Matthew Friedberger owns up to his unpopular Radiohead “fuck you” (“I don’t have any time for them. There’s a lot of music.”). He also says he was misquoted but thinks self-censorship and “trying to control the context” are no fun. More at Vish Khanna.
You Might Also Like
 Coachella 2012 Weekend 2 In Photos |  Thom Yorke Joins Modeselektor, DJs Day And Night At… |  Preview Radiohead On Austin City Limits |  Radiohead Cover Rolling Stone |
 |
 |
%s1 / %s2
this guy needs a knuckle sandwich!
shut the fuck up.
I like how this guy starts the whole “feud,”calls out Radiohead and then claims, “I don’t have time for them” as if anyone from Radiohead has even acknowledged his pitiful little existence.
agree with you sir, 100%!
Thom Yorke is out there talking shit on cats like Coldplay and presidents of countries and this kid is over in the corner trying to get attention.
Would have been fine if would have said, “I don’t like Radiohead. I kind of hate their music, but there is a lot of music out there so whatever.”
Instead he made some hypocritical statement about branding, verbally attavked them and didn’t even have his facts straight.
His music is aight, but he deserves to get fucking mocked for being a little twat.
Lord knows I used to mock Thom Yorke when he was a pissy bitch and from The Bends to Kid A they were the cat’s pajamas in my book… why should this guy get it any gentler. Fuck this character.
What’s a Fiery Furnaces?
Got to hand it to them, though. I had never heard of this band before this guy said this shit, and have since given them a listen. Not bad, sounds like tons of other stuff. But in accusing Radiohead of attaching themselves to cool shit in order to be associated with said shit, they did the exact same thing themsleves and are enjoying the results. I’m sure they have won Miley Cyrus’ heart!
There’s advice given to people fresh into prison: Pick a fight with the biggest badass in the place. Even if you lose, people will respect you for it.
These guys are doing the same thing, only instead of respect, they’re just looking like douches.
LOL at all the never-been-fucked Radiohead fans in their McShit t-shirts, what a pile of unlovable student cretins!!! Ha ha ha ha. Hang yourselves.
What the fuck are “McShit” t-shirts?
I’m guessing they are shirts that people who like popular bands wear. We wear them because we like McDonalds and other huge entities.
I like some small bands I like some big bands, but sadly I’m forced to wear this McShirt anyway. Thats okay. I like art regardless of how popular its source is or who is creatig it.
Hey, everyone’s entitled to their opinion, if he doesn’t like Radiohead, so be it, we should respect his opinion.
My opinion about the Fiery Furnaces is this: every time I hear their music, or see their mopey lentil bean sucking downer faces in a magazine or on a website, foam starts coming out of my mouth. It’s not that I don’t like them, I would never say “fuck you to them”. Of course, if I met them, I’d be too busy burning off their smarmy faces with an industrial iron, before stuffing them in an active cement mixer with Zooey Duschanel and listening with glee until the cries of pain were silenced by the liquid mortar finding its way into their every orifice.
Fiery Furnaces are not a band, they are a disease, a mottled, flaccid penis in the mouth of a death camp prostitute.
Maybe I’m being a little hard on them. But I wish they’d shut the fuck up and leave, FOREVER, and take Of Montreal with them while they’re at it.
Hey, everyone’s entitled to their opinion, if he doesn’t like Radiohead, so be it, we should respect his opinion.
My opinion about the Fiery Furnaces is this: every time I hear their music, or see their mopey lentil bean sucking downer faces in a magazine or on a website, foam starts coming out of my mouth. It’s not that I don’t like them, I would never say “fuck you to them”. Of course, if I met them, I’d be too busy burning off their smarmy faces with an industrial iron, before stuffing them in an active cement mixer with Zooey Duschanel and listening with glee until the cries of pain were silenced by the liquid mortar finding its way into their every orifice.
Fiery Furnaces are not a band, they are a disease, a mottled, flaccid penis in the mouth of a death camp prostitute.
Maybe I’m being a little hard on them. But I wish they’d shut the fuck up and leave, FOREVER, and take Of Montreal with them while they’re at it.
Don’t flatter them. They’re not worth the time / effort / bullshit. This band will go nowhere and spend the rest of their lives making photocopies and taking memos from those who are at least worth stealing from. First memo: know when to shut the fuck up.
agree with the fist. who the fuck does this guy from FF think he is?
