Can we talk about how awesome Parquet Courts are?

I've had this record on repeat constantly for the last month. Finally saw them last night. Easily the most direct "indie" band I've seen / heard in ages. It's amazing how refreshing it is to hear a record that isn't smothered in reverb. It's also nice to be reminded how lucky I was to get to see The Yummy Fur so regularly in Glasgow during the 90s.

so ... SPIN called it the first "must have" (or whatever they call it) of 2013, but hasn't this record been out for months? i was listening to it on bandcamp in the fall, and i know you could order vinyl then.

is there a reissue on a bigger label happening right now?

and yes, it's a great record.

Yeah, it got picked up by a label for 2013. It was previously self-released.

Fantastic record.

saw them for free last night on a whim, never having heard anything by them ... they were f**king killer! i was too stunned to clap or hoot, really. must-see band imo.

i don't mind the record in a very early strokes-ish kind of way but maybe they're a band one needs to see live to 'get' properly

I've never once thought "The Strokes" when listening to this record. It's more like early-80s sloppy Slash Records stuff and a bit of Bob Pollard creeping in from time to time.

i definitely hear similarities between master of my craft & the modern age. it was not intended to be a slight.

you had me at

a record that isn't smothered in reverb

Here's my reference point much more than the Strokes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cckxia_T4po

Band name is terrible

they're "blowing up" at the same time as Foxygen, so i'll give them a pass

Counterpoint: I dig the band name

I like the name too.

And compared to Foxygen, I'd rather listen to the 4 Fat Guys Blues Band at my local pub than listen to another second of their horrible record.

(Foxygen's horrible record, in case that wasn't clear.)

I like this band so far, as solid indie rock. The Fall-via-Pavement graphics thing should probably be retired. They remind me a bit of Black Lipstick (see B.O.B. F.O.S.S.E. by that band on Spotify vs. Stoned and Starving) who were Texas arty punky slackers from the 2000s with similar influences, though less Pavement and more VU.

"The Fall-via-Pavement graphics thing should probably be retired"

thats the biggest problem with this record. over used.

No way. The cover is what drew me to it in the first place.

saw them do an instore in Nashville a couple wks back. had listened to the 2011/2012 cassette release American Specialties and Light Up Gold before I saw them.

I really see the comparison to something like the Feelies, also Pavement and Sonic Youth. For that matter, That Dog. I thought the cassette release had some great ideas on it, in terms of basic rock 'n' roll song form plus guitar riffage. some pretty good riffs. disposable riffs is a line from their song about how they find rock 'n' roll boring. to me, some of the new one sounds like the Vibrators. in fact the whole thing is kinda like Pavement ("N Dakota") crossed with the Vibrators' Pure Mania. but like I say, listen to that cassette, you'll hear a band trying to cross the basic with the twisted in the olde-time punk way, like I say, some great ideas in there. for that matter, they sound like the Individuals on "Stoned and Starving," the Hoboken-Chapel Hill guitar pop nexus.

I mean, I guess on some level the cover art drew me in too, since it makes it clear that the band knows The Fall and Pavement. But maybe they should just put a sticker that says "We liked Paint Work" on the front, and then design original graphics...? I don't know. It's not a big deal at the end of the day.

""The Fall-via-Pavement graphics thing should probably be retired"

thats the biggest problem with this record. over used."

i meant their music, not the cover art

don't really hear the strokes at all

kind of a Feelies vibe, that dry, nervous sound

this is good!

Not in love with the album yet, but loving the transition between the first two tracks.

I listened to a bit of this record the other night and liked the bits I heard.

i love the transitional blank between parquet and courts.

...and the two tracks themselves

[self xpost]

Definitely agree with the Pavement sentiment, as well as The Feelies. Never really listened to The Fall, so I cannot comment on their influence.
The only Strokes influence I can hear is really in the lead guitar parts at times, but that's pretty much it.
Stoned and Starving is my favorite song. Regardless, this is a really good record!

Here's the most overt Pavement/Fall crossover this side of Conduit. Though I vastly prefer Fall to P, I'm pretty fond of this one...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_STY9g7-YPA

i think the skwm callout in the pitchfork review ruined this record for me.

in that it wasn't an accurate callout in the least? yeah, i was a little disappointed that there weren't more guitar jams or anything else skwm excelled in. such a weird name to check considering all the other, more obvious influences. still, i really like this record.

love this album. so fun.

The Fall-via-Pavement graphics thing should probably be retired.

