The following information about the new record "Night of the Furies," (it comes out today folks!) was orginally posted on the Merge Records website. I am so excited to hear the entire record tomorrow. I have only heard the single Get Up Get Out (which you can download here). Expect a full review and exciting news about a partnership soon!
The Rosebuds--Night of the Furies
The Furies were Roman goddesses named Tisiphone (avenger of murder), Megaera (grudging), and Alecto (constant anger). They were born from night and they punish crimes on Earth that go unpunished.
We conjured them during a tropical depression in the summer of 2006.
We were almost in a fever from the threat of falling trees. The wind was not the worst we’d seen, but it peeled back the skin of old fears. In this condition, the senses are heightened. You surely know what I mean. We began to speak—just out loud--to clear away the fear hanging all around, and this is what we said:
On the night the Furies came down, some people walked outside and pointed up at what they first thought were fireflies. The lights grew nearer and brighter, however, and before any of them could understand what was bearing out, the Furies were upon them. And it became clear to all of them that some would have to run and some would hide, and still others would simply stand there, mouths agape, and watch.
There was a man who was not fearful at all. He was very curious, but not afraid, necessarily. He stood in a group of others like him by the lakeside and waited. Most of those people waited by the lakeside until the morning, when they went back into town to see who was left. The man, however, found himself transported suddenly and inexplicably to a vantage point whereupon he witnessed many great and terrible things throughout the night.
At length he encountered the Furies who spoke to him harshly at first, enlisting him to recount the story of their night so that the survivors would never forget. They chose him because he appeared to be the most beautiful of all the men and women of the world. They chose him because he loved dogs and birds and was a very sensitive, good-natured individual. He could also sing and he sang lovely tunes to himself when he was happy and when he was very nervous, as he was now.
Upon hearing him singing to himself, one of the Furies fell in love with the man. Since the goddess who punishes crimes, especially murder, couldn’t simply kill the man in order to make him her lover, and since he was already chosen to tell the story of the Night of the Furies, she would have to leave without him. This was a torturous thought for her. She spoke to the man gently—it was not difficult considering the ferocity of her voice was naturally quelled by her trepidation and softened by her sadness. Upon hearing her sadness, he became enraptured and vowed that he would recount the stories and, as a way to continue their affair, he would sing the stories aloud so that she and everyone else could hear.
Knowing that she would hear him singing these stories gave her comfort. And, when the man should die, she imagined, his voice would go silent--her proof of his entrance to the underworld, where they could be reunited.
And so they agreed and parted with a feeling of happiness for these songs as well as a deep, deep longing for the day they would end.
We set about recording these and other stories right away and Night of the Furies is the result. It is a dark, sexy, danceable, nuanced, and sublime record. We produced it ourselves, which was the only way it could have been done, naturally, considering the content.
We dreamed the music and the stories and then built it with the expert help of our friends--the musicians and the engineers: Justin Vernon, Matthew McCaughan, Mark Paulson, Brian Paulson, Charles Story, Jonathan Yu, Wes Phillips, Lee Waters, Daniel Hart, and Brad Cooke.
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