You know what else is “no fun”? Douches who keep digging themselves into bigger, douchier holes every time they open their self-important, hypocritical mouths – i.e. Matthew Friedberger. Either own up or shut up – because no one wants to hear your Philosophy For Dummies pseudo-metaphysical bullshit “explanation.” Musicians shouldn’t be “concerned” with the way they’re perceived by the media or their audience? They should just spew any ignorant, offensive, unnecessary crap they feel like blathering and let people “make it their own”?
Really?
You let me know how that one works out for you. From where I’m sitting though – and this is coming from someone who loves the FF album ‘Blueberry Boat’ – I think you might want to consider exercising a bit more “concern” in the future.
I have never heard of FF before now and after reading this article I took a listen…I like them. Having said that, like U2 they go under a sorta funny love hate list for me (their music is good but the people who make it are douche bags) I’ll wince a little when I hear them but I’ll still listen.
I give them props too, I mean, Honestly I wouldn’t have listened to them had he not said such a confusing statement (who doesn’t like Radiohead?!?). Good marketing strategy but did you have to pick my favorite band to slander? ah well, such is life.
Again, we STILL don’t know who this twat is NOR do we care. N by ‘we’ i mean 99.9999% of the world’s population:)
WHAT AM I GONNA DO WITH THIS GUY
all he says is he doesn’t like radiohead, everyone’s really jumping down his throat on this one. he was tactful and low key in the interview from what i can tell. Everyone gets so bummed out when a band says they don’t like them, it’s really ok tho! not everyone has to love radiohead!
and how have so many people not heard of fiery furnaces?? they’ve been on the scene (and really good!) for like 8 years!
The odd thing is, I doubt anyone actually asked him what he thinks about Radiohead, just as much as I doubt that anybody really cares about what this guy thinks about any other band on the surface of the Earth. I’m going with the prison thing with this one, dude just opened his mouth to gain momentum and the respect of his peers but instead got called on it. Rightfully so, dude sounds like a fucktard.
Indie rock should be more like mid 80′s professional wrestling with mouth breathing Oooooh yeah!!!!!!!!! interviews and fueds that go nowhere like Bad News Brown and Koko Beware.
Although lets be fair here. The Fiery Furnaces are more the Fabbulous Rougeau Brothers with Radiohead more like Ax and Smash of Demolition.
Advantage, us.
Two comments:
1. Kinda surprised by all the “never heard of Fiery Furnaces” comments. Back around 2004-2005, when Blueberry Boat came out, these guys were ubiquitous to the point of being annoying.
2. Aside from their occasional straightforward moments, I don’t really like FF, but wow, insulting Radiohead is apparently the same as high treason ’round here. (I guess I shouldn’t state that I thought Hail to the Thief was a pretty underwhelming album?)
A McShit shirt – a t-shirt used to wipe my ass after I’ve taken a dump in your Mother’s mouth
Blueberry Boat is a really fun album. I haven’t heard anything else by the FF, though. I’ve largely been ignoring this whole fiasco (though it is fun to read the comments) because let’s face it, if we judged all musicians by the idiotic things they said, we wouldn’t listen to anyone.
I’m putting armor on because of what I’m about to say, but Thom Yorke can be a total ass in interviews and with other artists. But it’s okay if he acts that way? I get it, Radiohead is on a shrine and you can’t insult God or whatever, but c’mon, guys. Friedberger might say stupid stuff and make himself look like an ass, but his music can still be fun (of course, that’s entirely my opinion and I completely understand if people hate it, ’cause boy can it get weird).
(For the record, I do love Radiohead–they’re the best band around, as far as I’m concerned, and have been for years now.)
Oh well.
While I agree that Thom isn’t the most friendly person on the earth, I really don’t see the “total ass” tag. He’s pretty much respectful if you’re not overly fanatic to his face (and lucky him, he has a fanatic cult for a fanbase) and he hardly ever puts down other artists.
Lol a feud would be Radiohead actually giving a shit! And yes I’ve met Thom in person and he was a really nice guy to me and my younger brother.
Radiohead is one of my favorite bands, and Blueberry Boat IS a great album.
