brooklyn based and oak park, illinois (once home to architect frank lloyd wright) born siblings matthew (songwriting and studio instrumentation) and eleanor friedberger (vocals) formed the fiery furnaces in the world famous year 2000.

the duo is often compared to the white stripes because both two piece bands share a bluesy/folksy garage band sound and both are made up of siblings (although, in reality the white stripes’ jack and meg white were actually married and not really siblings).

even though they weren’t close growing up, the friedberger’s have music in their genes; their grandmother was a musician and choir director at a church; their mother, a gilbert & sullivan fan sang and played piano and guitar.  throughout school matthew played standup bass, soon after college,  matthew and eleanor began working on music together.

they instantly began to create simple melodies with a wide variety of sounds and found influence in the who, captain beefheart and os mutantes.  early on they gigged with the french kicks, sleater-kinney, and spoon; while on stage during this time they would play a continuous hour-long set featuring pieces from several melded songs.

in 2003, they released their first album, gallowsbird's bark, an l.p. that won critical acclaim for its charming homey feel; they really began to gain momentum in 2004 upon the release of their diverse second album, the concept driven blueberry boat.

during this time they toured with ted leo & the pharmacists, franz ferdinand, and the shins, while at the same time working on their third and fourth albums.  one, rehearsing my choir, featured their grandmother narrating stories about her life.

on july 21, 2009, the fiery furnaces released their eighth album, i'm going away, a simpler, stripped-down album influenced by '70s and '80s tv theme songs.  they are currently working on their "silent record," a book album, and their "democ-rock" project, allowing fans to vote on the creative process.

click here for june 30, 2006 set recorded in washington d.c. by npr's all songs considered  in d.c.  click here for an june 19, 2006 npr review.  click here and here for october 23, 2006 and october 23, 2007 in-studio sets and interviews recorded by kcrw's morning becomes eclectic.  don't forget, the album cover image always links to sample songs and the band's image to their website.

check here to see if the fiery furnaces have any gigs scheduled near you.

as always, please buy this album from your local independent music store by people who know and love music and not from retailers like wal-mart (soulless, globally-homogenizing, community-killers) or i-tunes (albums should be listened to as an entire composition with album cover and liner notes in hand).  incidentally, these two companies sell more music than any other retailer in the united states.  that my friend, bites.