Rehearsing My Choir

The Fiery Furnaces

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 2005)
• Original Release Date: October 25, 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Rough Trade Us
• ASIN: B000BDJ02U
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #163,719 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

From the Artist

Dear Listener, Tracks 3 and 4 take place in the 40's; tracks 5 and 6 in the 20's and 30's; track 7 in the later 50's; track 8 starts in the very early 40's; track 9 goes back and forth; track 10 takes place in the early 60's; the final track takes place in the early 90's. Track 2 takes place a few years ago; track 1 took place when it was recorded. The action depicted in "The Wayward Granddaughter" and "Slavin' Away" does not include the character Olga Sarantos plays on the rest of the record. "Slavin' Away" imagines that character--the main character-- fantasizing, a bit remotely, about the hard lot of other women. Now, I wouldn't guess that the Main Character actually thought the woman concerned was riding around in a Norton side-car and operating her own cottage industry trinket assembly/sweatshop: but it might have pleased her to picture it so. "The Wayward Granddaughter" is about a different Greek-American grandmother and her popular granddaughter ("Connie"). They're from Chicago's south suburbs and don't figure in the rest of the record; I wanted to have another (slightly younger) grandmother and family in there for perspective or comparison's sake, so to speak. Thank you for your time, Matthew Friedberger

About the Artist

The Fiery Furnaces' fourth US release, "Rehearsing My Choir" is based, with liberal heaps of poetic license, around the recollections of Matt and Eleanor Friedberger's grandmother, 83-year-old Olga Sarantos. As Eleanor and Mrs. Sarantos trade off on vocals, signaling quick shifts in time and perspective, the music barrels along at their heels, the Furnaces changing up instruments and arrangements to match the action. As much musical theater as concept album, the story arc of "Rehearsing My Choir" largely takes place in mid-20th century Chicago. The lyrics matter-of-factly recount our heroine's adventures from a half-century ago, and so reflect how the average person's aspirations and experiences were different enough then to seem almost alien now. But it's no period piece, no nostalgia or attempts at "authenticity" in evidence, and Mrs. Saranatos' dry, unsparing treatment on tracks like "Candymaker's Knife in My Handbag" is the furthest thing from sentimental. "! Rehearsing My Choir" was written and produced by Matt and recorded in separate stages: Vocals engineered by John McEntire At Soma EMS in Chicago over November/December '04, the musical backing tracks recorded that November by Bill Skibbe at Key Club Recording Company in Benton Harbor, MI, and mixing done with Rafter Roberts at San Diego's Singing Serpent, in Feb. 2005 Originally from Oak Park, IL, siblings Matt and Eleanor Friedberger formed the Fiery Furnaces in 2001, after each had made the separate decision to move to New York City. Neither had been in a working band before, but once they started playing regularly in NYC the Furnaces made up for lost time – most successful bands have less to show for their lifetimes than the Fiery Furnaces have packed into the span of two years. Since recording "Gallowsbird's Bark", (released by Rough Trade in 2003), the band has spent most of its time in the studio or touring. By the time of "Gallowsbird's" release, the band was already finishing up its 76-minute follow-up, "Blueberry Boat," released later in 2004. "EP," a full-length record consisting of B-sides and UK singles, was released in early 2005 and was as different in intent and execution from "Blueberry Boat" as that record was to "Gallowsbird's Bark." With the Shins, Franz Ferdinand, Wilco and others along for the ride, the Furnaces spent the remainder of 2003-2005 trekking around Europe, Australia, Japan and the USA. During this time the band also established its unorthodox method of recreating its songs live - running through the set list all at once, breaking the songs into fragments and threading the bits amongst each other, not stopping for breath til the end. The Fiery Furnaces have just finished their next record, "Bitter Tea," which is tentatively scheduled for release in the early 2006.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Some wonderful anecdotes and tomfoolery, December 20, 2005

By	Darren Vandenberg (Melbourne, VIC Australia) - See all my reviews

What a strange, but interesting album. The first time I heard it, I was terribly disappointed, having assumed it would be just like their last record. I had forgotten that the Fiery Furnaces previous releases had taken some adjusting to at first, and that was what made them so special. This band changed my expectations of what a record could be like, along with older bands like Pere Ubu and The Fall. So, after throwing my own little tantrum about how they'd finally taken creative indulgence too far, and furiously scouring the net for reviews from other similarly disenchanted fans, I found that there were some folks who not only liked Rehearsing My Choir, but loved it. I jumped to judgement that these were people who would applaud anything new, and wouldn't know a catchy tune if they fell over it. Or, that they had awarded it top marks just to annoy the people who hated it. Folks everywhere seem completely polarised and give this record a 1 or a 10, with little in-between. Well, I'll be the in-between and rank it a 7 (or a 3 of 5 on Amazon). There are some fascinating lyrics, familiar stage production/radio serial style vignettes, and dollops of catchy tunes in there if you listen for them. At first I disliked the inescapable grandmother's voice (in fact, I still have a hard time believing it's a ladies voice, no matter how old) but it's a voice so theatrically filled with history and drama, that I found myself drawn into the stories. You could spend a lifetime examining these lyrics and still be blown away with their originality and imagination. There is sadness and joy, melancholy and anger. The songs aren't as strong as previous releases, but there is plenty more to like about this release than a lot of the tripe from girl-with-guitar soloists or AC/DC imitators out there nowdays. This is not a release for the faint-hearted, or for someone who wants a verse-chorus-verse-chorus format; it sets a mood that makes it difficult to choose what to play afterwards. I ended up playing it twice in a row today instead.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Flawed but not the mess they're saying, December 13, 2005