I don’t have a problem with someone who doesn’t like Radiohead. They are my favorite band, but thats just me, and I also like the Fiery Furnaces. I just wish this dude would admit that he was in the wrong mixing up the idea of a song about Harry Partch and a song about Harry Patch, they are two very different people and this mistake is really the only basis for his “diss” against Radiohead. He thought they were being pretentious and hip by making a song about someone that the song wasnt even about.
In short, this guy seems like an asshole craving publicity.
Anyone notice that the Fiery Furnaces guy looks like Bruce Cambell /Ash in the Evil Dead films?
Hey MC…could repost one more time…didn’t quite get your comment after the 4th post. Mcshithead.
There is a lot of great music out there. The only reason radiohead is so big stems from the amount of exposure they have received throughout the years. There is no reason this guy has to listen to radiohead, just because they are popular. There is so much music and a lot of bands as good or arguably better. I understand why so many people like radiohead, because they have a mass appeal and speak to the frustrated robotic side of humanity and feed off of people who feel trapped by an oppressive government and a suffocating society of stupid blind followers. Personally, I understood this message when I was in my teenage years and could relate to the emotions their albums attempted to show and produce, but now radiohead’s music seems disturbingly sad and they purposely make music to mirror the sadness and decay of this modern world in hopes that people wake up and change their dismal realities. Whether or not the members of radiohead actually are as sad and pathetic as their tiring, depressing, repetitive (“math rock”) robotic, non-humanistic, nonorganic-sounding music suggests, I do not know, for I don’t know them on a personal level. Their music to me represents a tragic comedy in which their fans are the marks, not understanding that radiohead is actually using them to make a profit. Much of their music is trying to exploit the sickness that runs inside our government, religion, military, corporations, etc, but ultimately these things are reasons to not take personal accountability or responsibility in the hopes that those in perceived control will change on their own without any change from people like us, the people going to music festivals and pumping out $300-plus and buying corporately owned cds, thinking maybe these musicians will help change things with the money…but of course they don’t, at least not overtly. Radiohead, with all their money, don’t even offer possible solutions or inspiration to do anything accept to keep on suffering, all while revealing vague optimistic predictions about the future because of the design those in the field of quantum psychology and philosophy have been exposing and helping to build in a positive manner for many decades now with the help of people who have been changing their brain circuitry to achieve the upcoming stages of revolution. Radiohead like their fans right where they are…submissive and dominated…ready to give in when the going gets tougher and suckle onto the system they have been trained to fear through repetitive media and droning depressive music.
I do think much of their music is good, and enjoy llistening to them from time to time, but I feel their fans are much like the fans of Tool, U2, Bruce Springsteen, etc, who are sending out messages which should be heard, but most of the fans are too stupid to realize they are supporting the things the songs are actually attempting to rally against. Tool is the best example. Each time I see a kid wearing a shirt which has the word “tool” on the front I wonder if he understands that he is the tool, and the band is making fun of his ignorance and displaying his unknowing obedience to the public. However, many of the most intelligent people are radiohead fans and understand what I am saying, and realize radiohead’s importance to the youth by at least making some of them realize there is something messed up about what is going on. But once you realize something is not right, what is the next course of action? Personally, I prefer musicians who are also great in their crafting of albums, but offer a bit more optimism and are geared towards accepting progress and evolution as tangible things for the future. Bands like My Morning Jacket, Flaming Lips, Elephant 6 collective bands, Bright Eyes, Wilco, The Clash, Arcade Fire, M Ward, etc, etc, etc show how ugly things are, but also exhaustingly attempt to deliver messages that are uplifting and possible alternatives to just simply drowning in our own shit. These bands also seem less detached from their fans, appear sincere, and I feel they are like me, rather than attempting to speak down to me using philosophies that do not hold any new information, I don’t think radiohead is telling anyone they should enjoy depression, but they do a really good job of making many of their fans appear disappointed and disenchanted with everything. Like I said, there a lot of great bands out there, and yes, radiohead is on that list, so I’m not saying their music is inferior, I’m just stating the fact that they are more publicized and that is why they are percieved by many as the elite band, regardless of the dozens of bands I can name that have made music similar to theirs, sometimes years ahead of them. I don’t know much about the music of Fiery Furnaces, other than it seemed interesting the few times I had the opportunity to listen to them, but of course THERE IS A LOT OF MUSIC out there, and I only listen to music that I happen to come across or is strongly suggested by people I love or respect. I have listened to every radiohead album at least 20 times, because they used to be in my list of favorite bands, but now I listen to as much as I can, so I don’t have the time to listen to them as much, compared to other favorites who in my opinion make me feel happier and provide more energy. Mostly, I felt the need to defend this guy because of the imbalance of comments on here by radiohead fan boys and fan girls who dogmatically think radiohead is god because they would rather blindly follow the majority instead of personally connecting to albums that speak to their best intentions. The attacks on here are pathetic, and doubt many of you have listened to this guy’s band enough to actually form any logical theory about their ability or sincerity. If you are going to bring your bs (belief systems) to a neutral site and not a radiohead fan forum, then expect posts like mine, which are objective, and only biased in the sense that I actually do think radiohead is a great band, but am ignorant on Fiery Furnaces, so I cannot compre or contrast with them, only the other beautiful music I have listened to as many time with as much attention.
