Can we talk about how awesome Parquet Courts are?

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.

I'm gonna go see them saturday in brooklyn at 285 Kent with Purling Hiss and La Big Vic

stoked

they're also playing here in March with The Men

they're also playing live on cherry time clinic on wfmu on saturday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs2_OMnkcxE

sorry cherry blossom clinic

I was de-bat-ing swedish fish

forget about it

socrates died in the fucking gutter

I was de-bat-ing swedish fish

― dmr, Thursday, January 31, 2013 4:38 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

The first few times I thought he was saying "deep-eating swedish fish" and i thought "yeah, i've done that."

The horrible thing is that as much as I like what Parquet Courts are up to, I'm coming around to the idea that I like Foxygen (at least some of their better stuff) better. Overt pastiche vs. not quite as overt pastiche?

Ugh, Foxygen is THE WORST. If there's a new band I hate more this year, I'll be surprised.

i just checked this out, and within 5 seconds, I was transported to a college dorm in 1990. in a good way.

This is pretty likeable stuff so long as I can convince myself I'm not just indulging nostalgia for the days of my youth. I get a very strong early Pavement (pre-Slanted and Enchanted) vibe, but this is a bit more straightforward, not as arty, which is good, because the arty parts of early Pavement are not the best parts. The album starts very strong, by the second tune I'm pumping my fist in the air, but then there seems to be a lot of songs that kind of blend into each other, but maybe I just need to listen to it some more.

i don't really hear a lot of pavement personally. although they have a derivative sound, it's hard for me to narrow down on specific bands they sound like (aside from GBV on "picture of health")

They sound kind of like Pavement's cover of "Box Elder" to me. It's something about the way the guitar/drums/bass sound, or maybe its the tunings, or the subtle country-rock/CCR influence. I'd have to listen some more to try and pin it down.

Do people who like this band like Fergus & Geronimo? That's another project with Andrew Savage, the lead vocalist/guitarist of this band. That one seems a bit more like a jokey bedroom recording project than a real band, but there were some catchy tunes on last year's album.

Do people who like this band like Fergus & Geronimo?

not as much. I did check it out after I got really into this record. it's ok.

box elder is not a cover

this album is really great. they sound v much like a NYC pavement

this album is pretty sweet

This is pretty likeable stuff so long as I can convince myself I'm not just indulging nostalgia for the days of my youth.

Or even if I am

So bummed out - I waited 5 hours after opening the window to buy tickets to their London gig and by the time I went to pull the trigger it was sold out.

digging it but the songs/tones/guitars sound so samey

idk if i like the tuneless singing

they sound v much like a NYC pavement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNvk1g53mw4

box elder is not a cover

You're right, sorry. I think it was mis-reported as a Wedding Present cover in some early reviews and the idea got stuck in my head. Also, since the lyrics were a bit more straightforward than other songs from the period, it was believable to me that it was the work of a different songwriter.

wedding present chose some great songs to cover

i dont hear too much pavement in this, but i did notice in Careers in Combat the lyric "there are no more art museums to guard", a job that SM and West had at the Whitney

liking this l.p a lot. don't hear a great deal of pavement, gbv or strokes(!?) but getting a big Eddy Current Supression Ring vibe from it - especially 'stoned and starving'.

strokes(!?)

yes okay i get it already, it was one part of one song, jeezalou

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!