Eleanor Friedberger (of the Fiery Furnaces)

http://cdn.pitchfork.com/media/eleanorfriedberger.jpg

out July 12th, 2011: http://www.mergerecords.com/store/store_detail.php?catalog_id=799

Tracklist:

1. My Mistakes
2. Inn of the Seventh Ray
3. Heaven
4. Scenes from Bensonhurst
5. Roosevelt Island
6. Glitter Gold Year
7. One-Month Marathon
8. I Won’t Fall Apart on You Tonight
9. Owl's Head Park
10. Early Earthquake

this first single is fantastic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-F2DNcvqps&feature=related

nice cover - boy has she got some hair

Partly worried the nomalness of this first single is a sneaky attempt to lure me into her web where she'll spring a fucked-up Fiery Furnaces style album on me, but for now I'm happy just to hear her do something that's a-okay by me.

The album's pretty good stuff. Not terribly challenging, but sneakily sophisticated.

glad to hear this, now looking forward to it.

I have such an unexpected visceral hatred of her voice (and most, though not all, of FF stuff) and will have to devote some time, someday, to really pinning down why...

My wife doesn't like her voice either. She says there's something affected about it, like she's putting on a slight English accent or trying to sing like Chrissie Hynde or something.

hm, her vocals are probably my favorite thing about the fiery furnaces (who i've never quite warmed up to, despite many attempts)

I like her vocals too. I think few singers could handle those long-winded, quirky, sung-spoken parts that her brother comes up with and make them actually interesting to listen to.

love her vocals and am loving this album. streaming on npr
http://www.npr.org/2011/07/05/137475727/first-listen-eleanor-friedberger-last-summer?ps=mh_fl

My wife doesn't like her voice either. She says there's something affected about it, like she's putting on a slight English accent

i sometimes feel this way, too, that her delivery is overly mannered, uptight, her diction too precise, her phrasing too sharp, the control exercised too evident. like the song is a cookie she's carefully biting her way through before watchful eyes, mindful of crumbs. and the accent thing, here audible in "umbrella" and the way "swear" become "sweah", the edge of a steempunk music hall style. her approach sometimes keeps me at a distance when it comes to the fiery furnaces, but it doesn't bother me here, doesn't keep me from liking the song. it's slight, but i like its delicate, mechanical propulsion, the way her precision-tuned language bounces along on top.

and 80s sax, of course

liking this! at least liking the mp3 "my mistakes"

Agree that her delivery is one the mannered side, and I do hear the slight English accent thing at times. But neither of those things bother me that much really. Mostly when I found the FFs tiresome it's for other reasons, such as the lyrics, or just not being excited by a particular riff which they play a few too many times, or by the sudden transition to some twee Casiotone synth interlude in the middle of an otherwise awesome song.

love that first track.

tyler, have you tried to get into Bitter Tea? that was the one that did it for me, and the only one i still listen to.

i have that one! i'll give it another spin. i remember liking benton harbor blues (?) quite a bit, but not getting into the rest of it.

i have a friend who's tried to get me into them for the last eight years or something...i even saw them live! i don't know, i like them, i just haven't fallen in love.

it's a wonderful record, this one.

I do not like the production on that single at all

I'm getting a little bit of Aaron Neville in her voice.

i'm not

It's subtle, and mostly a joke, but the delivery of at least a few words hinted at it to me.

Widow City is the album that did it for me. Didn't much like the last one, though.

I honestly thought the second track was saying "You promised to take me to the end of the seventh grade"

awesome, thanks for the link mizzell. new single is great, love her style.

this is a pretty crucial summer pop single?
i am not hearing any aaron neville though. i know it's lazy calling singers patti-smith-ers, but it does feel like, in being conversational more than melodic she is doing that thing well & taking it somewhere

Does she still sing like Ray Davies granddaughter

Ok, so there's an *urgency* to the way she sings every single line that reminds me of the way my 4-year-old tells me that it's VERY IMPORTANT that I look at the stick that he just picked up because it is a VERY IMPORTANT STICK. The music behind her isn't bad. It reminds me melodically, oddly, of Eno who's being discussed elsewhere and whose Desert Island Selection has been on my turntable lately...