The Fall via Pavement MUSIC thing should probably be retired and yet "Careers in Combat" is one of the best songs on this. (reminds me of "Two States")

I like that it's not all Pavementy art punk straight through though. some of it has more of a Modern Lovers thing goin on. and so did the Strokes so I can see how you could hear early Strokes in this.

in that it wasn't an accurate callout in the least? yeah, i was a little disappointed that there weren't more guitar jams or anything else skwm excelled in. such a weird name to check considering all the other, more obvious influences. still, i really like this record.

― HAPPY BDAY TOOTS (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, January 22, 2013 11:37 AM (47 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yup. gonna give it another shot tho.

iceage, royal headache, tronics, parquet courts <--- that is a pretty awesome run of re-releases & reissues btw

not sure why foxygen is in this conversation. I don't really wanna hear anyone trying that hard to do exile on main street unless it's royal trux.

weird, silkworm is not a band that i would even remotely compare this to....

silkworm is the fucking greatest

Yeah, let us please leave Foxygen out of this (or any other) conversation.

agree with everyone that this is a good band that sounds nothing at all like silkworm

modern lovers is a great ref point

i can't tell how much i like this band vs. how much i just miss bands that sound like this, i guess it doesn't matter but i am feeling old

^^^ yeah, i was wondering earlier today how much of my enjoyment comes from just missing bands like this so much. also, silkworm are fucking awesome. speaking of which, tangetially related, i was excited to see that iTunes now has the three exclusive tracks from that bottomless pit import collection thing. much cheaper to but the three tracks on there than fork out $22+ for that when i've already got all the other material.

ok nevermind i am really into this album now

It's been pulled from Spotify. ;_;

Still on bandcamp, tho: http://dulltools.bandcamp.com/album/light-up-gold

i'm listening to it on spotify right now

Hmm, it's telling me "This album is not available"

are you u.s.?

i can't tell how much i like this band vs. how much i just miss bands that sound like this, i guess it doesn't matter but i am feeling old

― congratulations (n/a), Tuesday, January 22, 2013 3:30 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

haha yeah i can see feeling that way

btw listening now on spotify, i'm in the USA

Hmm, it's telling me "This album is not available"

if you click on the band name you'll see the one that's still available, there are two versions for the two record labels it's been out on

Yeah, I'm in the us. idgi...maybe my spotifies is broken.

Oh, I see! I had the old one bookmarked in a playlist.

just having some fun "treeship"

When did Pavement mention soccer? (I know they had football lyrics...)

https://www.google.com/search?q=stephen+malkmus+hull+city&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS801US801&oq=ste&aqs=chrome.0.69i59l2j69i61l2j69i65l2.2011j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Feel like stephen makmus would be down for a kick around, maybe if he happens to be in a park on a crisp autumn day and others are playing

I thought Pavement was all about betting at the horse track

Weezer are more closely identified w/soccer... maybe Parquet Courts are the new Weezer!

https://amp.theguardian.com/football/2008/jun/29/popandrock

https://consequenceofsound.net/2010/06/weezer-releases-unofficial-u-s-soccer-song-represent/amp/

It was those lyrics about "Using" in Freebird 2

malkmus is def a jock but he’s way more into basketball as I understand

still like the new one a lot, but if the ones i’ve heard, “light up gold” is still their best to my ears

new interview with a. savage: https://soundcloud.com/chapo-trap-house/bonus-interview-with-parquet-courts-a-savage

Hahahahahaha

10 minutes in. they are talking about The Strokes

had no idea he was in Wiccans, that band ruled

Of course lel

the chapo interviewers are talking at them a bit too much. i like his talking voice + he seems very nice and chill, a bit ilxian in his opinions if i dare

brutal hearing chapo rap opinions for like 15 mins

AS has a great vocabulary, just said “tantamount”

painful discussion founded on a misunderstanding of poptimism

That was among the worst Chapo episodes ever imo.

I liked how he immediately threw them off with We kinda thought the Strokes were poseurs, and they had to recalibrate

painful discussion founded on a misunderstanding of poptimism

― flopson, Monday, August 20, 2018 7:31 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is the least surprising thing ever

I liked how he immediately threw them off with We kinda thought the Strokes were poseurs, and they had to recalibrate

― President Keyes, Monday, August 20, 2018 9:28 PM (fifteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

One of many volleys in a rousing match of boring opinions pong.

