Photo: Megan Holmes

We somehow neglected to preview Fiery Furnaces’ June 13 show at Neumo’s in The Stranger’s print edition, so I’m using this space to suggest you hit it, and hit it hard. You may not like Fiery Furnace’s complex, densely layered, baroque pop on disc (I happen to think it often verges on genius), but in live settings siblings Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger and cohorts generate a whirlwind of psychedelic pop/rock action with no respites for applause.

All three times I’ve seen Fiery Furnaces, they’ve boggled my mind with a panoply of bizarre analog-synth eruptions, whimsical, turn on a dime dynamics, intricate yet memorably beautiful melodies, idiosyncratically literate lyrics, and the sort of tight musicianship that suggests insane hours of intense rehearsals (yet it’s probably all improvised).

Fiery Furnaces’ new album, Bitter Tea (Fat Possum), is probably their weirdest yet. My favorite is still the debut, Gallowsbird’s Bark, but Bitter Tea seems like it’ll be a grower (and a better listen while under the influence).

What distinguishes Fiery Furnaces from most of their peers is their deep knowledge of rock/pop history and their willingness to both allude to it and then to subvert it. Neither stodgy homage nor ostentatious freakiness for its own sake, FF’s music strikes a deft balance between tradition and innovation. Rare is the band that can evoke Tin Pan Alley, the Who, Captain Beefheart, and Mort Garson while not obviously aligning themselves with any of them. Go and be dazzled.