She needs an Oblique Strategy Card that says, "If the melody line is essentially two notes, add five more notes."

I'm liking 'My Mistakes'. Especially love the dogtanian bits.

i'm all about this. i should really finally get around to listening to the fiery furnaces. loved gallowsbird's bark and blueberry boat but i just stopped checking them out. didn't know the brother had a solo album too.

he's releasing eight albums this year

agree the music is pretty good - but she really needs to find some sort of melody in those vocal lines - they all blend into one another.

Last Summer is getting great reviews almost everywhere. i did listen to it once but was more back round music, need to give it a proper listen.

yeah there aren't really any weak trax here. it kinda peaks in the middle with Scenes From Bensonhurst and Roosevelt Island but i love the whole thing, especially the sad little Wall-E vacuum noises during One-Month Marathon.

"inn of the seventh ray" is a restaurant in topanga canyon.

http://innoftheseventhray.com/

(haven't heard this record yet except for "my mistakes," which i love.)

he's releasing eight albums this year

― mizzell, Tuesday, 12 July 2011 21:12 (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

assumed this was a joke but no

yeah, just released video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRUOoSKt6Kg

i sometimes feel this way, too, that her delivery is overly mannered, uptight, her diction too precise, her phrasing too sharp, the control exercised too evident. like the song is a cookie she's carefully biting her way through before watchful eyes, mindful of crumbs

Well put. I liked "Heaven" and "I Won't Fall Apart on Me Tonight." I'm more turned off by the rather monotonous music: that constant banging piano.

I love this album. Also, nerdy of me to notice, but I think the sequencing is perfect. I'm also glad it isn't the endurance-test length of most Fiery Furnaces albums. "One Month Marathon" is my favorite but I really like the whole thing.

"Roosevelt Island"!

I like that tune but hate the clavinet.

Oh man how can you

Sounds awkward. Love the swirly stuff going around the two-minute mark though.

i sometimes feel this way, too, that her delivery is overly mannered, uptight, her diction too precise, her phrasing too sharp, the control exercised too evident.

I find this the most captivating thing about her -- it accounts for the majority of her character/personality -- so yeah, finding it offputting really would be a challenge. Nothing about it feels at all affected to me, though. (Even if it is mystifying how much it comes off "New York," instead of Illinois; is it just because she feels like a super-prim Patti Smith?)

I've started imagining that she speaks in this cadence in everyday life, sorta like Christopher Walken.

finally heard this album via Spotify, it's great, doesn't sound like the Fiery Furnaces at all. she breaths a different life into her own songs. at around 45 minutes it's a perfect length.

I like when she sings "I'm gonna wrap the night (?) around your neck, slice off your head, daddy"

Like Hurting I heard "you promised to take me to the end of the 7th grade", and thought that was a good lyric at first.

I've been trying in vain to place what album the cover reminds me of. A little bit of The River, but there's also something about the font across the top. Paging Alex in NYC...

http://0.tqn.com/d/classicrock/1/0/y/U/springsteen_river.jpg

Still really loving this album. I thought my days of caring about anything Fiery Furnaces were long gone.

listening to this now.

honestly i kinda wanted to like the fiery furnaces but everything i heard drove me nuts.

anyway, this album is really knocking me out! such good songs but there's a certain subtle eccentricity about it.

the vocal phrasing on "roosevelt island" really reminds me of something

i interviewed her a few years ago (2005?) and asked her about her phrasing--i think she said her fave singers were bob dylan and joe strummer.

the vocal phrasing on "roosevelt island" really reminds me of something

of how she really is...?

I love this.

the vocal phrasing on "roosevelt island" really reminds me of something

dan bejar?

This album is such a little gem.

I love this album! I filmed one of her songs with my crummy old camera at the Rough Trade West shop a few weeks ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPjHXO4GWOI

I liked her more than I expected to when I saw her opening for Wild Flag. A couple people express extreme hate for her over on that thread. Her retro sensibilities and phrasing can be an acquired taste

what about her boring songs and indie voice?

