News

Matthew Friedberger Of The Fiery Furnaces Releases Solo Albums

• 16th Nov 2010

Matthew Friedberger (The Fiery Furnaces) is releasing a series of solo albums in 2011 called Solos. The series is available as a subscription and also to pre-order now from Thrill Jockey Mail order and select partner stores; for the UK and Europe these are Norman Records, Rough Trade East, Boomkat, Monorail and ANOST (Morr Music).

Matthew Friedberger – Solos subscription series – available for pre-order now from:
Norman Records: link
and soon from:
Rough Trade East: link
Boomkat: link
ANOST (Morr Music): link

The first Solos album is called Napoleonette and will be coming in January.

“Matt” is Rock-n-Roll musician and songwriter Matthew Friedberger, a Chicagoan. Mr. Friedberger considers R-n-R an anti-vocational sphere of endeavor, as is obvious from its epithet, so spelled, Q.E.D. Therefore a C.V. is drastically inappropriate.

But or so: since 2003, Friedberger has released eight albums with the band he runs with his sister Eleanor, the Fiery Furnaces. The band is planning to record its ninth album before Christmas upcoming. Perhaps the group's catchiest and most aggressive effort to date, arranged as a concerto for Drum Kit and String Orchestra, this as yet untitled effort may contain such songs as “I met the Queen of the Night in the daytime”, “I was so confused”, “The City of the Sun”, “As insufÞcient as an Eskimo's kimono”. And many more.

His 6+2 record set, Solos in which he plays only a single given instrument per album (though not necessarily the same actual individual example of the single given instrument), is designed to illustrate the following Cretan-Lacedaemonian principle. Every group of instruments against every other group of instruments; every instrument against every other instrument; and especially, every instrument against itself, all alone. See Laws, Book 1, 626 d. This idea jibes quite well with certain notions that have often been thought constitutively American, no doubt unfortunately. Friedberger thinks it therefore illuminating to apply this principle to such a pre-eminently American music as the aforementioned R-n-R. Despite the fact that this application is no doubt already ongoing.

Mr. Friedberger will again be scoring the Guggenheim's production of Rob Pruitt presents: The Art Awards, an awards event and performance piece conceived and co-ordinated by the artist Rob Pruitt. This second annual event will take place in New York at Webster Hall on December 9th. The music this year will refer to Webster Hall's history of various like amusements, up to and including its period as The Ritz. But no further.
Mr. Friedberger is at work on a book called The Progressive Use of Popular Culture 1: Music. In this work, about the same length as Jason Alexander's non-existent Acting without Acting, he attempts to advance–or exaggerate–the egalitarian potential of the irreducibly esoteric nature of the popular arts. He considers Rock-n-Roll, or Rock 'n Roll, or Rock, or This Thing, to be the Queen, or King, or Tyrant of Indeterminate Gender, of the Popular Arts. The word Tyrant in the last sentence is meant to include a sense of necessary illegitimacy.

Matthew Friedberger – Solos subscription series – pre-sale available now on the Thrill Jockey website!
link

Solos will be sold as a subscription series, with pre-sales available starting 12 November from Thrill Jockey mail order and select partner stores:
for North America – Other Music, Experimedia, Aquarius and Amoeba
for the UK and Europe – Norman Records, Rough Trade East, Boomkat, Monorail and Morr Music

Albums in the Solos series will be released every two months in 2011, beginning in January. The first album in the Solos series is Napoleonette, which features the piano, with Matt playing and singing. The second album will feature the guitar, and so on.

There are six albums in fully artworked jackets. The last album will be delivered to subscribers with an exclusive bonus of two exclusive full-length albums, featuring Matt and special guests on each. Subscribers will also get an LP box – old-style “Tip On” with a hand mounted photo – in which to keep the Solos LPs.

The edition of Solos is strictly limited to 700, and Solos will not be available digitally or on compact disc in it's complete form.

A very limited number of the each album will be available individually albums in stores. The box and the bonus two albums will not be available in stores, only to subscribers.

A limited number will also be available from The Fiery Furnaces site:
link