Harry Patch, the longest surviving UK veteran of World War I, lived an honorable life, his very existence serving as a reminder to countless others of how far we’ve come, and at what cost, in matters of international conflict and discourse. And thanks to an initially subpar rocker beef that’s blossomed into something going on classic, Harry Patch has also served as a reminder of the life of composer Harry Partch, and how far we’ve come in matters of incorporating his 43 tone scale into countless blog posts. To recap: Radiohead wrote a song for Harry Patch the Tommy, which the Fiery Furnaces’ Matthew Friedberger mistook to be about Harry Partch the musician. After castigating the band for “brazenly and arbitrarily associating [themselves] with things that [they] know people consider cool,” which never happened, Friedberger tried to backpedal with a tongue-in-cheeky retort that again missed the mark, closing with: “Matt would have much preferred to insult Beck but he is too afraid of Scientologists.”
Too bad, Matt. Looks like Beck really, really wants to feel the wrath of Matt Friedberger’s zing, because he’s posted a song to his website titled “Harry Partch,” as in the radical composer and not the UK soldier. Hansen says it “employs Partch’s 43 tone scale, which expands conventional tonality into a broader variation of frequencies and resonances.” (In his initial slag post, Friedberger said it should be “48 notes to the octave.” But that was probably a joke. It’s hard to tell with him sometimes!) It sounds like a demented mashup revue of the last century’s popular, classical, and avant garde music forms, with a little outer space thrown in for good measure. Hear it at beck.com or below.
It’s 43-tones of ZING. And thanks to the Matt Friedberger for eliciting this crazy piece of music by the sheer force of hot air alone.
Is this the most fun feud of the decade? It might be, once we figure out how to get Jay Reatard to take a leak on one of them.
UPDATE: Hey, Matt’s responded. Twice! He posted his “Imaginary Respone!” and “Unedited Blog Post” at the Fiery Furnaces Myspace (via P4K). All spacing is his.
IMAGINARY RESPONSE!
Somebody (he didn’t want his name mentioned (though he did want his new, great band, Circle of Buzzards plugged)) told me that Beck posted a song about Harry Partch on the internet.
A virtual response, therefore.
But doesn’t this imaginary feud demand imaginary responses? And therefore, imaginary response songs? Shouldn’t we step–isn’t now the time to ascend–from the merely virtual to the boldly imaginary?
When I made up my imaginary Radiohead song about Harry Partch (in full knowledge that there was no Radiohead song about Harry Partch, regardless of whatever Dave H. said to people before he talked to me (I love you, Dave)), and was sharply critical of it, I certainly didn’t imagine my endeavors in this regard would engender such a response. How tremendously for the best it has all turned out to be
How fruitful an imaginary song proved in practice! So as we all move forward, shouldn’t we admit that posting songs on the internet–being virtual, in other words–is so last year? So to speak. Isn’t that what every music management company intern from Northeastern recommends that bands do? That can’t be right.
I propose nothing less than the liberation and use of only our imaginations for the direct purpose of, not just pop music writing, but pop music production and distribution. And subsequent, now imaginary, blog discussion.
Won’t these imaginary songs sound sweet? I imagine they will. Think how adaptable to changing tastes and fashions they’ll be. And how many billable hours of intellectual property disputes they’ll cause! This thought-experiment rock is no doubt the breakthrough the industry professionals have been waiting for.
The music industry has already gone to the imaginary model in many respects. Bands–at least smaller bands–only get to make imaginary livings. (To say nothing of bands that imagine they are playing rock music by pressing the space bar on a laptop and hitting a floor tom. I am saying nothing about that.) Of course many fans–and fans are always the most progressive element of the rock music community–have long since gone to the imaginary model. They must really be imagining things to admire the music acts they do.
Let’s all follow their lead!
And:
Unedited blog post
Someone wrote the band an email in which he wrote something about “the music community”. I have to write something now, because the music community, which doesn’t make much music and fosters even less worthwhile community, conceives itself, so it tells me, to be at the beck and call of whatever the music websites write about.
I am proud to have been raised to seek out, revere, and practice the power of the pun without apology–or explanation. And I am pleased to be in a position where I perceive it useful to write such a thing in such a style, both as a joke and in earnest.
The socially or individually idiosyncratic association of words and phrases on an aggressive, and often aggressively trivial, asemantic basis is so certainly a, if not the, main source of any sort of dynamism that pertains to the ludic, and what perhaps derives from the ludic (that what has often been conceived as the opposite of the ludic)–this is so certainly the case as to release me of my obligation to finish the sentence directly.
That was written in a style I associate with a certain sort of Zappa fan. Of course, if you admire and encourage an art of creative misunderstanding in others, and you practice the art of misunderstanding yourself, in both senses that might be taken, then you certainly expect to be misunderstood.
