Customer Reviews

Gallowsbird's Bark

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Fiery Furnaces. I love the band name, I love the debut album. At the risk of sounding like an imbecile I am going to try and do the impossible and describe how this album sounds. If Tom Waits had a sister that he played music with they probabaly would have recorded an album that sounds like "Gallowsbird's Bark". People love to categorize things, well, categorize this!!There was this word that about thirteen years ago that was incorrectly used to describe just about every freaking band under the sun. Your remember the word? It was alternative.(The grammys still use this word which is further proof that they exist somewhere around the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.) Anyway, if you want to use that word, then use it here. "Gallowsbird.." is a cacophony of melodies, rhythms, and odd noises that somehow manages to be quite catchy at times, and brilliant at others. Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger make up the Furnaces. They are a brother/sister duo, and you have to believe that therein lies the secret to there ridiculously unique sound. It's probably been a product of years of experimentation. They use a number of combinations of instruments and influences to create some very unique and challenging music. I've listened to the album four times, and it gets better eevry time I hear it. The album hits it's stride on the terrific "Up in the North", which is catchier than bird flu. The track features some great piano, and is carried by Eleanor's distinctive vocals. It is impossible to dislike this song. The funky "Asthma Attack" is similarly infectious. The guitar and bass are stellar on "Asthma", which they are throughout the album. "Don't Dance her Down" is more of a traditional rock song (at least for these two it is) but just as good. "Two Fat Feet" has some fine wah-wah blues guitar playing and yet another sing along chorus. The Furnaces may be tricky, but they know what a hook is. The super cool, mid-tempo "Bow-wow" follows that same formula, and is one of the best songs on the album. It is no surprise that "Gallowsbird's Bark" was released on the Rough Trade label which has been a consistantly excellent indie for, oh, twenty years now(They were responsible for a little band called The Smiths, who some people were quite fond of). I highly recommend this album to people who aren't afraid of something new. Listen to it a few times before you decide, and I think you'll agree with me.

The Fiery Furnaces seem to be the new king (and queen) of enigmatic, larger-than-life indie rock. While their second album was the one that got things moving, their debut "Gallowsbird's Bark" gained them a reputation for rich music and strange, dreamy writing.

Siblings Eleanor and Matthew Friedberger open things with the jangly, cascading pop of "South Is Only A Home" -- it's a fun little tune, but a bit chaotic-sounding. It's only in the third song, "Leaky Tunnel," that the album kicks into high gear, with banjo and electric guitar, overlaid with sparkling piano and rapid-fire percussion. Then you know that these two are something special.

Dipping into alt-country in places, the Furnaces mostly focus on trippy rock songs and catchy oddball pop songs. There's an out-and-out rocker in "Asthma Attack," a sprawling experimental stretch in "Crystal Clear," and they even try a bluesy acoustic song in "Bright Blue Tie," which only has a few flickery synth bits in the background.

Sparkly, tinkly piano, folky, dreamy, trippy, rock'n'roll and psychedelic music-hall. Those are only a few of the things that come to mind when listening to "Gallowsbird's Park." There's something oddly childlike and dreamy about this music, despite songs about how "if men and wine don't kill me." Perhaps it's the fact that their music has so many facets.

The sole problem seems to be, oddly enough, restraint. The Fiery Furnaces are not now known for their musical restraint, but in this album they seem to be damming up their larger-than-life talents. But even dammed-up, their catchy, complex blend of guitar rock, banjo, and rippling piano is intoxicating, as is the oddball additions. Who knew that a band with garage rock roots could have xylophone and the occasional electronica flicker?

Eleanor Friedberger sounds like she's having a great time here; you can imagine this husky-voiced singer singing a shopping list and sounding great. As it is, she brings a devil-may-care edge to lyrics about paying fines, celebrating the millennium, and oddball rhymes ("Down in the dumps/Me and the seagulls we were looking for lumps").

The Fiery Furnaces are gaining recognition for some of the most original indierock in years. And their enchanting debut is a rollicking, frolicking romp that never gets dull.

this is as quirky, fun, musical, & adventurous as anything i've heard this year...with bits of pretty much every musical style thrown in, from punk to ragtime to blues. lyrical and intense, you'll find yourself humming the tunes long after, especially my favorites "two fat feet" "up in the north" "inca rag/name game" and "tropical ice-land"

a previous reviewer singled out the female vocalist as untalented, which i'll argue is unfair and unwarranted. her phrasing isn't non-existent, it's unique: here as staccato, there a soft croon, and yes, sometimes a howl or a yelp as punctuation. the comparison of amy lee from evanescence says it all: if you like that bombast and overdone production, no, this isn't an album for you. If you are into off-beat hooks, poetic turns of phrase, or musical daring, well, here it is.