dude, nobody is gonna read all of that. So, yeah, you’re wasting your precious time.
You need to get laid…
David Berman, is that you?
Umm 2 GIANT paragraphs guy…which no 1 with a life would ever read, r u kidding me?? but anyway, Radiohead are popular because of media blah blah?? Are u KIDDING ME?? Radiohead FORCED the media into jumping onto their bandwagon by putting out such amazing music and being great live AND having great b sides And great videos, and great t-shirts, AND genius musicians thru n thru. They EARNED it you stupid twat,theres no filler with Radiohead, no fakeness, its all real, whether you get it or not, they are the complete antithesis of media whores. So yeah, be MORE jealous cool anti-RH/two Giant paragraph ranting guy, good luck with that, but u will never ‘win’ this battle.
shut up.
Actually, I write about a lot of things, so I’ll just include this somewhere in which people will read it and even give me money to do so. I don’t expect many radiohead fans will read it, because I address some of the issues I mentioned above, such as my theory that most radiohead fans are sad and depressing people who don’t think about anything except for trying to come up with ways to appear hipper than others in order to make up for a lack of happiness or intelligence…ultimately resorting to short comments containing such words or phrases as “dude,” “you need to get laid,” and the clever “shut up” when confronting somebody who actually has a thought-out philosophy not planted inside his head by child idols. Maybe I should go ask Billy Corgan what opinions I should have; he was my hero in the early to mid 90s, just like Thomas Y when he at least still showed a bit of energy in his music.
people are shitting on you because it’s painfully apparent that you’re a bedwetting undergraduate that hands in essays twice the required length, because he thinks he’s the only one in the universe with the god-given gift of being able to pontificate at infinite length with a keyboard in front of him. you aren’t. cut it out. learn to say things quickly or not at all. nobody actually reads finnegan’s wake, nevermind 1,500 word stereogum posts.
i fucking hate marking papers from elevated assholes like this. Songdiving: not everyone is entiled to their own opinion, especially if they are you.
Agreed, agreed, agreed.
shut up.
i completely forgot to reply to this specific comment last time. just wanted to clear that up…
oh, and i forgot this too: you are an asshole.
“I’ll just include this somewhere in which people will read it and even give me money to do so.”
This is really funny.
“…do anything accept to keep on suffering…”
If you can’t keep accept and except straight, you are not getting paid to write. That would make you a professional, and professionals proofread.
Dude, shut up… you need to get laid.
There’s something frightening in this recent trend in indie rock of “feuds” getting so much coverage from the indie press. It just feels like something is being taken away from the culture when all this People magazine, Entertainment Tonight bullshit gets so much attention. I guess it could just be goofing around in stuff but I fear that were headed the way of the mainstream culture that the “underground” (or whatever you wanna call it) is supposed to be in direct opposition to. So some dude doesn’t like Radiohead-who the fuck cares? There’s a lot people who don’t like Radiohead; this is befitting of the subjective nature of musical taste. Lets leave this type of tabloid shit to the shallow minds of the mainstream media and get back to the music.
Though i’ve enjoyed a Radiohead song or two from time to time I ultimatley believe The Fiery Furnaces to be far more creative and exciting, just saying.