Which brings me to the next point. As a member of a rock band–a high calling indeed–I certainly cannot be concerned that something I say might be misquoted, taken out of context, quoted without reference to the tone in which it was said or the question to which it was an answer, and therefore be misunderstood, even in an inflammatory fashion, or, from a primitive perspective, unflattering light. To be concerned with such a thing in such a way is the exclusive business of the politician’s consultant or the marketing man. A member of a rock band has no truck with their conceptions or their proclivities. (Please don’t imagine otherwise on the basis of some extremely crude notion of Pop.) One simply welcomes any such misunderstanding as part of his or her calling. Rock music is a practice in which one explicitly does not control the context in which one’s work, in the sense of both objects and processes, is received and used. One does not, therefore, control or seek to control the understanding of one’s work, in anything but a trivial sense. And one’s work in a rock band includes the performance of ‘interviews’.
Rock music owes its current pre-emenince in the contemporary arts to the fact that it is pre-eminent in the art of being made one’s own. In this sphere, one is entitled, without regard to standard or competence. Expertise in all matters of operation is conferred automatically. This in the case in principle, but not in practice. The analogy I would draw is to a piece of progressive legislation, enacted but not enforced.
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If hip-hop has taught us anything, it’s that comebacks are best when done via music.
Prior to all of this, the only time I’d ever read the name Harry Partch was in relation to The Stooges. Iggy Pop listened to Partch while recording Raw Power. Useless fun fact!
in the end, does it really matter how much that dude cares about harry partch? i’ve never heard even a trace of melody from fiery furnaces
Fiery Furnaces have some really excellent melodies, but they’re on the band’s older records. It’s a shame Matt Friedberger has made such an idiot of himself really, because as a musician he deserves a bit of credit… or he used to anyway.
Some of Matthew’s best is on Winter Women… unfortunately it was released with the hit-and-miss Holy Ghost Language School, giving the double album poor reviews and ensuring few people would check it out :|
I really wish Matthew would make another solo album though. I prefer WW/HGLS to the newest FF stuff.
Maybe this type of crap flys in Hollywood,CA…give me a break…
i don’t even have to listen to the song to know that beck wins
….there’s no beef here, one guy no one knows makes a lame attempted diss. No response. the end.
Why am I more intrigued by Beck now, in the last couple of years, than ever before?
I hate to post “me too” so I’ll post “amen to that”.
I always made a point of hating on Beck and now I suffer my deep regret.
I think we need to get Miley Cyrus involved some how to make it more interesting.
Where is the song? It’s not up on the website as far as I can tell, just a picture.
Do a bit of fact checking, Poland has a veteran alive that saw action.
Oops that should read UK veteran, and it does so now.
This is one of the best songs i’ve heard this year.
i’m reasonably sure the section at the start is actually a direct rip off/mick take of the fiery furnaces’ very own compositional style. well done beck
Yeah. Except done by a brilliant musician instead of by pretentious assholes.
agreed. there is definitely a sly nod to their style in the song.
I enjoy Beck, Radiohead, and Fiery Furnaces respectively. The amount of attention this feud gets is over the top, but this response by Beck is on point. It is done exactly in the style of the Fiery Furnaces with more interesting textures and Beck just crapped it out seemingly effortlessly. He should invite the Furnaces and Radiohead to join him on a Record club collaboration.
Well n don’t forget, Thom Yorke already ‘stole’ joey wonaker from his band, in a sense, for his his own solo gig band haha, surely theres a connection there. Interesting too…when i first heard this i immediately thought of Arpeggi.
Joey hasn’t been in Beck’s band for years, though he does show up on some records. Joey’s a free agent (he was just on Letterman behind Norah Jones).
Yup. Beck wins. Radiohead also wins for ignoring Matt.
Why wouldn’t they ignore Matt?
hah. i don’t know whether the fact that this song is actually less annoying and schizophrenic than blueberry boat means that beck wins, or loses. though i’m sure that mr. friedberger would say the latter. “beck is simply too pedestrian to approach the purposely-obscure genius of my uniquely irritating sonic vision. drones, all of you are drones,” etc, etc.
This is crazy good, but I would kill have to certain sections as whole songs. That part from 4:55 to 5:25 is fucking spectcular as is the beat that comes in around 7:30.
What a fantastic way to continue this “feud.” Keep it up everyone!
This is a really cool way to make music based on a negative comment, and also to expose another artist that i’m not too familiar with. I’ll be checking Harry Partch’s music out for sure after this songs over.
Man, this song makes you wish that people would diss Beck more often.