I'll bite. I can't help you with the "indie voice," whatever that is - but she's writing really interesting lyrics; she nails what Tom Waits called "putting a zip code" on her songs; they're packed full of really evocative details (lyrically and musically, I think). I mean, it seems pretty clear that the Fiery Furnaces really rub some people the wrong way, but Jesus - they/she can't be accused of doing anything really all that run of the mill.

I think it means her voice isn't supported by any major label money.

I wanted to love this album because a friend whose opinions and mine coincide more often than not, but after seven or eight listens the melodies sounded undistinguished. Nothing really stood out.

i haven't listened to this album too much, but when i do i like it quite a bit! moreso than the fiery furnaces stuff i've heard.

tylerw otm, I've tried and tried with Fiery Furnaces but was never able to really understand why so many people adored them. This album, otoh, is wonderful. And I think Alfred is offtm wrt to "undistinguished melodies", there are great ones all over this thing!

This is one of my favorite albums of the year.

^

yall seriously pretending not to know what i mean by indie voice?

love, love this album but it's no Fiery Furnaces

yall seriously pretending not to know what i mean by indie voice?

In the most sinister place in my heart, of course I do. I'm not sure it works here because Friedberger projects so much damn warmth. However, her voice doesn't enliven these songs, most of which just sit there. The only one I can recall unprompted is "I Won't Fall Apart On You Tonight," one of the more generic ones.

Inn Of The Seventh Ray is one of the best songs of this year.

yall seriously pretending not to know what i mean by indie voice?

Genuinely don't know. I mean, I assumed you meant a kind of "affectedly disaffected" thing or something, but that objectively doesn't apply to this album.

http://cdn4.pitchfork.com/news/49793/92c6f0ea.jpg

Personal Record is the second solo album released by Eleanor Friedberger, most notably for being vocalist in the band The Fiery Furnaces with her brother Matthew Friedberger. The album will be released on 4 June 2013 on the Merge Records record label.

1 I Don't Want to Bother You
2 When I Knew
3 I'll Never Be Happy Again
4 Stare at the Sun
5 Echo or Encore
6 My Own World
7 Tomorrow Tomorrow
8 You'll Never Know Me
9 I Am the Past
10 She's a Mirror
11 Other Boys
12 Singing Time

Does Merge say if she sings this one in an indie voice? J/k
I like the cover. She's got a new 7" out with track 3 on the A side and a Jimmie Dale Gilmore cover on the b-side

Also how has no-one used that title before?? That's great.

love the cover/ title. the bits in the video teaser sound really good too.

You know, I like this new tune a great deal (more than the debut ) and I'm stoked that her solo career is going well, but FFS GIMME SOME FIERY FURNACES MUSIC. Matt's solo stuff sucks and it annoys me that the band isn't come up in their solo interviews more

am I wrong to feel this way?

i liked last summer more than any fiery furnaces in quite a while but agree that it is odd the status of the band doesn't even come up

http://www.splicetoday.com/music/three-in-grown-nose-hairs

I really love this new record.

This is even better than Last Summer

Never been a fan of her band, but "Stare at the Sun" is absolutely fantastic. Maybe I've just really got Scott Miller on the brain lately in the wake of his death, but this track sounds exactly like a Donnette Thayer Game Theory track.

This is even better than Last Summer

― Van Horn Street, Saturday, June 8, 2013 5:48 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^^^ this. I didn't think she could one-up that one, but she did. This plays, to me, like a late-period Moz album if late-period Moz albums were actually great instead of mediocre and forgettable.

Haha, so how it is late-period Moz-like then?

I dunno - something about the first three or four songs especially remind me, melodically and lyrically, of Moz. Also, titles like "I'll Never Be Happy Again" and "You'll Never Know Me" sound like Morrissey titles. And "Tomorrow Tomorrow" and "My Own World" inhabit that weird Southpaw Grammar era where Moz wasn't rocking, exactly, but was certainly more assertive than on records like Vauxhall and I.

is this out?

as of tuesday of last week.