As far as Friedbergers original statement concerning Radiohead, as crude as it may have been, it was the interviewer who asked him for his opinion, Friedberger answered honestly, and even if he did have his facts a little mixed up, I believe his criticisms of Radiohead weren’t too far off base, as good as Radiohead may be, they are a brand whether you like it or not and if it wasn’t for MTV no one would have ever known who the hell they were, at least The Fiery Furnaces are having a go at it independently.
Thats such hipster bullshit.
I don’t give a FUCK where music comes from. I just care if I like it.
Since when is being a quirky little brother/sister indie band who lets their grandmother sing on an entire album NOT a brand? Hes got no reason to sling insults at other artists (artists who wrote The Bends, OKC and Kid A)
The guy talked shit, was wrong and hypocritical and now people are rightly accusing him of being a twat.
Guess what?
Thom Yorke used to be a huge twat too and I’m sure if he still acted the way he used to act we’d all call a spade a spade. He learned how to crawl a bit out of his own ass as I’m sure this guy will one day.
Point is, this guy’s following would be much smaller if it wasn’t for bands like Radiohead that introduce SOOOO many people to the entire idea of artsy/indie music. He doesn’t owe them anything, but the fact that he is doing things on a smaller scale doesn’t make him better and it doesn’t mean he should be allowed to be both wrong AND rude without people on the internet trolling him and his fucking band/brand.
For fuck’s sake, your suggesting that FF OR Radiohead even have the option of having videos played on MTV. MTV don’t play videos and they havent for a LONG time lol.
Pricks don’t get a free pass just because they are more “indie” than another band. No one here is suggesting Radiohead isn’t the biggest indie rock band in the world (and a great gateway for people to find bands like fiery Furnaces)
Thom Yorke used to be a huge prick. If any of us HAD the internet when he was out there talking shit and pouting about being famous we would have probably flamed him too. Unfortunately for Radiohead, they didn’t really have youtube and myspace to sell records when they started. They did it the hard way.
They had MTV and the radio, they had to do shit the hard way.
Really, MTV and Radio is the hardest way possible? I guess bands like Minor Threat and Black Flag never had it as tough as holier-than thou Radiohead.
Everyone is being so hard on this guy! I thought we already accepted that all indie hipsters are faggots who make off the cuff pretentious statements to gain more cred. This shouldn’t be news to anyone.
Who the hell are the Fiery Furnaces???! Really.
Nothing special. Unfortunately, I had the chance to see them live and they were HORRIBLE.
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Thom Yorke and Matt- they are both extremely creative and incredibly friendly. I don’t understand some of the negative posts mentioning the respect of the bands “peers”. You guys do realize that they are both pushing 40, and what they are selling you is a product, right? Not to demean the whole “music as an art”- but radiohead carefully created a loyal (paying) following. The FF have, to a lesser extent. If you are going to choose which camp you are in over a indie media driven “feud”, at least be honest with yourself you’re own place in the mix.
…and Matt flew down on a steaming shitpie to Thom…and he said, “From now on, you will be known as Radiohead.” And Thom said, “That is what your sister gave me last night motherfucker”…
What the hell? Why is everybody acting like The Fiery Furnaces aren’t well known, as well as treating them like a band that has only released one good album? Try assuming the position of the artist when you consider the context of a quote like that. Furthermore, listen to something that isn’t on a best of list for once in your lives.
Um, because THEY AREN’T. Some people don’t even know who Radiohead are, believe it or not. So yeah, I had no clue who FF were until the douche opened his mouth to talk shit.
you have issues. i suggest you leave your computer and enter the real world for a minute or two
fiery furnace – this is what happens to my ass after eating too much taco bell. spicy!
uhhhh…ya….what did I say…wilderness burn scars…
What can men do against such reckless hatred, Radiohead fans?
So, Matt told Radiohead “fuck you”. That sounds like something a healthy individual would just say for a reason. And Matt gave the reason. When did the censorship Nazis take over? Why the strong reactions?
I don’t know man, sounds like he’s JEALOUS.
A fued implies there is more than one party involved..right? Right.
Thom Yorke hates himself enough without this. Bollocks on it all.
