Can we talk about how awesome Parquet Courts are?

http://thequietus.com/articles/15777-parquet-courts-sunbathing-animal-review

This is my fave album of the year. I certainly don't think it's a bad facsimile of Pavement. I mean I hear a lot of bands in their sound and it doesn't detract from my enjoyment. You seem to be hung up on originality all the time which probably isn't the best attitude when reviewing a rock album in the '10s. There's some great lyrics on this record as well but you make no mention of that.

This record reminds me a lot more of Swell Maps than Pavement. "Instant Disassembly" is an instant classic but I kinda miss the tunefulness of the first LP and EP a lot of the time. It feels like a record that was written on tour - don't know if it was. It's got that road-weary vibe and the emphasis on stuff that would translate well on stage. Feel like they were aiming a lot more for one specific mode that on previous releases.

I think the tunes are stronger on this one tbh.

Huh- apparently it was written on tour:

Vocalist and guitarist Austin Brown stated, "We had to kind of squeeze recording in between long runs of touring; whenever we had a couple of weeks off, we’d try to arrange a few days in the studio."... Many of the album's lyrics were written whilst on tour in support of Light Up Gold.

I swear I hadn't read that before posting.

Sorry meant to post the link too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunbathing_Animal

this was my review -- without knowing for sure that it was written on tour, that was my guess.

http://www.redefinemag.com/2014/parquet-courts-sunbathing-animal-album-review-whats-rupture/

I like all the songs on the Sunbathing Animal when they come up individually on shuffle - it's just hearing them all at once that gets a bit too samey for me. But then again, I have the same issue with canonical bands like The Fall, so maybe it's me.

this doesn't do much for me.

yup

still loving this, tho taking it in measured doses so as to extend shelf life. agree that it's hard to avoid framing PC w/o ref to pavement, similarities are unavoidable, but maybe it's more about how comfortably the quarts would have slotted into "indie rock" as it was conceived circa 92-?, pavement's shining moment. the sound they're working isn't so completely tied down, owing to the velvets, television, modern lovers, swell maps, feelies, sonic youth even. moderns digging the same hole: eddy current suppression ring, tyvek (also on wyr? no surprise). i suppose it's that pavement are the end of that line, or seem like it from here, something about the early 00s "rock revival" making every too-similar subsequent feel like a cargo cult, heyday gazing.

that's unfair, of course. the appearance of one moment from another isn't definitive, just transitional perspective. but PC do make a rather fastidious point of not adding anything to the corpus that wasn't already present. even the meta stuff & in-joke self-mockery are straight pavement, the overheard strains of "the last classic rock band" dialed in from "fillmore jive". do like the noisier moments on this one, give it some cute, scrappy, fuck-you swagger, again unavoidably nostalgic. and the lyrics are, at least occasionally, excellent, "instant disassembly" being the obvious standout. would like to see them fuck with the formula just a little bit, but they're just getting started, so it seems boorish to complain.

yeah, pavement are just the final point of a postpunk/art rock continuum and the references to them w/r/t parquet courts are definitely overstated, but it'd be a lie to say they're not an influence.

I tried to get a mate into them and he said he likes the music (reminds him of the fall and pavement) but thought the guys vocals were terrible and had no character. i thought it was an odd criticism tbh. i like the guys vocals fwiw - the bug-eyed and breathless vocals on "sunbathing animal" and malkmus-ian slacker drawl on "dear ramona".

There are two vocalists actually, but I can't always tell them apart.

"Uncast Shadow of a Southern Myth"?

not gonna point out the obvious pavement reference

Ok don't

couldn't help it

a Teenage Cool Kids cover

This has grown on me quite a bit. I still skip the first track, but otherwise I play this straight through.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve5SV0Ufxu4

Hey this new one is great! I even like the 'These Boots' cover. It's all nicely textured

Yeah, Content Nausea at first listen is more immediately appealing than Sunbathing Animal was.

wow, i'm happy about this new one...i loved the first stuff then sunbathing animal made me doubt the whole thing like "why did i like this band again" but content nausea is awesome

saw them last weekend. blown off the stage by Horse Lords, but most bands are no match. went in not knowing PC very well (my brother is a massive fan), but now I've listened to "Borrowed Time" probably ten times in a row. phenomenal song, cant wait to get my copy of LIGHT UP GOLD in the mail

ok i didn't know horse lords, this band fucking rules wow

Indeed, that Horse Lords record is great. Hope I get to see them live soon, all reports suggest that they are supremely cool in the live context.

ok i didn't know horse lords, this band fucking rules wow

― Wu-Tang Clannad (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, January 27, 2015 12:26 PM (15 minutes ago)

+!!!

this is like an evolution of sweep the leg johnny

I'm confused, how does this band relate to PC?

played a show w/, do keep up.

i mean track 1 just busted into bongo beat breakdown and i am not only still on board, i am more on board than ever. the fuck you say.

that one time

I'm 4 minutes into the first song and it's amazing. I'm going out tomorrow and buying this album.

this reminds me of Nomo a bit too

Horse Lords are insanely cool

yes, amazing

Horse Lords

get the mixtapes first

wow the new ep fucking sucks

the new ep is awesome, but no one gets it

is it a joke?

i like the cover art

Wow... I like this band even more than I thought.

Noodley instrumentals for the most part - easily their least essential release.

I enjoyed the live album

the new ep is awesome, but no one gets it

*best read in the disaffected voice of a clerk behind a record store counter in 1997*

i bought it blind because Content Nausea was so good, what a waste of fifteen bucks

it sounds like an experiment in being really boring, either that or they now have opted Blur's 'A Spell (For Money)' b-side as a career template

Annoying and boring, absolutely. Garbage noise jams. What a waste of a cool cover & title.

Never buy anything blind! Seems perhaps significant that it's their first release on Rough Trade. Kind of like a "Look we can release whatever we want to, the label has no control over us" move maybe.

I bought some of my favorite records ever blind - I can't remember ever feeling this gipped! And if that's the idea (I think you're right), they really are fucking daft. Who is the gesture meant for? It's not like Metal Machine Music, it's just irritating and tuneless practice jams that should've never been put to vinyl. They're not even bad in an interesting way, they're just loud and boring. Eager to hear whatever meta-commentary they had in mind though, cuz now im just peeved.