Fiery Furnaces Catch Democracy Fever

BY Scott A. GrayPublished Jan 18, 2008

Prolific brother-sister duo the Fiery Furnaces are soliciting their fans' opinions for the direction of their follow-up to last year's Widow City. Aimed at creating a "popular culture," Furnaces fans have the chance to vote on which direction the band's next album will take. Candidates are broken down by colour and each album concept includes a title and brief description of the proposed story and instrumentation for fans to base their votes on.

Let's meet the best of the "Red" candidates:

Kythphiaxkis Traans-Oinomaos
Described as "a doubled sided-love story involving one beautiful hermaphrodite and a second, conventionally unattractive one." Early Bee Gees and ABBA's "Waterloo" are the suggested influences.

Roughing It (Or Two Delinquent Dads)
A "long-verse many-verse Dylan-style" album with "the guitars and pianos (but not the bass) in quarter-step tunings against each other." Expect "lots of happy-go-lucky clanging and banging" and an "old Hawaii" setting.

And in the "Blue" corner:

Catamite Corner
With an early lead in the votes, the next Furnaces album could be "Like [Zeppelin's] 'Kashmir,' but faster, with real strings, and different sorts of lyrics." How could "old Egyptian soap opera music with bass guitar and drum kit" be anything less than awesome?

But the final option could prove to be the most enticing. Proclaiming, "No one knows what it's like" instead of listing a title, "Blue" option number four is a mystery, described only as "very serious, almost ghoulish, Who's Next-izing."

To view the rest of the candidates and cast your vote, check out the Fiery Furnaces' website here.

The Fiery Furnaces "Ex-Guru"

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