Pitchfork

Tick tock you don't stop, Matthew Friedberger. Just two weeks after the release of the latest Fiery Furnaces record, Bitter Tea, the brother half of the band has revealed that his first solo release, the double album Winter Women / Holy Ghost Language School will be released August 8. It will be the debut effort from the new label 859 Recordings, run by Keith Wood, formerly of Rough Trade.

Back in January, Friedberger told Pitchfork that Holy Ghost Language School is a "story record" involving an English school in Japan, speaking in tongues, and "people getting happy," while its companion is "not very aggressive" and features "a lot of guitar solos."

Now we can also tell you that Winter Women is 60 minutes long and "intended to be a summer record, full of memorable, catchy, and un-ironic pop songs," according to a press release. Holy Ghost is 46 minutes long and can be likened to "Faust, the Residents, or the most 'out' moments of Brian Eno's solo records." So basically, the whole Fiery Furnaces spectrum can be mapped out onto these two records.

The double-disc is three years in the making, and was co-produced by Bill Skibbe at Key Club Recording at Benton Harbor, Michigan. John McEntire of Tortoise and the Sea and Cake contributed a bit of drumming, but other than that, Friedberger wrote and played everything himself.

"They sound very nice," Friedberger said of the records in January. "And entertaining."

Well OK then.

Here are the nice and entertaining tracklists. FYI, the periods were included.

Winter Women:

01 Under the Hood at the Paradise Garage.
02 The Pennsylvania Rock Oil Co. Resignation Letter.
03 Up the River.
04 Ruth Versus Rachel.
05 Her Chinese Typewriter.
06 Big Bill Crib & His Ladies of the Desert.
07 Don't You Remember?
08 Betcha Don't.
09 PS.213 Mini School.
10 Theme From Never Going Home Again.
11 Motorman.
12 Quick as Cupid.
13 I Love You Cedric.
14 Servant in Distress.
15 Hialeah.
16 Wisconsin River Blues.

Holy Ghost Language School:

01 Seventh Loop Highway.
02 Holy Ghost Language School.
03 The Cross and the Switchblade.
04 I Started Drinking Alcohol at the Age of Eleven.
05 Do You Like Blondes?
06 Azusa St.
07 Topeka and San Antonio.
08 A Mystical Preparative to Lewdness.
09 Ship Scrap Beach Business.
10 First Day of School.
11 Things Were Going So Well.
12 All in Vain or the Opposite.
13 Moral and Epilouge.

As previously reported, the Fiery Furnaces are headed out on the road later this week in support of Bitter Tea. They'll spend May in Europe, culminating in a set at the Sleater-Kinney-curated day of the All Tomorrow's Parties festival, and will spend June in North America.

Ohhh, I'm on fire:

05-04 Manchester, England - Night & Day
05-05 Glasgow, Scotland - ABC 2
05-06 Dublin, Ireland - Whelan's
05-08 Leeds, England - The Cockpit
05-09 London, England - King's College
05-10 Brighton, England - Concorde 2
05-11 Brussels, Belgium - AB Club
05-13 Cologne, Germany - Gebaude 9
05-14 Hamburg, Germany - Molotov
05-15 Berlin, Germany - Magnet
05-17 Amsterdam, Holland - Paradiso Upstairs
05-19 Paris, France - Nouveau Casino
05-20 Camber Sands, England - Camber Sands Holiday Centre (All Tomorrow's Parties) *
06-08 Detroit, MI - St. Andrew's Hall
06-09 Milwaukee, WI - The Rave
06-12 Vancouver, British Columbia - Richard's on Richards
06-13 Seattle, WA - Neumos
06-15 San Francisco, CA - Fillmore
06-16 Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda Theatre
06-17 San Diego, CA - Epicentre
06-19 Salt Lake City, UT - In the Venue
06-20 Denver, CO - Bluebird Theatre
06-22 Omaha, NE - Sokol Auditorium
06-23 Minneapolis, MN - First Ave
06-24 Chicago, IL - Metro
06-25 Cincinnati, OH - Desdemona Festival $
06-27 Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of Living Arts
06-29 New York, NY - Webster Hall
06-30 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club

* with Sleater-Kinney, David Cross, the Gossip, Spoon, Lightning Bolt, Joanna Newsom, Boredoms, Dungen, Radar Bros, 1990's, Edith Frost, Black Heart Procession
$ with the Walkmen, Annie, the Stills, Radio 4, Heartless Bastards, Richard Swift, Small Sins, more