By	anonymous (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

Critics and fans both hate when an artist turns their back on them, and The Fiery Furnaces have done it again, polarizing both groups with this album like nothing I've seen in ages. Nobody likes to be surprised, and the Furnace's radical shift on this cd has given the middle finger to people's expectations and had them coughing up blood since word of the concept leaked out. Truth is, this album isn't all that different from Blueberry Boat. It doesn't reach quite the same heights (or with such frequency) as Blueberry Boat or match its epic scope, but their collage of dissociated genres is intact. In fact, if not for one factor, many of those who derided Blueberry Boat as a bloated, patchy and overreaching mess would have probably embraced its more compact song and total length as a tighter collection of songs that combines Blueberry Boats blender effect with the terse and sharp dynamics of Gallowbird's Bark.

That one factor is Olga Sarantos. Critics have come up with a lot of cosmic pedantic reasons as to why this album is a failure, mostly derivatives of it being an esoteric exercise with no regards to music craft, or the telling of the story to be an exercise in literary narcissism. But the truth is Sarantos just creeps them out, plain an simple. People can't take her creepy voice disrupting these songs, especially when Eleanor's never sounded better, and come up with other explanations that won't disturb the illusion that music criticism is an artcraft (it's not). And it's true that this is a significant factor that robs the album of some of its greatness (many of these songs certainly sounded better when the Furnaces performed them live this fall without Olga). But that doesn't make the album a wreck like the fans and critics who expected something made for them would have you believe. The hard truth is that they can't stand that the Furnaces sound like they've made something for themselves without regards to pleasing anyone else. This in fact, is where the best art comes from. It still has the craft, grace and beauty we've come to expect from them. Perhaps the new form takes getting used to, because like Blueberry Boat, Choir demands repeated listenings to truely appreciate, but too many people are giving up because they can't get past grandma's voice.

I like this album more each time I listen too it, and more people should give it a chance before swinging the ax with their final judgement.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sing it, "Choir", November 28, 2005

By	E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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You have to admit, not every band would make a concept album about their grandmother's life. But the Fiery Furnaces do that for their grandmother, octogenarian Olga Sarantos. And with granny's own help, too.

Their third full-length album, "Rehearsing My Choir," is a truly weird album full of reminiscences of Sarantos' life and thoughts. It's not musical in the usual sense.... so if you want to enjoy it, don't think of it as music. Think of it as an offbeat biographical piece of musical theatre.

It opens with a relentless piano melody, with Sarantos herself speaking in a smooth, deep voice about fudge, hammers, thumbtacks, lost loves and other offbeat stuff. Her granddaughter Eleanor Friedberger dips in occasionally, singing behind her grandmother's spoken word monologue.

This continues throughout the album, with Eleanor singing sweetly behind Olga's deep vocals, and sometimes talking for herself. "Once upon a time, there were two Kevins..."/"You mean two jerks!" they interrupt each other, before Eleanor starts off on a sweet ditty about her ex-boyfriends.

"Rehearsing My Choir" is probably the Furnaces' weakest work thus far, with its jumps in time and location. And if you don't know that it's all about, it will be completely confusing. And not in an fun indiepop-opera manner either.

Fortunately for Furnaces fans, even the weakest of their music is still pretty dang good. It's full of bright, affectionate, humorous anecdotes and a warm-hearted look on a very cool-sounding lady's life. The brother-sister duo (and Olga) manage to maintain a level of weirdness on par with their prior work.

In the lyrics, Olga's life is given a true Furnaces-style makeover, sort of a nightmare poetry spin. This IS the band that wrote a whole song about a dog taking a religious turn. "Zapped by the zombie! Zapped by the zombie!/Zapped by the zombie in the two-door Dodge/Twice baked brioche and Danish pastry pockets/And lock it's two-door Dodge," Olga and Eleanor sing, after an extended noodling session. Gypsies, night schools, weddings, boyfriends and family love are all woven into the songs.

And they also maintain the musical peculiarities, with sprawling melodies that spill over with synth, organ, piano, and splatterings of electric guitar, Latin flavour, computer blips and bursts of electric guitar. It's Jackson Pollock music. It's by no means their tightest work, but it is plenty of fun. Even if you don't listen to the vocals, the music is worth it alone.

While "Rehearsing My Choir" is not the tightest work the Fiery Furnaces have done, the offbeat melodies and quirky lyrics prove that they still have what it takes.