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The Fiery Furnaces Issue Statement: 'We're Not Fans Of Radiohead'

And they didn't misread 'Harry Patch' title...

November 06, 2009 by Scott Colothan
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The Fiery Furnaces have issued a sarcastic statement in response to the furore created when Matthew Friedberger berated Radiohead's song 'Harry Patch (In Memory Of).'

In an interview with Spinner.com published earlier this week, Friedberger seemingly slammed Radiohead's intentions for recording a song about the last surviving British solder of the trenches, Harry Patch, calling the group 'bogus'.

Under the headline 'We LOVE Radiohead, of course!', yesterday a band rep insisted the band are NOT fans of Radiohead and Matthew DIDN'T misread the song title as 'Harry Partch' as previously thought.  

Instead, it's claimed that “ Matt naturally thought it would be interesting to pretend that they wrote a song about the celebrated American composer with a similar sounding name.”

The statement reads:

Like most creative musicians, Matt Friedberger is not a fan of Radiohead and their various chartbusters.

Of course, Matt and all of The Fiery Furnaces family have the greatest respect for all Tommies, living or dead. So much so that lots of The Fiery Furnaces work is, because of the pun, dedicated to imitating the Who's "Tommy".

Now, back in the fall of 1996 or whenever that interview was conducted, the interviewer asked what Matt thought of a Radiohead song celebrating a WWI veteran.

Of course, Matt never 'misread' any song title, as has been reported. Though he is not very proficient at it, he can actually read. Matt naturally thought it would be interesting to pretend that they wrote a song about the celebrated American composer with a similar sounding name, hence his joking in the interview about Radiohead composing a song with something like 48 notes to an octave. It was easy and amusing to imagine Radiohead's attempt to colonize that relatively arcane bit of our musical lifeworld. No doubt that would be very successful.

Matt has not heard the Radiohead song about Harry Patch, as opposed to his imaginary one about Harry Partch, but if he did, he is sure he wouldn't like it. No doubt Radiohead and their fans can ignore his opinion of this matter and the band can continue with their triumphant artistic interventions.

Matt would have much preferred to insult Beck but he is too afraid of Scientologists.

(6)
  • this guy Matt sounds like a bit of a prick

    ~ by Gus 11/6/2009 Report

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  • What an absolute idiot.

    ~ by Daves 11/6/2009 Report

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  • Idiot. Wants to say he knows who Harry Partch is to not look like an illiterate musician... but he doesn't even know who Harry Patch is either. Just another dumb wannabe indie who wants the headlines by bashing Radiohead while saying they don't want-- no-no -- to sell out.

    ~ by Sam 11/6/2009 Report

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  • He is trying to cover he is a dumb illiterate douche who doesn't know who Harry Partch is. What an idiot. Better to stay closed mouthed than to appear on the media showing how ignorant you really are while bashing people who really are talented like Radiohead is. BTW, Thom Yorke is giving a damn to him.

    ~ by mark 11/6/2009 Report

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  • It's a simple rule...if you're comfortable, as an artist, with yourself and your work, you wouldn't feel the need to dog on someone else. That said, the Fiery Fergies couldn't touch Radiohead, artistically, with a ten foot pole. And FriedBurger man knows it.

    ~ by Apop Post Punk 11/6/2009 Report

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