Fiery Furnaces//Slavin' Away

Yesterday, after work, I stopped at Other Music to see Fred and to drop off the new Palmrya record (s.s.p., sar). Sadly, Fred, who will undoubtedly get his own Local Music Friday feature soon, wasn’t there (he’s on tour with his new band City Center). Neither was the music buyer. So, what did I do? Browsed. And what does browsing at Other Music lead to? Spending money I shouldn’t be spending on AWESOME RECORDS. Oh yeah, that’s it!

On my browsing adventure, I noticed something amazing. Something that I was most definitely not expecting. That thing was a new 51-song Fiery Furnaces live album. YESSS!

I knew this was coming, but I didn’t know when. I’m so happy that the release date happened to coincide perfectly with my random OM stop.

I know I posted a Fiery Furnaces song last week, but this is just so cool that I’m going to get a little repetitive here. Forgive me, but they’re my favorite band!

I was extra excited to see this track, from Rehearsing My Choir, included. While I never got into what many of my friends have dubbed, “The Grandma Album,” this song is totally amazing live. I hope you’ll agree.



Slavin’ Away.mp3

I think the Furnaces are at their best live, so I would definitely recommend this glorious record. That said, this is a very unconventional live record (not surprising for this band). The songs are actually multiple recordings from multiple shows spliced together into coherent tracks (double unsurprising if you've ever caught one of their shows, or 13 of their shows--like me). As a result, you get the effect of wildly oscillating tempos and sound quality (some are straight from the board, some are pure bootleg). Pitchfork didn't like this, but that should just serve as an example of how out of touch they are. I think this technique, while totally unconvetional, is really playful and fun.

You can do what I did and buy the 6 disc LP of the 6 disc LP of Remember, which includes a code for a free digital download of album.
Although as per the directions on the back of the box, please do not attempt to listen to all at once.

Slavin’ away. All for you, my love.
And I’ve nothin’ to show for it.