It's hard to review Gallowsbird's Bark, because Blueberry Boat is so good. Bark is 100% worth listening to, but if you have it in one hand, and Blueberry Boat in the other....you know which one you want to listen to. I think of it as "The Bends" to BBoat's "OK Computer"...fantastic but not genius

to call this band "prolific" would be the understatment of the year. to call them "quirky" would be the understatement of the century. the Fiery Furnaces are the brother and siter duo of Matthew and Eleanor Friedburger...yes, they come from New York; and that's about where all the hipster comparisons end. the Fiery Furnaces take all the raggedy blues, honkey tonk, folk and rootsy rock 'n' roll that they've digested since childhood, and throw it back out in a unique sound that is both unsettling and charming. this is really peculiar pop music that probably alienates the average indie rock fan; but yet feels natural in it's execution.

when i first heard this album, i simply did not get it. it confounded me. but i latched onto a few of the songs instantly such as the delightful "Up In The North" and the playful "Tropical Ice-Land." i kept the cd on my shelf for a while and eventually kept getting drawn back into it to explore these strange songs more and more. it's a bit like walking into a bar and seeing some kind of pirate hobo sitting there telling his old war stories. and once you get accustomed to the character, you can relax and enjoy his tales.

The Fiery Furnaces know how to write a catchy song. but they also know how to throw the listener a million curveballs at every chance they get. and even though these curveballs are tossed with class and charm, i still can't help but think that some restraint would be helpful in shaping up their sound. but then again...that could run the risk of depleting some of their charm. nonetheless, with 16 tracks on this cd, it gets exhausting in the end.

The best way to describe this music is homemade traveling music through a left of center aesthetic. The music and feel of the music evoke the past, garage and psychedelia included, but it feels fresh and new, not derivative. It rocks wildly, it also definitely rolls, but it's not generic enough for everyone, sorry. This real life brother-sister duo has a very loosey-goosey sensibility to their music that might put some people off. I just hope you're the type that likes this because it's good music.

Had no idea where this band was coming from when I saw them open for Ted Leo the other night. Honestly it's been a while since a band ( unknown to me) has knocked me off my feet. The record is just as fun. I would describe it as a version of the Raincoats covering Os Mutantes. Or somewhere in-between. ...

I picked this up on a whim. I had read one review, I liked the artwork, and I also had a hunch. It's fantastic! I would compare this brother/sister duo only mildly to the White Stripes. Don't be put off if you are not a Stripes fan, because the sound is DEFINITELY UNIQUE. They combine that stripped down garage-rock sound with a lot more blues, as well as experimental piano and keyboard throughout. Lead vocals are by Eleanor, with a smattering of vocals by her brother (as on the wonderful track "Inca Rag/Name Game"). Lyrically, the album is full of dark, quirky imagery: "I pierced my ears with a three-hole punch, I ate 12 dozen donuts for lunch". Often the lyrics seem nonsensical, but they surely are intriguing.

This CD is already on my favorites list for the year, and I've had it only a week. Sonically, maybe Muddy Waters meets the White Stripes, and their all on acid. It's built on a blues-rock foundation, but with refreshing originality and variation between tracks. Exhilarating, and definitely fiery.

That's what I thought when I bought this record on a friend's say-so. This may be useful to those of you over 40, or to those under-40 types who are familiar with the first wave of punk.

This album is simple blues-rock dressed up in indie-rock robes with a few proggish flourishes lining the cuffs. It definitely succeeds on that more basic level, and I fully recommend it.

The Fiery Furnaces really hit the indie rock RADAR with their second album, "Blueberry Boat". That album was a masterpiece, and I consider it the best of 2004. Yet their debut album "Gallowsbird's Bark" stands on its own two legs and is not merely the embryonic form of their later work.

Musically, it has much of the same raw garage-rock feel of the White Stripes, but with more complex instrumentation that allows for many layers of melodic lines to interweave across the background. Acoustic rhythm guitar is embellished with electirc guitar riffs. The piano is featured on many tracks, often accompanied by counter-melody on the synthesizer.

Lyrically, the album is an extended travelogue. If there's anything a band recording their debut LP would know about, it's travelling, and the band has clearly done alot of it in building its reputation as an excellent live band. The song "Crystal Clear" (ironically used to describe the muddy Mississippi River) describes leaving Moline IL across the river into Iowa, probably on the I-74 bridge, and together with the other tracks on the album evokes a sense of having really moved about in that region.

Even the album's politically-charged track "We Got Back the Plague" puts a populist midwestern cultural perspective at its heart, transforming what would otherwise be a cliched anti-Bush diatribe into something a little more clever.

"Gallowsbird's Bark" is far more accessible than their follow-up, but not quite as clever lyrically as the followup. Musically, the album is so different from "Blueberry Boat" that it would be like comparing the proverbial "apples and oranges" to measure one against the other. Still, the elements that would be combined into "Blueberry Boat" are all here in simpler form.

Fans of the Fiery Furnaces via "Blueberry Boat" should definitely buy this album, unless their only appreciation for that album is in its electronica influences and proggish composition (which are lacking here.) Indie rock fans should check this album out, especially if you enjoyed the White Stripes in their heyday.