Cold Blooded

A Person-By-Person Breakdown Of The People In The Bill Callahan 'Cold Blooded Old Times' Video On Pitchfork.tv

Bill Callahan: He is thinking about how it actually feels good to be barefoot on the rooftop of this building in Chicago on a late September night. At first he focuses on the lyrics and his playing, but his mind wanders. He thinks back to the woman he wrote this song about, and how he wishes he had never left her. He is looking at the violinist across from him and regretting the night that he fucked her even though he didn't have feelings for her, and still doesn't. At the end when he throws in that little extra lick on guitar, he is pretending to be in the Kinks.

70s Rocker Dude Who Takes Fashion Pointers From 'Spinal Tap': He ate an entire 1/8^th of mushrooms before noon, and they are only just now starting to lose their potency while the video is being recorded. He wonders if anyone will be able to tell he's tripping or not. Near the end of the song, he sees Callahan as a giant snowman in human clothing, his coal buttons dropping off of his shirt and turning into the drum that he is playing, over and over. He is pretty sure something is going on between Callahan and Violinist Chick, and considers this as a good sign he might get to stick her, too.

Vaguely Jewish Looking Skinny Dude: Before coming to the roof, he had offered Violinist Chick a beer, which she declined now but never has before. Already a bit dazed by this, he overhears a Pitchfork staffer saying that “Callahan's other dude, the skinny one in the red shirt...he looks like Flea of The Red Hot Chili Peppers...well, maybe his younger brother, anyway.” He has been thinking about giving up music and going back to school. School for what, he doesn't know. He's going to be 35 years old next month and has little to show for it, other than a frequently-something-wrong-with-something loft apartment on the cheaper side of Brooklyn. A minute into the song, he realizes that all he's going to do for the next few minutes is clap over and over, and he decides to quit music as soon as this taping is over. In between the end of this song and the beginning of the next, he sneaks a pull on a whiskey bottle.

Impossibly Beautiful Violinist Chick: She still can't believe she gets to be on a website for a music performance. As she is just shy of 23 years old, she still can't believe a lot of things. She had almost drank a beer before coming up to the roof, but remembered that she had found out a few days prior that she was pregnant. Pregnant with Callahan's kid. She still isn't sure whether she wants to keep it or not; she has a thing for him, but he still seems to be hung up on another woman. Maybe even who this song is about. Near the end when she almost-smiles and then sucks her upper lip in, she is remembering her first sex partner.

Primer: Fiery Furnaces Part 6- Matt Friedberger- Winter Women/Holy Ghost Language School

Listening to this double album release by one half of the Fiery Furnaces, it strikes me how contradictory it is--everything about it, every angle I attack it from, presents paradoxes that don't quite square. If nothing else, Winter Women/Holy Ghost Language School reveals that nothing about the Fiery Furnaces is ever as cut-and-dry as it seems.

The first thing we need to get out of the way is why, exactly, Matt did these two solo albums. In press during the release, he mentions that his sister, Eleanor, was on vacation and the Furnaces had a "logjam" of records to release, and this was the quickest way to clear the chute, so to speak. However...it's one of those paradoxes of the release: both albums could have been done with the regular Furnaces crew, but at the same time, listening to these songs enough, it's hard for me to imagine how Eleanor would or could fit in.

The second thing we need to deal with are the statements that Holy Ghost Language School is the crazy, experimental album and Winter Women is the easy, sweet pop album. Let's start with Holy Ghost, shall we?? I read somewhere that Matt thinks of it as being analogous to the Residents or 'the most out moments from Brian Eno's solo albums', which makes me wonder if he's ever listened to that music. The truth is that Holy Ghost Language School will not be much of a struggle for anyone weaned on earlier Fiery Furnace releases. The only 'experimental' bits are that it focuses heavily on drum machines and keyboards and has spoken word bits that move the concept along, just as Rehearsing My Choir did. But unlike Rehearsing My Choir, they're used sparingly, and Holy Ghost uses just as many long, expository instrumental passages that sound like Matt's ego--and talent--being released into full flight. I get the feeling that people don't like Holy Ghost Language School for two reasons. The first is that they've talked themselves into thinking it's experimental and "noisy" and so won't give it another chance. As I said, the truth is quite different: it's nowhere near as experimental or difficult as it's made out to be. The second reason I think people don't like Holy Ghost is that they compare it too much to Winter Women rather than letting it stand on its own and appreciating it for its merits. It's no masterpiece, but Holy Ghost Language School isn't the tossed off thinkpiece that many would have you believe.

As for Winter Women, well, it is a poppier record. Songs like 'The Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company Resignation Letter' and 'Ruth Vs. Rachel' are instantly catchy and accessible, largely due to inclusion of guitars, but even then, there's still too many odd keyboard flourishes and odd sound loops to truly qualify the album as true pop. Also, and this is crucial, Winter Women is simply too long for its own good. You'd think that the run times of both albums were switched: when I think of an easygoing, sunny summer pop album, I think of something between 30 to 45 minutes in length. But Winter Women goes on for more than an hour, while the more experimental Holy Ghost Language School is short--some might say mercifully so--at around 46 minutes. I fully admit to preferring and enjoying Winter Women more than Holy Ghost Language School, but they aim for entirely different things and, more often than not, succeed at them.

The last thing I want to say about this release is how much of a gift it is to fans who love Matt's voice. I tend to think that he lets Eleanor take lead vocals a bit too often--Widow City, on first listen, struck me as almost a Matt-less album--because I like his voice and style a lot. He's got a very solid, pretense-less, unaffected voice that always worked well in the context of the skewed music he makes because it contrasts so nicely with it, and always gives one a human element to latch unto. Particularly on Winter Women, Matt fans get the alone time they always wanted but might not have realized quite how much they did.

Even though I like both of these albums a lot, I can't bring myself to give them more than 3 stars. I don't particularly love them, and it's one of those releases where if you even know about it, you're probably already a fan or a hater, so anything I say or do won't sway you. What we're left with is a pop album that isn't completely a pop album, and an experimental album that isn't really an experimental album. Those who love the Furnaces will have more to chew on, while haters will have more ammo to fight with. Even Matt seems to see the situation humorously, in an interview with Pitchfork, where he goes into why he decided to release a double solo album. I'll leave you with this quote:

"There's no fun in having a solo record. You know, it's a very boring story: a guy from a non-popular band to have an even less popular solo record. That's not very interesting. But at least with two records, that seems like such a waste of people's time as to be more amusing."