Maybe I've just really got Scott Miller on the brain lately in the wake of his death, but this track sounds exactly like a Donnette Thayer Game Theory track.

^^^ on this. This album is a keeper.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74-iyAoMa6Y

Thinking of giving this another go - does it have legs?

OK thats it. I am committing to listening to a song on You Tube

it's a very good album

I keep expecting this album to go stale but it's just too damm playfull.

I like it but I'm still not sucked in by it - her first stuck with me a lot more.

Dunno why this record didn't blow up

Bought it today, think it's great. Was never that into Fiery Furnaces.

I'm starting to prefer the solo records than the FF ones. I am having a lot of fun with the FF records but her solo albums somehow speak to me more. I wonder if I'm the only one.

Personal Record is lovely, but the only solo record I've heard. It's going to be high in my poll for the year. Was listening again to it today and it's gorgeous.

I just heard this record in the last month, due to starting weekends at a record shop. After looking & admiring the cover art for a couple weeks, I popped it on during a slow period, and am really digging it -- love the warm 70's production & the sound of the whole thing...especially the rhythm section and her voice. And I *hated* the Fiery Furnaces, with a passion that only being a College Radio music director & listening to way-too-much-shit can bring.

liked FF, love Eleanor solo, so Van Horn, you're not alone there at all

will give this a listen! blueberry boat is still bigger than jesus you jaded loons :D

of course her solos are better. the reason is the lack of her brother.

(no pretentiousness)

such ban

would describe this record, 3 1/2 trax in, as 'not unlikeable', maybe rising to 'intermittently pleasant'

haha nah i'm bein a shit. it's p good

her two solo albums are more my jam than the fiery furnaces at this point. i appreciate the band, but after awhile i didn't appreciate them enough to listen to them anymore.

neat as this is, it's absolutely nowhere even remotely near to the FFs at their mindblowing chameleonic best. much more musically conservative, much less surprising or limber about song narrative. but hey, nice li'l conventional popsongs if that's what you're into

oh ok 'tomorrow tomorrow' is massive

uh and the next song is incredible too. wai u wait 6 tracks 2 turn shit gr8

yeah the first couple of FF records were great

more than the first couple! widow city and bitter tea both monstrous(ly underrated). actually i don't rly like the first one, it's nothing on what came after

this EF album definitely a second-halfer

new song is cool, weirder than most of her solo stuff, maybe more fiery furnace-ish, with its static instrumental break and spoken word bits.
http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2015/10/eleanor_friedbe_15.html#more

Will check, thanks. I need to catch up with all of her solo stuff, but heard the mannered delivery complained about upthread as (possibly inadvertent yet) effective characterization on FF albums: anxious, sometimes neurotic, sometimes even "Joan Didionesque middle-aged woman on the verge," as St. Vincent said she was going for herself (interesting to hear young women doing that; guess who feels it knows it, or some of it).

Precision vs. chaos barely off-stage, is the implication.

Or inference, at least.

Actually it's not all off-stage on FF albums, where her brother's soundz can be oops upside the head.

If her solo settings are more sedate, might not work.

will listen to this but it's extremely annoying how she gets all the hype when her bro puts out the far superior material

he released an amazing album this year that nobody's heard. i write about it/link to it here: Fiery Furnaces sans sis: Matthew Friedberger's Winter Women/Holy Ghost Language School

c'mon you can't actually be annoyed that someone writing and performing pop songs gets more coverage than one who releases "certifiably insane synth-rock operas"
as you say in that thread, it's basically his choice.

oh i'm cool that she gets more coverage. but he gets virtually none! ah well, guess yer right, it is the way it goes. listen to his stuff tho maybe, esp 'i wasn't working'

fwiw the new e friedberger song was decent imo

i actually put in the winter women cd in lately but didn't make it very far. i see now that he played in new york just last night. you are right he gets basically no coverage, which is remarkable given FF's former profile.

