records?
MF: One is with Eleanor and our grandmother, with these long story bits. There’s a song maybe four minutes long, the first song, and then it’s 25 minutes and another 28 minutes. There’s lots of narration, but it’s pretty light-textured, it’s not too thick, they’re pretty coherent.
Voice: Did your grandmother get involved with the writing process on the record?
MF: No, but she corrected my grammar, ‘cause I remember there was one thing where I had her say, “there’s one man I couldn’t get along with.” And she said, “Well, I can’t end a sentence with ‘with’.” So she made me change it to, “There’s one man with whom I couldn’t get along.”
Voice: What’s the second record like?
MF: The second record has these individual songs, and because the first record is so super wordy and specific these are really kind of love song lyrics. It’s not a story at all, but they go one after another on the record so you can imagine it tells a story if you want, in the way that a James Brown medley tells a story.
Voice: And then with the record that you’re recording in May, do you have any thoughts on what that’ll be like?
MF: That’s gonna be these pretty aggressive songs, kinda like [post-punk band] The Fall. They’re not wordy at all. The lyrics are maybe two sentences for the whole song. The lyrics are all from old high school and junior high school notes.
Voice: Where did you come up with the habit of dropping city names and geographic references into the songs?
MF: Good songs should always have city names. City names and place names are funny names.