This is definitely the new BEST POSSIBLE OUTCOME OF A DISS (for 2009, at least).. more people need to make disses using the “yeah, you would make that pretentious song, oh wait you didn’t? well, at least ______ didn’t” formula. I hope someone makes one at Arcade Fire.. I really wanna hear a new song by them
Beck was dissed? I thought Radiohead was dissed, not Beck? So somebody dissing Arcade Fire in the hopes of us hearing Arcade Fire come out with a rebuttal song doesn’t make sense? Or I am missing something? Am I asking too many questions?
short answer: they were both dissed and my comment probably didn’t make a lot of sense
longer answer: Radiohead were the ones he attempted to diss at first, but at the end of the statement he included “Matt would have much preferred to insult Beck but he is too afraid of Scientologists”, so then Beck fired back with this song.. but, yeah, I did sort of misphrase that, I meant, have Arcade Fire at the end of the “would have much preferred to insult” end of the diss..
Ah, totally missed the Beck diss because I never got to the last sentence. Thanks for pointing it out.
so here we have a blog-like comment’s section retort manifested in song form. too bad the music beck makes lost all cultural relevance after midnight vultures, and this invocation of the FF is paltry at best. for more examples of beck’s current grasping-at-straws approach to songwriting check out anything in the cover’s series.
This is better than the Harry Patch song.
I did not read that once-again WAY too long double-blog post…BUT thank you BECK!! You not only have a sense of humor BUT since your daddy IS a famous/great composer, who better to homage this man and make mr Whiney Furnaces shut the fuck up:D
BTW…you just KNOW that 10 super cute n wannabe clever hipster bands are gonna put out their own “Harry P….” songs now. Harry Pitch anyone? Punch/Pinch/Pinache haha.
The biggest winner in this whole fake-feud is Harry Partch. Think of how many people are going to check out his music now.
Also, this Beck song is absolutely incredible! Insanely talented man.
Hard to believe this was created on a whim as a sly shut the fuck up to whats his face. Beck is on a roll for sure.
Not only does Beck win for the epic zing, but the song is awesome. Considering the, er, reasons for its creation I was kind of expecting a jokey throwaway, but I found myself very pleasantly surprised. Well played indeed, Mr. Hansen.
And I was wondering how long it would take for Friedberger to get his panties in a bunch over this! (Not very, apparently.) As much as I wish he would shut up and go away so I can listen to my Fiery Furnaces albums in the future without cringing, at least we get some more nonsensical, pretentious (and quite possibly coked-out) “press releases” to laugh at.
Okay, now that I’ve actually read Friedberger’s blog posts… wow. I don’t think I’ve ever been so disappointed by a musician whose work I’ve admired as I have been by this douche in the past week. Matthew Friedberger, please pull your head out of your ass and stop trying to make it painfully clear that you own a thesaurus and know how to use it long enough to reflect instead of react. The latter is apparently not your forte.
cocaine has been responsible for some pretty terrible things (and some pretty awesome nights), but i wouldn’t give it as bad of a rap as to say it is responsible for such despondent and incoherent blathering.
Hey Beck, i bet you cant write anything inspired on Bruce Haak or Joe Meek or Edgard Varèse!
and eh…i dont like Scientology and stuff.
closest thing beck has done regarding bruce haak is covering “funky little song”
Matt seriously is off my artist roll call forever man, he should seriously feel like a douch for being wrong in the first place, not mention he ripped on a band that wrote a song that was dedicated to a WWI veteran that died. It shouldn’t matter who wrote the song, his personal preffrence for radiohead shouldn’t overlook the fact that the band had nothing but good intentions.
Matt I like your music but your a dick, and you should give up
-Atleast we got a good song out of all this from beck
The more Matt tries to claim he knew Radiohead DIDN’T write a song about Partch (from the beginning), he only digs himself deeper. Just admit you made a mistake and stop being such a fucking douche nozzle.
All respect for this asshole would’ve immediately been restored had he simply responded with something like “Touche, Beck. Touche.”
Yeah, its fucking sad.
Douche Nozzle! Finally, another loveline fan who remembers!
Ugh, what an asshole. This feud would be better if it wasn’t so one-sided in the idiot department. “I’m in a rock band!”
He picked this fight, Matthew Friedberger vs. the music loving world
This is totally a new “indie-rock-rivalry”. With the Fiery Furnaces (representing the East Coast) and Beck (representing the West Coast). IT IS ON!! ! So while we wait for the FF to respond back with a song of their own…
How many here would love to see a feud between St Vincent’s Annie Clark & Cat Power’s Chan Marshall?
catfight!
Apparently the thousands upon thousands of dollars that Beck has presumably “donated” to Scientology have finally paid off, as this is easily the best thing he’s done this decade (yes, even better than all of “Sea Change”). Anyone who says that OT powers aren’t real has just been proven wrong. What do you have to say about that, Matt “Xenu” Friedberger?
P.S. But I still like FF a lot more. Their output this decade makes my home E-meter go to 11.