I listen to Personal Record more than any FF records these days.

Eleanor Friedberger's two solo records are great - Personal Record especially. Fiery Furnaces fucked it up. She should've been a big star.

what makes her good is exactly what stands in the way of stardom

Listening to the Matthew album now. It's pretty good! Not even as wacky as some the FF stuff.

Saw both Friedberger siblings on the street today. They are cool looking.

did they look cool in a 'making music together again' way

Nah. I've seen them together in the last few years so I didn't read anything into it.

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/img/i1/bp/eleanor-new-view.jpg
Out January 22.

01 He Didn't Mention His Mother
02 Open Season
03 Sweetest Girl
04 Your Word
05 Because I Asked You
06 Never Is a Long Time
07 Cathy With the Curly Hair
08 Two Versions of Tomorrow
09 All Known Things
10 Does Turquoise Work?
11 A Long Walk

False Alphabet City not on there. Samples sound like the last record, maybe slightly more acoustic/pastoral.

Keeps up her run of great album covers.

Whoah that new song He Didn't Mention His Mother is fantastic. I love it I love it

looking forward to this.

http://www.npr.org/2016/01/13/462845881/first-listen-eleanor-friedberger-new-view

this is really nice
i feel like her and cat le bon are 2 of the only ppl who can pull off a 70s singer songwriter vibe and have it feel fresh and not annoying to me
sucks that john misty is so much more successful. i kinda liked him on first blush then it really curdled for me.

Wish False Alphabet City was in there. Was that a soundtrack song or something?

New one is nice, and yeah, I agree, she's really good at the 70s singer songwriter thing without making it seem conspicuous or retro. New one isn't immediately grabbing me quite like the previous two, but I've still been playing it a lot.

New album has really grown on me in the last couple days. It was all blurring together for a while there. But I have the album in a playlist of new stuff and I played it on shuffle: every time a Friedberger song came up I was blown away by how smart it was. Her songwriting is so sophisticated and effortless at the same time.

Saw her in Glasgow a couple of days ago. I just think she is one of the geniuses. Wild songwriting. Last tour she had a band, this time on a stool and acoustic guitar. That would usually bore me. But she's great. I loved it. Bumped into some friends after and couldn't speak.

listened to the album in the office yesterday, not sure what it is she does with these simple songs that make them stand out and work so well, but.. well, it sounds great!

Haha, maybe this is just me Hearing Things, but in quick succession:
-- play the first minute or so of the 1993 album entitled New Wave;
-- play the first minute or so of this 2016 album entitled New View.

Just getting around to this album, it's good! Feel like she's kind of under the radar these days, deserves more attention.

"Cathy With the Curly Hair" definitely is on my 2016 mix.

has a nice 60s Dylan vibe too, guitar playing is great, one of the albums I've enjoyed most this year

new album is really solid, not a duff song. i actively disliked the fiery furnaces but solo friedberger is such a great songwriter. and i agree this would have fit perfectly into the 60s/70s but on the other hand like all great music it is timeless.

sorry to be direct but fiery furnace = shit, eleanor solo = great is pretty much the most boring opinion ever

not sure I get what u mean?

I have the Fiery Furnaces EP and I like it and hear a lot of Eleanor's songwriting in it, but the sound is harsh on the ears, slightly aggressive, it's very artsy and creative - which is nice and cool, and was perhaps kinda trending in the 00s.

Her solo stuff though is really really good singer/songwriter material, well played, good vibey, especially this new one finds her with a great band, perhaps her strongest material...

