Fiery Furnaces Return With First Song in 11 Years, ‘Down at the So and So on Somewhere’

The Fiery Furnaces have returned with their new song “Down at the So and So on Somewhere,” Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger’s first track together in 11 years.

The brother-sister duo previously teased their musical reunion — including a gig at the Pitchfork Music Festival, since canceled due to COVID-19 — as well as a collaboration with Third Man Records, which will release a 7″ single of the Fiery Furnaces’ new song backed by a vinyl-only B-side “The Fortune Teller’s Revenge.”

The Friedbergers’ first song together since 2009’s I’m Going Away was “recorded in New York City and a few hours north of New York City on February 3 and February 10-12, 2020,” they said in a statement. “‘Down at the So and So on Somewhere’ is a regretful song about having regrets. Now it seems even more sad than we thought it was back then: ‘Will you meet me,’ etc. Matthew was happy to use a Soviet drum machine. Eleanor was happy to play real drums. ‘The Fortune Teller’s Revenge’ is another sad song. We cut out the lines from the first and third verse: ‘with me; just kidding’ and ‘leave everything to me.’ Matthew likes hearing Eleanor sing ‘I’m sorry to say I’ve never made a mistake.’ Eleanor likes that you can’t quite tell who’s singing what, when.”

The decade-plus-long hiatus hasn’t dulled the duo’s spontaneity and tongue-twisting lyricism, as Eleanor Friedberger sings on the opening verse, “Trigonometry tutors often go to dance class three times a week/At some point that night, connecting dots tangent to your cheek/You check your timewarp watch in the car/The angle ain’t all oblique.”

The Fiery Furnaces’ last album — recorded separately from one another — was 2009’s Take Me Round Again, and they last performed onstage together in 2011.