Can we talk about how awesome Parquet Courts are?

Max Savage looks quite a lot like Nigel from Half Man Half Biscuit

Didn't watch the video, song is great tho imo. great bass playing. i'm just glad they're doing a totally uptempo record, human performance was zzzzzzz for the most part.

That video... These guys feel so uncool all of a sudden. And that's relevant/notable only because A. Savage seemed obsessed w/retaining "cred" in the wake of LUG.... It felt like they were constantly psyching themselves out. And now here they are.

they were always painfully uncool imo, serious tryhards that never succeeded. they're a really awkward band. but they have some great songs.

“LUG” is one of my favorite albums of the decade... it felt almost visionary, like a perfectly realized thing. They’ve had some other songs I’ve really liked, but I’ve accepted the fact that that album was some kind of special deal.

I think they’ve always been pretty inconsistent. I loved LUG but tbh there were always songs I felt like skipping. The hit to miss ratio has its ups and downs but I don’t think they’ve ever made the album that fully realizes the potential of their best songs.

“Pretty Machines: The Very Best of Parquet Courts” (Rhino, 2025)

I think they’ve always been pretty inconsistent. I loved LUG but tbh there were always songs I felt like skipping. The hit to miss ratio has its ups and downs but I don’t think they’ve ever made the album that fully realizes the potential of their best songs.

Donuts is the one song on LUG that’s maaayyybe skippable for me

Side 2 of “LUG” is for the true headz (lol)

Another later song I love is “Pathos Prairie.” Savage is such a gifted songwriter. Some of those Teenage Cool Kids tracks also knock me out. It’s like he has the ability to write & record these perfect indie-rock songs, but is afraid of turning into the Strokes or something, so he “roughs things up” a lot, with varying degrees of success.

agree that it seems they're not going to top LUG anytime soon, but there's been good songs on all their records (side projects included) and they def have an instantly recognizable sound (that, in a way, probably comes down to the songwriting)

After spending a short while with LUG when it was new, I remember thinking that in the future people would be saying it was their best or only good one. Just knew they wouldn't make another album in that style and fair enough really

man I love Human Performance

human performance is my favourite, LUG not far behind. sunbathing animal is a step down from both but still has a bunch of great songs

Loved stoned and starving and everyday it starts but this new vibe is like some indie band synthesized in the adult swim laboratory or something

Yes, that’s a perfect description...

And the fact that AS’s lyrics tend to be so stridently-yet-vaguely “oppositional” (or whatever) sort of increases the dissonance.

Yeah, that new video and song are pretty atrocious.

Oof...

https://youtu.be/yLzs8SWLRoA

"I can't believe I used to like these guys."

http://www.the80smovieclub.co.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/repo-man-circle-jerks.jpg

such a weird direction to go

wish them all the best ofc

but can we just enjoy this once more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACj-F63GK_M

I thought this was a “shreds” video for a minute

Wow, they have kind of turned into that joke band from the tv show Love. (the one that plays theme songs to movies that never had theme songs).

i'm into the Ellen performance. why not you know? song is OK

not sure why they are promoting this song so hard but ppl on this thread need to clam down. the first song they released off the new record is outstanding so i'm not going to join ppl jumping off a bridge just yet

clam or calm, both ok

This song/video/performance etc. feels to me like they suddenly wanted/needed to "make it big"; wracked their brains to figure out how to achieve that goal; suddenly remembered a style that worked for some bands in 2003; and are now trying... so... hard... to make it work for them.

And I have zero problem about bands I like "making it big" (heck - the bigger, the better)... but I watch/listen to this and I am embarrassed for them.

I definitely cringed and am thinking that this is no way to make a case for the mediocre white men.

I'm not sure their aspirations for this song are anything grander than being able to do things like play on Ellen, which they seem to have accomplished.

yeah

horrible song and performance

Damn that's literally the worst music I ever heard and def the dumbest bassline of all time jeeze Louise p.u.

The shots of Ellen crowd white ppl dancing is icing

I'm not sure their aspirations for this song are anything grander than being able to do things like play on Ellen, which they seem to have accomplished.

I suspect their goal is to have the song placed in one or more national advertising campaigns. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Bands gotta eat.)

this is a much better showcase (they do of course also play old songs)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF1WRB9zRAM

The first song reminds me of that (half-)tongue-in-cheek old D.C. band No Trend -- except PC are "serious," I guess.

Dude reminds me of a Fred Armisen character.

Nice groove at the end.

Thanks for posting this! The first song sounds like a classic Minutemen-riff/cover - really good.

I can understand the criticism up to a point about a more "$$$" approach. I remember reading an interview after the release of the Monastic Living EP where they said something along the lines of "we are touring all the time without making any money".

have to admit my heart kinda sank when the curtain went up and I saw that back line of extra players. The song itself is pretty meh, but it does seem like a weirdly clumsy careerist move, like it isn't as terrible as, say, the last Yeah Yeah Yeahs album but why do this now.

dude doesn't look like Armisen, he looks like a McPoyle fwiw

A. Savage is one of the strangest frontmen i've ever seen live. at once so awkward and vicious. they are very good live, i wonder if they're bringing any extra players on tour.

LOL

i know this board is not big fans of Tame Impala but they are doing, do something completely different with much better results. not a fan of that clip/song.

Hope the record will be more like the 1st single and (much) less like the 2nd one

yeah Almost Had To Start a Fight is good

new song & video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iir8HyAKqQM