Parquet Courts

[alan nagsworth]

Hi, does anyone here like this band? Because hot damn they have completely blown me away since I heard "Sunbathing Animal" last year. Extremely smart, sharp, dry and pure post-punk. The music is largely really stripped back and they seem to achieve a hell of a lot from two chords and a drum beat with barely any cymbals whatsoever. It's like highly refined art, incisive and intelligent, and so insanely catchy in its repetitive nature.

Last year they put out two albums - the aforementioned "Sunbathing Animal", and then "Content Nausea" under the name Parkay Quarts. I was so wrapped up in repeated plays of the former that I was almost afraid to check out "Nausea" for fear of anything ruining this perfect little pocket of sound I was cosied up in. Eventually, a couple of weeks ago, I finally listened to it, and I wasn't disappointed. It feels a little more scruffy and muddy than "Animal", with lo-fi electronic drums and tracks that sound more like The Velvet Underground than Gang of Four, and that works in its favour. It's not a huge deviation from their sound but it's enough to warrant it a necessary release. In fact, I'd wager that the entire record is worth it just for the utterly tremendous "Pretty Machines", a song reflecting on growing up immersed in the punk explosion, and where all the punks are now, having made comfortable lives for themselves in the system they always wanted to destroy. It's not an insult but an honest and personal account of youth and years gone by. The lyrics are simply brilliant.

As far as achieving a great deal with very little is concerned, I see this band as almost crucial right now. They're tight-knit and highly focused with a refreshingly bare-bones approach to making music that is utterly thrilling to me. Add to that their penchant for throwing wild screeching feedback solos into the middle of their tunes, building up a wall of wide-eyed head-bopping noise to the point of near-giddy delirium and then suddenly dropping the fucking lot out, leaving the beat still chugging away into the latter half of the song, and you'd be hard pushed as a fan of classic post-punk to find anything here to be disappointed with.

Black & White

Pretty Machines

Instant Disassembly

Everyday It Starts

[kittens]

i like sunbathing animal. me and my friends really recognise instant disassembly  and whenever i listen to it i'm racking my big brains as to where i've heard it before perhaps you can help me out

will check out that other album too x

[alan nagsworth]

"Instant Disassembly" is the tenth track from Parquet Courts' second LP, "Sunbathing Animal", released on June 2nd 2014. I hope that helps!

[kittens]

that does not help

[Squink]

I'm the fool that loved Light Up Gold but thinks the other stuff isn't up to much. Yes, I'm playing the "the early stuff is the best" card pretty early on in the thread. Feel free to do some light negging and eye rolling and resume with what you're talking about. Sounds like I should give the newer stuff another go though.

[Serge]

Well, you saved me the job of mentioning that, title track aside, I found 'Sunbathing Animal' pretty disappointing after the excellent 'Light Up Gold'. Though what I've heard from 'Content Nausea' sounds pretty good, so I'll have to try and give that a proper listen at some point.

I could be wrong, but I think when they use the name 'Parkay Quarts', it's only half of the band, which is why they spell it differently - I'm sure I read that in an article/interview somewhere. They released the 'Tally All The Things That You Broke' EP under that name too. I loved that EP, especially the bonkers pot-banging Beta Band-esque final track, 'He's Seeing Paths', and I think that might be why I was slightly disappointed in 'Sunbathing Animal', as I was hoping they'd go further down that road.

'Light Up Gold' is actually their second album (and 'Sunbathing...' their third), as they released a cassette only album, 'American Specialties' before that. I'd love to hear that. 'Light Up Gold' is amazing, and contains one of my alltime favourite lyrics, "Socrates died in the fucking gutter!" and was also responsible for me using the phrase 'Forget about it' far too much a couple of years ago. 'Stoned And Starving' is my favourite track.

[non capisco]

Yeah, 'Stoned And Starving' is an absolute monster of a track, the best song Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers never wrote. A central riff so catchy and cool you're flabbergasted it's taken this long to exist. Light Up Gold also has a brilliant micro-pause inbetween its first two songs that I never tire of hearing.

Really liked Content Nausea and its recorded in a day in a shed vibe. Sunbathing Animal is an album I need to revisit, I think it came out during a slew of other stuff I was really digging and didn't seem to have a 'Stoned And Starving' or 'Borrowed Time' that really hooked me in. Happy to be corrected on that one with a relisten.

I saw em live once and think they were probably on an off-night. They were possibly jet lagged to fuck and performed a sullen, listless set to a room full of disinterested weeknight 'not impressed' London types. I'd be happy to check em out again to see if I just caught a bad one, they're a band I like a great deal and I admire their prolificness.

[Serge]

When they played at Rough Trade, they'd just got off a plane and didn't have time to soundcheck, so sounded pretty ropey then, too - unless we're both talking about the same gig!

I love that micro-pause between the first two tracks on 'Light Up Gold', especially as one of the tracks actually has a pause in it that's longer than that.

[non capisco]

When they played at Rough Trade, they'd just got off a plane and didn't have time to soundcheck, so sounded pretty ropey then, too - unless we're both talking about the same gig!

Different gig, I saw them at Village Underground, I think it was. Hopefully just two off occasions then! They sound on record like a band that would be able to tear through an energetic set. Glad you're another fan of that micro-pause! THAT is how you kick off an album.

[PaulTMA]

They made American Specialities a free download as WAVS on their Soundcloud a while back.  At one point I was bored enough to split it into tracks, so here it is.  (only 128kbps AAC m'fraid)

https://www.mediafire.com/?b4k29i4fw3ctzwq

It sounds like their 'Westing (By Musket And Sextant)', perhaps unsurprisingly.

When I saw then play Mono in 2013, I think Andrew Savage recited the lyrics for the entire album in one go, during one extended song.