so... it's a boring opinion because it's obvious? (I would never call FF shit though, it's just v different)

it's a boring opinion because it follows an extremely dull & hackneyed mythos of young tearaway artist 'maturing' and making some classic 'golden-age' aor 'singer-songwriter' pop-rock with all its 'timeless' qualities and radio-ready concessions to The Art Of Song

now i have nothing against e friedberger and her music as it is nowadays (it's never moved me really, but i will give this new one a go) but positioning the fiery furnaces (who were completely unlike anyone else ever, for better or worse, imo better) as a failed, 'artsy' experiment and her solo material as a good-vibey breakthrough is musical conservatism of the most irritating order

nobody fucks with matthew friedberger's new stuff, which is such a shame, because it's just as fearless and bizarre as ever

it's a boring opinion because it follows an extremely dull & hackneyed mythos of young tearaway artist 'maturing' and making some classic 'golden-age' aor 'singer-songwriter' pop-rock with all its 'timeless' qualities and radio-ready concessions to The Art Of Song

you sound like a lot of fun

coincidentally, i've just given up on the new e friedberger after 3 songs. the only decent one was basically knocking on heaven's door redux. ta-ra! you'll find me on Fiery Furnaces sans sis: Matthew Friedberger's Winter Women/Holy Ghost Language School

I feel you, imago, if not quite as vociferously. Keep meaning to give this new Eleanor solo LP a try and haven't gotten around to it.

I've liked a couple of the solo songs but, you know, it's a lot like spending time with releases by Unicorns solo members and thinking "hey, this is nice enough, but you know what would slay? IF SO GOT BACK TOGETHER AND MADE MUSIC THAT WAY INSTEAD."

I would be more into Eleanor's solo stuff if it was all more like this song, which I unreservedly adore even now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74-iyAoMa6Y

I like her 2016 record a lot.

The aesthetics of transgression are just as stale imo imago, but hey, I LOVE MUSIC and some of that music is singer/songwriter/aor and if that makes me a boring conservative so be it

Also Staring at the sun is a good song but wtf those YouTube comments are dreadful

Both FF and Eleanor solo are things I should, on paper, like more than I do - both in the same wheelhouse as (different) things I like but have never quite clicked. I haven't heard this new one yet though so maybe that'll change things.

it's a boring opinion because it follows an extremely dull & hackneyed mythos of young tearaway artist 'maturing' and making some classic 'golden-age' aor 'singer-songwriter' pop-rock with all its 'timeless' qualities and radio-ready concessions to The Art Of Song

i don't care if my opinion is boring or not. i love the music i love, that's all. i don't know if friedberger has matured or not, i do not care really. but the fiery furnaces mini-operas really annoyed me and her new songs do not. i am aware of the fact that i have a rather predictable taste but it does not bother me at all.

one thing is for sure. i definitely do not care about people who only like or dislike stuff not to appear boring. as that is silly.

niels and alex--I think you're letting concept-crazed, overly ambitious latter-day Fiery Furnaces keep you from enjoying some very cool records. If you like Eleanor's solo stuff, I highly recommend the Fiery Furnaces singles collection (released, iirc, as EP), as well as their first album, Gallowsbird's Bark. Not as lush as Eleanor's solo albums, maybe, but just as poppy / clever / great. I love everything up to and including Widow City; I like the subsequent albums fine (except Rehearsing My Choir, which I couldn't get into), but sort of tuned out when it seemed like the albums were getting more bloated and conspicuously strange (as opposed to legitimately, accidentally strange, if that makes sense).

Widow City came after all three of Blueberry Boat, Rehearsing My Choir and Bitter Tea. Blueberry Boat was their second album. If anything they mellowed. FYI.

OK now I'm thinking I should give the singles collection a go - I do like the band in smaller doses.

I seldom sit down and listen to Blueberry Boat anymore but my admiration for it has not dimmed

I've got the ep, like it just fine

But I like her new solo record even more bcz omg I'm so boring

there should be a shorthand for when people enter a thread of musical appreciation and discussion to inform everyone that the artist being discussed actually sucks

(I realize that's not exactly what happened here and no hard feelings)

The aesthetics of transgression are just as stale imo

― niels, Tuesday, September 20, 2016 1:52 AM (nine hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

fwiw I agree with this 100% and if anything it is this narrative that is tired in 2016

Also, did not realize my chronology was so way off! Could have sworn Widow City was earlier. I guess Widow City was a sort of "return to form," then?

