New Remixes, Videos From Parenthetical Girls

By Less Lee Moore

It’s been just a week since the release of Parenthetical Girls‘ Privilege* album (review), but we want more! Luckily, there are two remixes and a video performance to help the greedy ones.

Los Campesinos! have transformed “Sympathy For Spastics” by adding a sprightly synth beat while amplifying and repeating the song’s original, already haunting piano track.

“Young Throats” has been tackled by YACHT, who have replaced the opening wave of keyboards—and most of the vocals and other instruments—with a sparse, robotic drumbeat and synths, while keeping the spine of the track intact.

The band also recorded a live performance of “Curtains” in this video on a decrepit, long-retired riverboat in the first of a four-part documentary video series.

Parenthetical Girls will begin their North American tour on March 6 at Holocene in Portland, OR. For more visit the new Privilege Abridged website or the Parenthetical Girls website.

Music Review: Parenthetical Girls, Privilege*

By Less Lee Moore

“But hard as I’ve tried, I’m helpless to describe.”
—Parenthetical Girls, “The Pornographer”

If you’re not yet familiar with the unusual pop music of Parenthetical Girls, you’re in for an aural treat. Despite what connotations they may have intended for the title of their new album, it’s an apt descriptor for these 12 songs; experiencing them is indeed a privilege.

It’s not often that a band comes along so precisely indefinable as Parenthetical Girls, always a sure signifier of brilliance, with genius waiting in the wings. It makes categorizing their aesthetic troublesome, though no less enjoyable to attempt. “Chamber pop,” though appealing, has its origins in the mid-1960s, and Parenthetical Girls are far too modern for a term older than the average ages of its members.

“Indie rock” has its own negative connotations; despite the Girls’ decidedly independent means of releasing records (not to mention their seeming inability to serve any mistress but their own unique flights of fancy), that descriptor brings the word “twee” to mind, and Parenthetical Girls are much to daring to be considered twee.

I have chosen to dispense with such aspirations and simply review the album.

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Stream “A Note To Self” By Parenthetical Girls: Upcoming Album, Spring Tour

By Less Lee Moore

The eclectic, engaging Parenthetical Girls released a series of EPs over the last few years entitled Privilege. These were limited edition and only available via mail order. Oh, and each one was hand-numbered n the blood of one of the band’s members.

Now they’ve condensed the 21 songs that make up the five-part series into 12 tracks, all of which have been remixed and remastered. The Privilege album will be released by Marriage Records and the band’s own Slender Means Society Label on February 19.

To support the release, Parenthetical Girls are embarking on a Spring tour, beginning March 6 in San Francisco.

Obviously, none of us have the patience to wait for either of these momentous occasions, so the band has thoughtfully provided a streaming track, “A Note To Self.”

Additionally, they’ll be producing a series of video commercials for Privilege, beginning with the one below (a clever homage to Brooke Shields’s infamous Calvin Klein jeans ads from the 1980s).

For more on Parenthetical Girls, check out their website.

Tour Dates:
03/06 Portland, OR – Holocene
03/07 Berkeley, CA – Starry Plough
03/08 Los Angeles, CA – The Smell
03/09 Phoenix, AZ – Trunk Space
03/10 Albuquerque, NM – Low Spirits
03/12 San Antonio, TX – Korova
03/13 – 03/16 Austin, TX – SXSW
03/17 Dallas, TX – Spillover Music Festival
03/19 Birmingham AL – Bottletree
03/20 Atlanta, GA – The Earl
03/21 Chapel Hill, NC – Local 506
03/22 Washington, DC – TBA
03/23 Philadelphia, PA – PhilaMOCA
03/24 Hamden, CT – Outer Space
03/25 Brooklyn, NY – Glasslands
03/26 NYC – Bowery Electric
03/27 Montreal, QB – Divan Orange
03/28 Toronto, ON – Double Double Land
03/29 Ann Arbor, MI – Arbor Vitae
03/30 Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle
03/31 Minneapolis, MN – TBA
04/02 Denver, CO – Hi Dive
04/03 Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court
04/04 Boise, ID – Flying M
04/07 Seattle, WA – Chop Suey

Jherek Bischoff, Composed

By Less Lee Moore

Singer/songwriter/producer/etc. Jherek Bischoff spent years working on Composed, which makes its brevity perhaps surprising. The album is fewer than 40 minutes in length, yet it’s anything but slight. Each composition is quite literally bursting with ideas.

Even though Bischoff wrote most of the music (with the exception of an arresting cover of English folk-pop singer Bob Lind’s “Counting”), Composed is an exceptionally collaborative effort. Most of the singers wrote their own lyrics and the 20+ musicians who contributed to the album didn’t even perform in the same room together; the liner notes indicate that many of their instrumental tracks were recorded at their homes or various studios individually.

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Assemblog: April 27, 2012

Velvet Goldmine, 1998

New on Popshifter this week: reviews of the recently reissued Beginnings, Rick Springfield’s 1972 US debut album; Theresa Andersson’s latest album Street Parade; Beatles documentary Strange Fruit; The Apples in stereo’s Chris McDuffie’s solo release as Whitejacket, titled Hollows and Rounds; and The Ian Hunter Band’s Rockaplast concert on DVD.

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