I am delighted. This is the most interesting arrangement I’ve ever heard from Beck.
May the feud continue!
Friedberger is worse at backpedaling than he is at slagging others. This smells of a lesser musician trying to increase their notoriety by taking on a bigger band. But given the depth of his music, he should have tackled Britney Spears.
anyone who has seen fiery furnaces live must know this guy just seems like a colossal ahole. i remember seeing him mouth the words “STOP F@#$ING PLAYING RIGHT NOW” to his awesome drummer, after the drummer may or may not have missed a cue in one of fredburger’s stupidly overcomplicated arrangements of his already stupidly overcomplicated songs. bawbag!
I’m wondering if anyone knows what the “outer space” part of the Beck song, so around 7:44, might be referencing or borrowing from, or might at least resemble in some way. I need more music like that.
Sounds like total asscrap.
Get out, Friedberger.
Not a fan of the Fiery Furnaces. Never understood the appeal. But the dude’s douchness is directly responsible for the creation of this song. He didn’t write it. But had he not been such a dickhead, it might not have been created. So the lesson here is that apparently being a pretentious idiot can cause good things to happen.
This whole indie feud needs to end already. It’s dragging on like all that balloon boy shit.
And since when did indie musicians become rappers with “beefs” against each other?
Lastly, Beck definitely comes out on top in this dumbass quarrel. Yet, I can’t help but wish that his song was more of a song, less of a weird interlude thing.
Matt, please shut up.
i realize you guys are getting a lot of mileage from this, but especially compared to the flaming lips/arcade fire one earlier this year, this has got to be the lamest “feud” ever
I think Radiohead and Beck are dull too. Beck’s doing his cover of the month thing(which is really all he ever has done isn’t it? see Pussy Galore, Beastie Boys, Royal Trux, Will Oldham, etc.) and, now that I think about it, Radiohead’s entire last album was just Grizzly Bear covers right?
You are a fucking idiot. Seriously.
I know it’s you Matt Friedgurger! You won’t fool me. FF can suck it!!!
It does sound like a direct pisstake of the Fiery Furnaces circa Blueberry Boat, and it’s also one of the best things Beck’s done in ages – good work Matt Friedberger!
I still say Beck’s forte is making songs that other people have done first. He’s had years of experience.
Matt Friedberger is the new Liam Gallagher. I guess we need a self-entitled pretentious asshole to pop up every ten years.
The dude who made the comment about In Rainbows being a bunch of Grizzly Bear covers should
1. Actually listen to both Radiohead and Grizzly Bear
2. Get a vasectomy
hahahaha I got a write up at my desk for laughing so hard at that comment
Hahaaha! He told him to get a vasectomy!! ! That’s gotta be the funniest shit I read in years! haha! Best comment of 2009 anyone?
This Friedberger guy seems like a dumbass. That is all.
I have seen Fiery Furnaces 4 times since 2005 and each and every time Matt Friedberger came off as the biggest asshole in the universe. I could always put that aside because I liked the music (although nothing has compared to EP in my eyes), but f-in with Beck is where I draw the line. I will never buy a piece of crap concept album from FF again. We’re done, Friedbergers. We’re done.
Tell ‘em, Steve-Dave!
Holy balls. That is quite a song. Very Zappa-esque. Beck never ceases to amaze.
That FF guy needs to calm himself down. Get back on his meds or something.
Beck has a sense of humor!
Who’s the winner out of the Radiohead-Fiery Furnaces-Beck feud? Patch and Partch. Good for them.
How the fuck can you listen to this? It’s like Girl talk instead of using shitty pop songs used random sound loops from zappa go team and steve reich, etc. But everyone knows Beck could release an album of his bowel movements and 10 million indie kids would scream “GENIUS!! EVEN BETTER THAN MIDNITE VULTURES/GUERO/MUTATIONS!!”
I remember that even more than 30 years after the fact, listening to stuff like Abbey Road for the first time, and being amazed at song cycles where they flow so well into each other and yet remain separate. And those jerks…wrote the whole damn thing themselves! Now we just use samples of other songs and generic soundtrack pro/etc sound effects and it’s supposed to be fucking electric ladyland? I haven’t even been able to listen to an entire beck album since about Sea Change, maybe Guero, much less this attempt to prove he’s still hip with a new song that just sounds like a mash up.
Fuck this song. Fuck mashups. And fuck whatever the fuck rambling almost nonsensical shit the Fiery Furnaces guy said.
( I realize this is a rambling rant, so it’s not lost on me)
The goofiest thing about this whole argument is that Matt Friedberger won’t admit he confused the WWI vet with the musician. I mean, this guy must be the most egotistically stubborn blowhard ever. I mean, so, you confused the two. Big deal. But his ego is such that he can’t even allow for it. Bizarre. Too bad — I like his music.