Fiery Furnaces tonight in Ottawa

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The Fiery Furnaces (Brooklyn) are playing tonight as part of the Capital Idea! Festival. Opening bands are The Chinese Stars (Providence, RI) and The Hot Springs (Montreal). The show is at Barrymore's and tickets are $20 advance and $22 at the door.

The inventive, often challengingly experimental rock band signed with the Rough Trade music label in 2002, and recorded their debut album, Gallowsbird's Bark, the same year. Released in the autumn of 2003, that album garnered critical praise for its clever wordplay and original songwriting and was often compared in the press to The White Stripes due to the garage blues elements of the band’s sound and the fact that the band are siblings (Based on a misconception promoted by the media that the The White Stripes members are brother and sister rather than a separated couple.).

Matthew is primarily, though not completely, responsible for the band's songwriting and studio instrumentation, while Eleanor handles the majority of the vocal duties. Drummer Andy Knowles and bassist Toshi Yano both joined the band for live performances in time for their 2004 tour. Beginning with a performance at the April 2004 All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in Camber Sands, England, the band's live performances took the form of hour-long, continuous sets of music featuring snippets from most of their recorded songs. Many times, several songs were melded together to create a conglomerate song that encompassed material from previously released songs, this producing similarly complicated set lists for the band to follow [1].

The Fiery Furnaces released their second album, Blueberry Boat, in the summer of 2004. It is also often interpreted as a multi-layered concept album. "Quay Cur," the ten minute lead track on Blueberry Boat, switches from dirty, gurgling organ to slide-guitar-fueled ditties, pulsing electronic beats to abstract lullaby within a few minutes, highlighting the Fiery Furnaces' variety in songwriting. Some critics, however, interpreted this type of material as evidence that the album is unfocused. The epic nature of the majority of the songs made them unsuitable for radio play so the band prepared "Single Again," a take on a traditional nursery rhyme as a substitute.

This single, along with their previously released ones, was mostly only made available to the UK audience, so in January 2005 the band released a 41-minute compilation disc named EP (this confusingly being a designation commonly reserved for shorter discs). EP featured two new songs, all of the band’s singles and b-sides (with the exception of an alternate version of "We Got Back The Plague" found on the "Tropical Ice-Land" single), and was for this reason a contrast to the epic and, according to some, inaccessible nature of Blueberry Boat.

Their following album, Rehearsing My Choir (released in October 2005), saw the band return to an experimental sound once again. A concept album featuring the Friedbergers' grandmother, Olga Sarantos, narrating stories about her life, Rehearsing My Choir was met with widely differing opinions from both the press and the band's fans, being branded "difficult" even by those who rated it highly. The venerable Sarantos used to work as choir director at a Greek Orthodox church, and it’s her croaked reminiscences that form the backbone to this peculiar, piecemeal storybook of an album.[2] Jason Loewenstein of Sebadoh and Bob D'Amico took over band duties for the supporting tour, replacing Toshi Yano and Andy Knowles.

The band released a new LP in April 2006 titled Bitter Tea. In interviews they stated the album to be influenced by the sound of synthpop group Devo and to consist of far more conventional and accessible songs than those found on Blueberry Boat and Rehearsing My Choir.

Matthew Friedberger released two solo albums on August 8th 2006, entitled Winter Women and Holy Ghost Language School. The two albums are packaged together, though are not considered a proper double album. According to a press release, Winter Women is "intended to be a summer record, full of memorable, catchy, and un-ironic pop songs," while Holy Ghost Language School is like "Faust, the Residents, or the most 'out' moments of Brian Eno's solo records." Eleanor appeared on neither and Matthew did not tour in support of his solo releases.

The band did a short tour in October & November of 2006, supported by San Francisco's Deerhoof. This tour saw Matthew on keyboard, Eleanor singularily on vocals, Jason Loewenstein on wah-wah pedaled guitar, Bob D'Amico on drums and the addition of Michael Goodman on percussion. The songs had a tropical/salsa feel to them, and most of the tracks from Bitter Tea were played as one long song, lasting 30 minutes-- a medley format the band hadn't used since promoting Blueberry Boat.

