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.
Rehearsing My Choir,The Fiery Furnaces,Rough Trade Us,Garage Rock Revival,Indie Rock,Pop,Rock,Rock/Pop,United States of America
Rehearsing My Choir
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Rehearsing My Choir
The Fiery Furnaces Manufacturer: Rough Trade Us ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD  General
| Alternative Rock
| Styles
| Music
Indie Rock
| Indie & Lo-Fi
| Alternative Rock
| Styles
| Music
Garage Rock
| Rock
| Alternative Styles
| Alternative Rock
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| Music
General
| Rock
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Pop Rock
| Pop
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ASIN: B000BDJ02U Release Date: 2005-10-25 |
Tracks:
- The Garfield El
- The Wayward Granddaughter
- A Candymakers Knife in my Bag
- We Wrote Letters Everyday
- Forty-Eight Twenty-Three Twenty-Second Street
- Guns Under The Counter
- Seven Silver Curses
- Though Lets Be Fair
- Slavin Away
- Rehearsing My Choir
- Does It Remind You of When?
Customer Reviews:
I really do get it-it's gibberish!.......2006-09-19
_.......2006-08-26
Very challenging and a true departure from earlier efforts, but a wonderfully unique album.......2006-06-22
As the editorial reviews indicate and as many fans already know, the guts of this album were supplied by the brother and sister's act grandmother, Olga Sarantos. Whether you love or hate this album, this is pretty much beyond doubt the greatest contribution ever to a rock album by anyone's grandmother. Her reflections on events from earlier decades are proclaimed by her in a surprisingly firm and expressive voice. This ain't your average grandma. The pieces (it is hard to call them songs) are marvelously evocative and always feel like expressions of actual, lived experiences. Nothing rote or hackneyed here. Many of the lyrics have a stream-of-consciousness feel and you will either find that moving or off putting. I lean towards the former.
I'm not usually a fan of albums driven by synthesized keyboards, with the obvious exception of Brian Eno, but I find this musically compelling. They've obviously ingested a lot of Beefheart, Eno, Zappa, Can, and others, though with a bit more of a pop feel than all of those except the early Eno.
REHEARSING MY CHOIR, as many reviewers have noted, was one of two albums of 2005 that focused heavily on Chicago in its subject matter. Sufjan Stevens's ILLINOISE was the more popular and more lavishly praised of the two, and I concur with that. But purely as an album about Chicago (leaving all musical questions aside), this one is much more successful. Stevens's album is a great one, but the songs seem a tad aloof from the actual Chicago. (I don't know if Stevens will actually complete all or even much of his proposed album-cycle about the United States, with one album dedicated to each of the nation's fifty states, but I wonder if and when he gets around to my home state of Arkansas--Illinois is merely my adopted state--whether I will recognize the place of my childhood.) The Chicago if ILLINOISE feels to me like those travel guides written by someone who barely knows a place, hitting all the high points familiar to tourists, but not the places especially familiar to residents. But the Chicago of REHEARSING THE CHOIR feels concrete and actual, even if the concreteness belongs to another decade.
All in all I find this a deeply effecting and moving album. If you want easier listening definitely go elsewhere. Even go to the two earlier Fiery Furnaces albums or their eponymous EP. But if you are in the mood for an utterly unique album that will leave you both moved and challenged, please give this a try.
gag me.......2006-05-17
brilliant.......2006-04-19
Average customer rating: 
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Rehearsing My Choir
The Fiery Furnaces Manufacturer: Rough Trade ProductGroup: Music Binding: Audio CD General
| Alternative Rock
| Styles
| Music
Indie Rock
| Indie & Lo-Fi
| Alternative Rock
| Styles
| Music
Garage Rock
| Rock
| Alternative Styles
| Alternative Rock
| Styles
| Music
General
| Rock
| Styles
| Music
ASIN: B000BCHJLK Release Date: 2005-11-08 |
Tracks:
- Garfield El
- Wayward Granddaughter
- Candymaker's Knife in My Handbag
- We Wrote Letters Everyday
- Forty-Eight Twenty-Three Twenty-Second Street
- Guns Under the Counter
- Seven Silver Curses
- Though Let's Be Fair
- Slavin' Away
- Rehearsing My Choir
- Does It Remind You of When?
Customer Reviews:
Sing it.......2006-02-22
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 probably the weakest work the Fiery Furnaces have done, the offbeat melodies and quirky lyrics prove that they still have what it takes.
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