I actually love the beginning of Blueberry Boat, and bits and pieces here and there, but in general everything she's ever done always makes me think of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YdMj8ocvns

this record seems overlooked in eoy lists

going with "A Long Walk" in my trax poll, since it's probably the most Friedbergesque on the record but "Never Is A Long Time" is p devastating too, also "Open Season" is v v nice

Yeah it's a great album. "All Known Things" is the one that sticks with me.

i was thinking the same thing re: New View missing on all these lists. also, fun fact: when I saw Chris Cohen last weekend his keyboard player was the guy from Eleanor Friedberger's band. excellent in both!

I liked this album too but I guess it came out pretty early in the year because it feels like a 2015 record to me

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91OaAzEQZWL._SX522_.jpg

Eleanor Friedberger has announced her new album, which is titled Rebound and will be out May 4 via Frenchkiss. It was inspired by a post-Election Day 2018 extended trip to Greece to explore family heritage. The title of the album, specifically, comes from a late-night goth club in Athens, as she explains:

After a month in Athens I asked my friend, the Greek musician Σtella, “What’s one thing I have to do before I leave?” After some long and careful consideration she smiled and said, you have to go to Rebound. It’s a time warp; kind of an 80s goth disco where everyone does the chicken dance; you’ll love it… but it’s only open on Saturdays after 3:00 AM.” Rebound proved to be a revelation in terms of finding the sound and energy for my fourth album. The club was very dark and despite the no smoking signs, like everywhere in Athens, it was very smoky. The ‘chicken dance’ Stella mentioned was a solitary one. I copied the slouchy strut, moving back and forth in line, swinging my arms in time to the music that at first sounded like Joy Division or maybe The Cure, but never revealed itself– one could only assume it to be knock-off by an unknown Baltic band. It was alienating and exhilarating.

Nice!

I really like this!

def more synthy/drum machine but it still feels like her stuff, it doesn't feel like as much of a left turn as i expected based on the description/copy

it's almost like..i dunno, comparing a 70s singer songwriter album to an album they released in 82

Not that fussed about the new song but still excited for this. The last record was a bit mellow - didn't really get me like the previous two - but A Long Walk is an amazing track.

she has the dopest album covers

That's true.

always curious to hear what she has to say, like the sound of this, very clean

she's a singular singer

i like the sound of this
https://youtu.be/wmjcSz8aV1Y

Yeah it’s a good one. (Does she live in L.A. now?)

nice, she is very consistent

look forward to seeing her play on friday!

(Does she live in L.A. now?)

As far as I know she lives upstate New York but just . This interview made me sad: she had to move out of Brooklyn cause she couldn't afford it any more

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jan/19/eleanor-friedberger-new-view

"but just" was going to end with something about her working in LA

There is something sad about her position (though she makes great records). She's amazingly talented, and has real star potential, but the Fiery Furnaces just fucked it up. I've seen her last three shows in Glasgow - all great - but there were not much more than 50 people at any of them. She seems out of place, too big for the rooms, but that's where she is. I tell people that I've seen her and they haven't even heard of her.

Why do you blame the FFs? Just curious.

I wonder how her sales and show attendance compare to what the FFs were doing at their peak.

The article makes it seem as the age of streaming for free is the reason musicians are broke nowadays but I don’t really see her or the Fiery Furnaces even getting a chance in the pre-internet age.

Also they are a hard band to sell tbh and yet their weirdness was their selling point. I still love her but her solo career is very lowkey compared to what they did as a band. They were a very niche band and people still following her is even more niche.

I was a gonzo Furnaces fan -- never missed an L.A. show (including multiple nights of the same visit), obsessed over the albums, etc. Moments of those shows are burned in my memory. I still look back with a kind of awe that they even existed; they were such a singular band.

But even I have sort of lost track of Eleanor. Hoping to pick up the thread with this new one.

She opened for Luna at the Moroccan Lounge in LA, and said she'll be back as headliner in May. Nice venue to see her in.

Yes, Furnaces were a fantastic live band, always interesting with a wide range of energy/sounds. And for niche, they were filling pretty large rooms at their peak (First Ave's Main Room here, though not sold out).

