 |
| Not bad for inspiration.... |
Personal
Parquet Courts first piqued my interest with “Almost Had to Start a Fight/In and Out of Patience” a lively punk number kissed with ska/dub rhythms. That grew into a fixation when the jaunty “Tenderness” rolled around (sorry about the "fan-cam" quality on that video). Both came from the band’s 2018 release Wide Awake!, which didn’t mean anything to me at the time, but does now.
A Little History
“The songs are told from a first-person perspective about experiences we’ve had, what someone feels like when fighting a square job from 9-5, and finding beauty and meaning in the world. It’s really important to all of us, and a lot of people can relate to that.”
I’m about to struggle to write much of interest about the (mostly) New-York-by-way-of Texas Parquet Courts. That has less to do with them not being thoughtful and/or intelligent, than it does with the reality that I’d need another month or so to learn their music well enough to properly comment on what they’re trying to tell the world. They definitely come from the “punk” tradition – a genre labeling almost as useful as “rock” at this point - their lyrics are political, they talk collective action, but, from what I gather, more from a “state of the world/existential” point of view than specific advocacy. They’re not given to grand declarations, at least not in interviews, so that aspect is contained entirely in their music, which’ll take more time to tease out than I’ve given myself for this, and I hate getting over my damn skis, so I’ll leave it there. In some fundamental way, they seem like any other four guys going to a job one day after the other, only they go to a much better job.
Parquet Courts is a four-piece, arranged like so:
“Led by two Texas transplants — Austin Brown, 27, and Andrew Savage, 26 — Parquet Courts’ is rounded out by bassist Sean Yeaton and Savage’s younger brother, Max.”
Parquet Courts first piqued my interest with “Almost Had to Start a Fight/In and Out of Patience” a lively punk number kissed with ska/dub rhythms. That grew into a fixation when the jaunty “Tenderness” rolled around (sorry about the "fan-cam" quality on that video). Both came from the band’s 2018 release Wide Awake!, which didn’t mean anything to me at the time, but does now.
A Little History
“The songs are told from a first-person perspective about experiences we’ve had, what someone feels like when fighting a square job from 9-5, and finding beauty and meaning in the world. It’s really important to all of us, and a lot of people can relate to that.”
I’m about to struggle to write much of interest about the (mostly) New-York-by-way-of Texas Parquet Courts. That has less to do with them not being thoughtful and/or intelligent, than it does with the reality that I’d need another month or so to learn their music well enough to properly comment on what they’re trying to tell the world. They definitely come from the “punk” tradition – a genre labeling almost as useful as “rock” at this point - their lyrics are political, they talk collective action, but, from what I gather, more from a “state of the world/existential” point of view than specific advocacy. They’re not given to grand declarations, at least not in interviews, so that aspect is contained entirely in their music, which’ll take more time to tease out than I’ve given myself for this, and I hate getting over my damn skis, so I’ll leave it there. In some fundamental way, they seem like any other four guys going to a job one day after the other, only they go to a much better job.
Parquet Courts is a four-piece, arranged like so:
“Led by two Texas transplants — Austin Brown, 27, and Andrew Savage, 26 — Parquet Courts’ is rounded out by bassist Sean Yeaton and Savage’s younger brother, Max.”
To fill in the blanks, Max Savage hits the drums (and looks distractingly like Andrew), while both Brown and Andrew Savage manage guitar and vocals and, near as I can tell, do all the songwriting. Based on what I’ve seen A. Savage “leads” the band – i.e., who does all the talking in this 2018 Face Culture interview (Part 1) – but don’t lead singers always do that(?), but I also didn’t catch too many instances of Brown taking a full musical lead outside of “Mardi Gras Beads” (the post-chorus guitar is fantastic; also, about the strike-through, it turns out Brown sings on several of my favorite tracks on Wide Awake!). Still, no one in the band looked or sounded sad or thwarted in any interview I’ve seen, and they’ve been at it as Parquet Courts since 2011, so, till further notice, they look like band who knows what works and feels comfortable doing it. Boring as hell, basically. (In other words, what’s my hook, dammit!)
