Parquet Courts Laneway Festival 2014 sideshows have been announced with the neo-punk rockers playing exclusive headline shows to complement their appearance at the indie boutique festival next February.
Following on from Laneway announcing its own set of sideshows, featuring Chvrches, King Krule, and Savages, Parquet Courts now joins the list, from Texas via New York and for the very first time in Australia
Reigniting the joy of American punk rock, Parquet Courts are a no-nonsense, four-man explosion of up-all-night energy, a whip-smart collision of ideas designed to put brains (and mosh pits) in motion. To quote our Tone Deaf reviewer: “Parquet Courts have managed to make classic punk music that actually feels like it’s supposed to mean something.”
Expect delirious scenes when Parquet Courts take the stage with Total Control and along with their hand-picked local guests, Constant Mongrel in Melbourne, and the Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys for Sydney.
Little was said about Parquet Courts’ debut effort, American Specialties. Released exclusively on cassette tape, the quasi-album was an odd collection of 4 track recordings that left those who were paying attention wanting more.
A year of wood-shedding live sets passed before the Courts committed another song to tape. The band’s first proper LP, Light Up Gold, is a dynamic and diverse foray into the back alleys of the American DIY underground. Bright guitars swirl serpentine over looping, groovy post-punk bass lines and drums that border on robotic precision.
While the initial rawness of the band’s early output remains, the songwriting has gracefully evolved. Primary wordsmiths Andrew Savage and Austin Brown combine for a dynamic lyrical experience, one part an erudite overflow of ideas, the other an exercise in laid-back observation. Lyrically dense, the poetry is in how it flows along with the melody, often times as locked-in as the rhythm section.
According to the album’s scratched-out liner notes: “This record is for the over-socialized victims of the 1990’s ‘you can be anything you want’, Nickelodeon-induced lethargy that ran away from home not out of any wide-eyed big city daydream, but just out of a subconscious return to America’s scandalous origin”.
Recorded over a few days in an ice-box practice space, Light Up Gold is equally indebted to Krautrock, The Fall, and a slew of contemporaries like Tyvek and Aussie rough-ready rockers, Eddy Current Suppression Ring.
Though made up of Texan transplants, Parquet Courts are a New York band. Throw out the countless shallow Brooklyn bands of the blasé 2000s: Light Up Gold is a conscious effort to draw from the rich culture of the city – the bands like Sonic Youth, Bob Dylan, and the Velvet Underground that are not from New York, but of it.
A panoramic landscape of dilapidated corner-stores and crowded apartments is superimposed over bare-bones Americana, leaving little room for romance or sentiment. Parquet Courts recently released a new five song EP, Tally All The Things That You Broke, on What’s Your Rupture?
Parquet Courts Laneway Festival 2014 Sideshows
Wednesday 29th January @ The Corner, Melbourne w/- Total Control + Constant Mongrel.
Tickets on sale now from The Corner box office. Presented by Mistletone, Triple R and The Music.
Wednesday February 5 @ The Standard w/- Total Control + Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys.
Tickets on sale 12noon from The Standard. Presented by Mistletone, FBi Radio and The Music.
Also performing nationally:
Laneway 2014 Dates & Venues
Brisbane: Friday 31st January – RNA, Fortitude Valley
Melbourne: Saturday 1st February – Footscray Community Arts Centre/River’s Edge
Sydney: Sunday 2nd February – Sydney College Of The Arts, Rozelle
Adelaide: Friday 7th February – Harts Mill, Port Adelaide
Perth: Saturday 8th February – Esplanade Park and West End, Fremantle
Tickets and info at http://lanewayfestival.com/