Solo Eleanor is very reliable as well, though some friends have balked at solo sets, too low-key (not for me). Last time through, I didn't feel the band was up to her, but as the set went on, she managed to mess with them a bit and they rose to her game.

thanks, nick (didn't realize Luna were still out there!)

They re-grouped, may still be on that tour.

The article makes it seem as the age of streaming for free is the reason musicians are broke nowadays but I don’t really see her or the Fiery Furnaces even getting a chance in the pre-internet age.

― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Wednesday, April 4, 2018 6:25 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Dunno about FF but I think one of the things that has changed is that labels know they won't make money on physical releases, which means less money offered for advances, tour support, etc. I'd be willing to bet FF were doing better financially than Eleanor is now, despite the fact that her music is a lot more accessible

i wanted to see that Luna show with her opening up here in Los Angeles. was so temped to go but i already saw Beck/Spoon and going to MGMT, a couple of Giants/Angel games and trying to get to the Arctic Monkeys show too. my budget is stretched for entertainment at the moment. oh yeah, of Montreal and Modest Mouse are also possibilities.

Those of us here in L.A. should meet up at Amoeba, and wander around mumbling declaratory sentences to each other, or something...

haha, i'm in

morrisp, did you post under a different name before or are you brand new to ILM?

I used to post here ages ago (early 2000s), and recently returned (God knows why or how long I’ll last).

lol, this is a good place most of the time. i came on around 2006 or so, i think my first post had to do with Moose. anyways, 12 years now? i'm fucking old school now.

this place is so intimidating, it's hard to get new people.

i think it took me six months before my first post because of that. i used to post on the old CMJ board called Obner. glad i found a new home here on ILM way back when.

Well, nice to meet you! The vibe is pretty much as I remember it... maybe a little less intense and friendlier (though more “Polls”... so many Polls!)

haha, i have done:

ILM Ballot Polls for 2014 and beyond -- order, timing, "I would have voted if I'd known about it," etc

New Order
Steely Dan
The Boo Radleys
Spoon
Bauhaus
Oasis (lol)
Talking Heads
Joy Division

gave up on and took over by others:

Blondie
Smashing Pumpkins (currently going as you can see)

Damn. Just checked when she's playing next in London and it was last night at the (tiny) Moth Club: a venue I love.

Sucks to be a shit fan.

Hello morrisp!

Hahaha I think i ended up in this hellhole 10 years ago because my mp3blog was being roasted in here and I got curious. Posters were not nice then and they still are not but for better or worse it still is the best forum I’ve bumped into to discuss music.

Also site mods/analysts can doublecheck this fact but I’m fairly sure polls were abused 10 years ago between 2007/2008. I swear back then 7 out of 10 daily active threads were polls.

I also did like 20 polls those years, sorry.

For much of that time, she was in a relationship with Alex Kapranos from Franz Ferdinand
^^now that's a power couple!

Liked this detail:

“When I stand onstage I think I’m Neil Young. Like, ‘That’s how I do it’; that’s what’s going through my head. I mean he doesn’t play a Stratocaster like I play but it’s just something in the way that I hold myself; that’s what I’m emulating.”

she also dated Britt Daniel while a student at UT.

show was great! just her and a guitar, backing tracks on some songs

had a chance to talk to her after the show, she was very kind and we agreed that New View is v underrated

that sounds like a great night, wish i could have gone.

this place is so intimidating, it's hard to get new people.

― Bee OK, Wednesday, April 4, 2018 9:33 PM (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'm still intimidated outside of ILB.

lovely solo session. her voice sounds great.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TllEbRUq1Ls

thx for posting this - the interview bits are fun, seems like she was in a good mood

(-- not to imply she's usually grouchy or something! just that she seems more engaged & open than artists tend to be in these performance + interview clips)

Hmm, things get "interesting" when the interviewer asks her about NYC

"Are We Good?" another standout track

i listen to this album all the time. i do love it. there is a comfort listening to her music that i get that i don't really get from a lot of other newer things today.