News Roundup: Radiohead, Decemberists, Flight Of The Conchords, Julian Casablancas

In a recent interview with Spinner, Fiery Furnaces frontman Matthew Friedberger, who by all reports is a very nice guy, seems a little confused. In discussing Radiohead’s recent single, “Harry Patch” (a song about the last surviving veteran of World War I), Friedberger took the British rockers to task for writing about Harry Partch, the avant garde composer.

“F**k you!,” said Friedberger in the interview. “How’s the song? Is it 48 notes to the octave? What does it have to do with Harry Patch? Oh, my wife says I am being very rude. She doesn’t like me insulting Radiohead. She’s afraid they will send their lackeys through the computer to sabotage us. But they needn’t worry — we are a band that sabotages ourselves.”  We all make mistakes, but some mistakes are funnier than others.

Flight Of The Conchords star Jemaine Clement has confirmed that this year’s second season might be the show’s last. Clement says the challenge of writing quality episodes about the fictional band is stressful enough, but that’s not all they have to worry about. “We’ve got to write the series, but we’ve also got to write the songs, and just dividing your time into those two writing tasks is really tricky,” he tells Reuters. Clement hinted the show might return in the form of a shorter season or occasional specials.

Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy and his wife Carson Ellis are teaming up to write a children’s book. The limited edition tome for kiddies, dubbed The Unfortunate Demise of Whitley Rackham, is near completion. Ellis is the artist behind the Decemberists’ and Meloy’s stylized album covers.

Bob Dylan isn’t the only artist singing Christmas carols this year.  On December 21, Strokes leader Julian Casablancas will follow his debut solo album with a 7″ of “I Wish It Was Christmas Today”, a so-unfunny-it’s- funny-jingle that originally aired on Saturday Night Live. The song was originally voiced by Horatio Sanz, Jimmy Fallon, Chris Kattan, and Tracy Morgan. Stream Casablancas’ non-ironic take on his MySpace page, where you can also hear his new album, Phrazes For The Young, in it’s entirety.