Brother/sister quirk rock duo The Fiery Furnaces are currently back home in Chicagoland (they grew up in Oak Park, IL) working on a brand new album with their grandma, yes… seriously. The siblings Friedberger are making some great progress on the new full length, tentatively titled Garfield El (a Green Line stop near their grandma’s house). All of the backing tracks are finished and the band are in a Chicago studio laying down the vocals with grams. Speaking with Pitchfork about the new record, Matt Friedberger said, “I don’t know what to say about it. There’s a lot of talking. It’s sorta middle-eastern-like. I shouldn’t try and give a description. There’s a lot of narration on it.”
As soon as they finish up Garfield El, The Fiery Furnaces will jump right into the recording process on an entirely new album. Tentatively titled Speak Chinese By Singing, the more straight-forward album will likely be packaged with Garfield El and released as a double LP in late spring/early summer 2005.
Before either of those two records see the light of day however, the band’s label (Rough Trade) will release a 10-song EP that collects (mostly) a series of the band’s UK b-sides. That release is scheduled for January 11. The track listing is as follows.
01. “Single Again”
02. “Here Comes the Summer”
03. “Evergreen”
04. “Sing for Me”
05. “Tropical Ice-Land”
06. “Duffer St. George”
07. “Smelling Cigarettes”
08. “Cousin Chris”
09. “Sweet Spots”
10. “Sullivans Social Club”
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