I have met Thom Yorke. His cousin was the best man at my wedding. I also used to babysit for his cat, who worked 2 jobs to put him through college. There, I helped him cheat on a Psych paper. I was the one who told him to name his band Radiohead because I thought it sounded cool and his head was shaped like a radio (before the operation). We are close personal friends who call each other funny nicknames and laugh like schoolgirls at our inside jokes. That said…I prefer Fiery Furnaces.
of courrrrse you do, ya know why? Cuz yer EDGY n hip! Good for youuuuu (S.park) haha, excuse me as i laugh in your face stupid twat.
This coming from a guy lamely ripping off Monty Python in his avatar. Your analysis is incorrect, of course, as my post was more of an indictment of self important ass clowns like yourself who claim some hip membership in the “Indie Rock Club” than it was an actual endorsement of Fiery Furnaces. I don’t spend too many hours in my day listening to either band, but I do love getting pre teen psuedo intellectual mommies bank card virgins like yourself all fired up. Begin flaming……………………now.
Umm 3-day-old bukaki leftovers for brains?…that pho-tee-graph is of a musician by the name of Gaz Coombs, who you do not know, cuz yer an idiot…now google away n ZING me back!! Pegboy. (count it)
I’m intrigued by this cat. How’d he get it to work two jobs AND give him all the money from them?
He can’t do anything about it, he has Friedberger’s syndrome.
I wish death upon Mr. Friedberger…
good god, really? someone can’t have an opinion without stereogum readers working themselves into a froth over it? no one can say anything against radiohead? because their band isn’t as “serious”? i’m not saying you can’t disagree, but it’s both funny and ultimately sad that people feel a need to come on here and post screeds in defense of radiohead. radiohead have made some great albums, but they are not the be-all and end-all of human music.
Thank you for being a sense-able human being, and not a mindless fan boy.
I don’t give a fuck about this thread, but I noticed some fuckbutt said that of Montreal needs to die, and I just wanted to take the time to say fuck you to that guy. Fuck you.
I end this by discussing CAN, the band.
I just found this blog… along with a lot of other blogs with free music. In fact up until a few days ago, I never read any blog, except pitchfork (but I haven’t even read that since 2004). Outside of this world of music blogging for hipster music, most people really have no idea who Matt Freidberger is whatsoever. I know I didn’t. And despite Radiohead being my favorite band for as long as I remember, I know that most people don’t really even know who they are, and a lot of people who do know of them don’t know all of their discography. So what is any of this worth? I guess my personal vendetta is a petty little “FUCK YOU” to Mr. Freidberger for making albums that my roommates got bored with a year ago. And a “FUCK YOU” for getting my attention. I hope I forget this crappy trivia soon. Also, the Beck song that came out of this is great…. And lastly, let’s try to change the subject while all these Radiohead fans are on here…. I wish more people listened to Can. I’d love to see more “REAL” experimental rock at shows. I mean, the indie music scene has kind of become thousands of subpar copies of Broken Social Scene, Of Montreal, Animal Collective, and Daft Punk. I mean, this day and age we have so many damn choices, but not many of them reach into something artistic and beautiful like it has before. Radiohead did it quite a bit, and that’s why they get the respect that they have. And Can is a band that is just fucking amazing… GO LISTEN TO THEM IF YOU HAVEN’T.
CAN- Tago Mago
CAN- Ege Bamyasi
CAN- Soon Over Babaluma
Seriously, if you love Radiohead, you’ll love these guys. They’re old farts from the late 60′s, but you’d never know it. CAN CAN CAN CAN CAN. Make them more popular so I won’t have so much trouble finding their records on vinyl.
uh you’re pretty much preaching to the choir. Lots of Radiohead fans love Can.
if an ant tries to pick a fight with an elephant, is that really a “feud”?
My intention for writing a long post was to get out my frustration. I can’t stand Radiohead fans. They usually don’t know anything about music, except for things about radiohead and a few other bands who are either really popular or “up and coming,” and like a bunch of cowards, pile on with their comments on some guy who said something that isn’t even important. You people just like to feel better about yourselves by making fun of other people.
Like I said, look at all this piling on. Radiohead fans don’t have any opinions that are not shared by a majority. Absolutely pathetic, as are you comments to my opinions, which are accurate…conserning the fans and their overrated concerts. sleepy time.