The Fiery Furnaces Bring It to The Parish (Where They Will Not Fight Radiohead)

Austinist, WOXY, and The Onion present
The Fiery Furnaces & Drug Rug
Thursday, January 28
The Parish Room (214 East Sixth Street)
$15, doors at 8
[info] | [tickets]

Well, well, well, why if it isn't a band who's made writing a show preview brutally, insanely easy? Thank you, Fiery Furnaces. Not only for releasing yet another notable album in a long line of notable albums (either for their critical and musical excellence, or for being utterly confounding), but for inadvertently picking a fight with perhaps the most defensive and trigger-happy fanbase this side of Glenn Beck: that of Radiohead. To recap, for those of you who've missed out on all the terrible and delicious drama: back in early November, Furnace mastermind Matthew Friedberger chastised Radiohead for writing a song about Harry Partch, the late American composer who, according to Friedberger, was used by Radiohead because Radiohead "brazenly and arbitrarily associat[es] with things that [they] know people consider cool." The big oh shit moment came for Friedberger when he realized that not only had he broken a cardinal rule of good sense by never ever ever ever ever saying anything bad about Radiohead, but when he was informed that the song wasn't even about Harry Partch, but about Harry Patch, the last surviving soldier from World War I. Whoops. So of course a parade of awkward apologies and confusions followed, with Friedberger (always a man who speaks his mind, as seen in this Austinist interview from 2007), trying desperately to remove his foot from his mouth. Enter gasoline on the fire, by the name of Beck, who actually wrote a tune about the composer Partch, thus making Fiery Furnaces more relevant than they've ever been, and in a way they wouldn't have told their grandmother about.

BUT ALL OF THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THEIR MUSIC. And that brings us to the show, tonight, at the Parish, presented by Austinist, WOXY, and The Onion, where the Fiery Furnaces will play from their newest album, I'm Going Away, and from their past works. The new album, it must be said, is one of their best, and they've released a number of solid-to-strange-to-excellent works. And for those of you who've never seen the Friedberger two and their band on stage, you should know you're in for a treat---they play with high energy, running through their songs in a manic flurry, and if you can catch the lyrics, you'll be rewarded. They are good, and so is opener Drug Rug. So go to their show, and, please, please don't mention the Radiohead thing. I'm sure they're pretty sick about it by now, and have done their time.