On June 8th, it was announced on The Chicago Reader that the new album would be entitled Widow City and would be released on October 9th. Interestingly, the new album will be released via Chicago record label Thrill Jockey, not Fat Possum.

The Chinese Stars are a band from Providence, Rhode Island formed from the ashes of Arab on Radar and Six Finger Satellite. Their music has been put under the noise rock/dance category, but could best be described as having solid funk basslines, 4-on-the-floor dance beats and very trebly vocals and guitar work. Singer Eric Paul provides somewhat disturbing vocals, viewed by most fans as an exorcising of past demons.

The Hot Springs are a female-fronted indie-rock band based in Montreal, Canada. Formed in Spring, 2004, the Hot Springs features Giselle Webber on vocals and guitar, Rémy Nadeau-Aubin on guitar , Frédéric Sauvé on bass and Anne Gauthier on drums (previously Karine Lauzon).

Since their release of Rock Partouze in 2005, the Hot Springs have gained a large amount of attention in the Canadian independent music scene, with their track Caco Disco hitting #1 on the local college charts, MIMI (Montreal Independent Music Initiative) nominations in both the E.P. and Rising Star categories, and numerous radio and television spots within the francophone media circuit. They are unique in the Montréal music scene, in that they have an equal fan-base within both the francophone and anglophone communities. The band is reportedly working on their next full-length album at Breakglass Studio, scheduled to be released in August, 2007.

In the past the band has shared stages and floors with acts ranging from the Chinese Stars to Malajube.

[meggo]

AND destroyer is playing tomorrow, also at barrymore's. i'm pretty sure he is part of the new pornographers.

woohoo!!

[AD]

Tomorrow is Destroyer, Rock Plaza Central and As The Poets Affirm at Barrymore's. Tickets for that are also $20 advance, $22 at the door.

Daniel Bejar (pronounced beËhaɹ) (b. 1972), is a singer songwriter native of the Canadian city of Vancouver well known for his challenging and often cryptic lyrics featured in many of his songs. Bejar has gained widespread popularity through his musical collaborations with Vancouver indie band, The New Pornographers, but has released far more material through his other band, Destroyer. Most recently, he has joined together with members of Frog Eyes and Wolf Parade to create another indie supergroup known as Swan Lake.

[d_rawk]

He certainly is. I've wanted to see Destroyer forever and 'Streethawk: A Seduction' is still one of my favourite albums of the decade ... Fiery Furnaces is tempting too, though!

[ollie]

Two great shows but I'm putting on my weeknight sissy pants. I might hit Girl Talk on Friday.

[AD]

Girl Talk is the stage name of music producer Gregg Gillis. He has released three CD albums on Illegal Art and vinyl releases on 333 and 12 Apostles. He began making music while a student at Case Western Reserve University. He specializes in sample-based remixes where he uses at least a dozen elements from different songs to create a "new" song. At his early shows, Gillis became notorious for his exhibitionist antics on stage, spontaneously removing most or all of his clothing mid-performance.[1].

well... have fun with that. Not my bag.

The 'early' show on Friday is Born Ruffians, The Field Register and Henri Faberge and the Adorables at Zaphods. $12. That is a steal of a deal.

[ollie]

well... have fun with that. Not my bag.

Another AD classic.

[AD]

that's some poor wording. but the essence is the same, haha.

i take it from the write-up that the Girl Talk thing is more of an event than a show? (ie a DJ who provides a soundtrack for an evening rather than a band who provides a focal point?)

[ollie]

No idea, I just like the Night Ripper album a lot. I'm a definite newbie to that scene.

[Guest Low Roller]

I tried to 'get' Fiery Furnaces REPEATEDLY, but eventually gave up on them. I just couldn't do it.

Same with Deerhoof.

And The Slip.

[ollie]

And The Slip.

Another Low Roller classic.