Chapo sucks; podcasts are terrible & i wish it was the 90s; I don’t want to be put off this band by a lame interview; this band is great

yeah I got a few minutes into that podcast but it was unlistenable

the band before us just covered Parquet Courts and a dude started skanking, so yes my night is going very well thank you for asking

— noey wrong (@_josephwright_) September 26, 2018

why you gotta be so ruuude

Their new single is atrocious… sounds like 3rd-tier Franz Ferdinand.

Kind of low energy for FF, more Kasabian IMO

Blur

Yeah I'm not feeling the song, but the cover art is amazing as usual

https://media.pitchfork.com/photos/611c6367b8f9347b25a1e100/master/w_1600,c_limit/SympathyForLife_cover_web.jpg

Hopefully the rest of the album can make up for it.

This band sadly is becoming less and less my thing as time goes by.

Yeah, Wide Awake was the first single from the last album (shitty song, good album) , so there's hope.

That's my take on it, yes. The track is alright, Joe Strummer fronting The Fall, a bit.

Weird how, in my estimation at least, funky post-punk is pretty easy to make sound cool. Plenty of bands do it. I'm in a band that does it. But they somehow make it seem so corny. Both Wide Awake and this. They have the straight-ahead wiry punk formula down so well. They excel at it. But when they try this type of thing it's somehow so awkward.

They premiered some other track a couple months ago that was pretty exciting I thought. More like Can or something, blurry and low key with lots of delayed-out organ, but I only heard it once a couple months ago I don't remember much about it. I was stoked on the new direction. This new one is yuck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaQCiiKxypg

Not feeling his singing with this one at all.

I'm on the fence about the vocal, but I dig the video.

I like this new album and I like Black Widow Spiders. Album vacillates between more traditional rock numbers and downtempo Remain In Light funk

Among other things, Byrne had interesting commentary on modern life... Savage's lyrics at this point are like grumbly tweets by a guy you keep meaning to mute.

Agree that the lyrics aren't up to much, but I kind of dig them turning a little jammy.

"Black Widow Spiders" has quickly grown on me, and the other singles (or the ones with videos) are pretty great too. Will have to pick this up. I love this band and Wide Awake! was my AOTY but for some reason I've been wary about this one rather than looking forward to it.

I don’t love it but very much prefer it to Wide Awake!.

I love Byrne and Talking Heads but most of his lyrics were strung-together phrases that sounded good coming out his mouth, especially on RIL. I really like the lyrics on BWS.

As a fan of pre-Human Performance PQ (though that record has moments), it will surprise no one that I’m a little obsessed with “Homo Sapien”.

Yeah, that was one of the videos - great track. Light Up Gold, Sunbathing Animal, Human Performance and Wide Awake! all made my year-end top ten lists pretty easily. They're kind of like Spoon in the sense that I always liked them, but after releasing four great albums in quick succession, HOW much I liked them really snuck up on me, as if I underrated them and suddenly realized they had been my favorite band of the past decade.

Yeah, I'm enjoying the whole thing, but "Homo Sapien" does make a really nice and well appreciated diversion back to the LUG era. I dig it.

"and space is so passe"

this is lots of fun.

Nice B-side:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TP8WoWAmqY

Apparently they played this on Ellen DeGeneres's show in angry fashion, leading some to think they were sending a message to/about DeGeneres.

Should have searched - there's a clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4inigGayAq0

Screengrab looks like Fred Armisen

I revisited the Teenage Cool Kids' Denton After Sunset, and was surprised by how super Pavement-y the first half is (maybe I'm particularly attuned, b/c I have Pave on the brain). The sideways guitars in "Denton After Sunset"; Savage's vocal tone in "Kachina Doll"; the "la-la-la-la" harmonies and "Box Elder" lyric quote in "Landlocked State"; the way "No Fragments Reach" sounds like it was recorded right after listening to "Range Life" a few dozen times... etc.

Then the album shifts gears: "Jealous Convert" sounds exactly like it could be a (top-tier) Love as Laughter song; "Volvo to a Kiss" is sort of generic fuzzed-out NYC/Hoboken indie rock; "Beg to Differ" is sorta Beat Happening-ish(?); and the final track could be, I dunno, a more melodic version of Gaffney-era Sebadoh.

I guess you could say it's a grab bag of styles, done really well – slivers of which pop up in Parquet Courts, but this album really makes explicit how steeped Savage was in the '90s stuff. (I just read on Wikipedia that they had two prior albums? I'd be interested to hear those.)

Haha, wow, the first track on the album before that is like Camper Van Beethoven meets Perfect-era Built to Spill. These guys were too much!