Sunday, September 18, 2011

The Parson Red Heads debut "Burning Up the Sky" video on My Old Kentucky Blog, on tour now with Viva Voce supporting "Yearling" on Arena Rock!

The Parson Red Heads debut a brand new video for "Burning Up the Sky" on My Old Kentucky Blog - a track they call "a richly textured, harmony–soaked stunner of comely, gentle psych-folk.” Filmed during their first trip to Boston by Extraneous Noise, travel through the city and on to the stage with the Parsons in this lovely video.

A band whose music harkens to the most prolific and inventive elements in the canon of West Coast psych-folk, The Parson Red Heads' true power is undeniable live. To celebrate the release of Yearling, The Parson Red Heads are currently on the road with fellow musical mavericks Viva Voce.

For more music from Yearling, check out Americana-celebrating, on-the-road video for "Seven Years Ago"
and give a listen to NPR's "World Cafe:Next" feature with album tracks "Burning Up the Sky" and "Kids Hanging Out."
  
More music and full show information below!

 
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The Parson Red Heads Live 
  Sept 16 - University of Minnesota - Minneapolis, MN * 
Sept 17 - Gardner Lounge - Grinnell, IA * 
Sept 19 - Schubas - Chicago, IL * 
Sept 20 - The Firebird - St Louis, MO * 
Sept 21 - Uncle Slaytons - Louisville, KY * 
Sept 22 - Pygmalion Music Festival - Champaign, IL * 
Sept 23 - Midpoint Music Festival - Cincinnati, OH *
Sept 24 - Musica - Akron, OH *
Sept 25 - Philadelphia Film and Music Festival - Philadelphia, PA *
Sept 26 - Great Scott - Allston, MA *
Sept 27 - Mercury Lounge - NY, NY *
Sept 28 - The Rock Shop - Brooklyn, NY *
Sept 29 - Black Cat - Washington, DC *
Sept 30 - Local 506 - Chapel Hill, NC *
Oct 1 - The Earl - Atlanta, GA *
Oct 3 - The Mohawk - Austin, TX *
Oct 5 - Rhythm Room - Phoenix, AZ *
Oct 6 - The Casbah - San Diego, CA *
Oct 7 - Satellite - Los Angeles, CA *
Oct 22 - Doug Fir - Portland, OR ^^
Nov 3 - Great American Music Hall - San Francisco, CA
^^
Nov 4 - Catalyst Atrium - Santa Cruz, CA ^^

w/ Viva Voce *
w/ Fruit Bats ^^

Listen to live sessions from The Parson Red Heads on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic, OPB Music, AmoebaThis Ain't a Scene and Groupee.

Yearling is out now on Arena Rock Recording Company with vinyl released via Parson Farm / Timber Carnival Records.
 
Press praise for The Parson Red Heads
Blurt - 9/10
Yearling showcases the band firing on all cylinders; memorable songwriting, sweet harmonies, superb playing and worthy lyrics that may be sentimental, but never callow or cloying. They've hit a trifecta of ‘best release yet', ‘breakout album-worthy' and a ‘best album of the year'. This album may be a ‘classic', something you'll still be playing many years down the road.

Paste
The beautifully shot short comes with the message that true magnificence can be found in the most uncomplicated moments, be it playing baseball in a back lot or dancing alone in an empty bar...The Parson Red Heads play like a group who has been around each other for some time—all of the parts bouncing off each other perfectly and instrumentals interlocking like old friends. In all of its warm, heartfelt nostalgia, there’s a lingering hint of loneliness.

NPR World Cafe : Next
The four Red Heads' connection to and affection for each other is almost palpable in their four-part harmonies and graceful guitar lines.

My Old Kentucky Blog
Portland’s-via Los Angeles-via Eugene’s The Parson Red Heads latest single Burning Up the Sky, a richly textured, harmony–soaked stunner of comely, gentle psych-folk.

Buzzbands LA
The Red Heads’ sanguine psych-folk crackles with jangling guitars and gorgeous harmonies and unbridled honesty; the first single “Burning Up the Sky” typifies the band’s gimmick-free approach — classic songwriting, deftly executed.

JazzWax
The Parson Red Heads' attack and compositions are original and thoroughly modern. What touches me most is the group's acoustic purity, adherence to folk-drenched harmony, and fondness for spirited folk—all with a gentle spin.

Boston Dig
I want to memorize the lyrics and drive down the highway on a summer day with the music blasting, sing-shouting along while sunshine pools on the dashboard.

Under the Radar
Yearling boasts an improvement in overall sound, giving the band’s jangle-folk gems the crisp sonic expansiveness they so deserve.

Portland Mercury
It's a record that harkens to a distinct time (oh, let's say 1971) and place (deep in the communal heart of Laurel Canyon), yet it never leans too heavily on the tired crutch of nostalgia.

Tucson Weekly
Listen a few more times and the songs' charms reveal themselves: the multi-part harmonies, and the ability to take a song from a whisper to a full-out rockathon when it's called for.

Black & White
Every song has hit potential in some alternate universe. These '60s pop revivalists would be megastars in a world where jam bands could write three-minute songs or Jerry Garcia had joined The Mamas & The Papas.

Boston Survival Guide
The Parsons are a beautiful gathering of kind souls with a serene and breezy, psychedelic-folk sound and angelic harmonies. This is heartwarming, feel-good music of the highest order.

Owl Mag
This band has always proven itself exceptional at meshing harmonies of voice and guitar, garnering Beatles and Fleetwood Mac comparisons strewn about like confetti.
 
We Are the Difference
The Portland music scene is a breath of fresh air in independent music, and no band embodies the spirit of the scene more than The Parson Red Heads. New track ‘Burning Up The Sky’ has the same anthemic quality as Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Go Your Own Way’ and is an instant toe-tapper.

When You Motor Away
It has all the features that make me love this band so much - gorgeous harmonies, tremendous lead vocals by Evan Way, positive spirit, tight writing and disciplined arrangements, just perfect power pop music.

Have You Met Heather
They're the sort of cheery group that makes you remember that music isn't all about doom and gloom or best day of your life extravaganzas - that it's also the soundtrack to all the other days in-between.  Their music is that of sweet nostalgia.

Under The Radar
The Parson Red Heads create throwback '60's psychedelic folk for a new generation of hippies...long live the free and easy!!

LA Metromix
This impossibly pretty gang of California love and harmony plays like Brian Wilson never lost his mind and instead spawned a new generation of composers to finish his teenage symphony to God ... imagine Fleetwood Mac making Rumours without the cocaine and wife-swapping.

LA Times
Evan Way and company electrified every nightclub imaginable with their kinetic live performances that worked within the Laurel Canyon folk and Southern California psych traditions, but expanded upon them through their natural effervescence, joie de vivre, and careful attention to songcraft.

Groupee
There is an innocent earthiness to this band's music, a harkening to simpler times, that is very much a reflection of the members of the band...who exude lightbeams of goodness in person.

Buzzine
This is an album that feels like it is from another generation, when the future held a great many things and all you wanted was love. It’s a wonderful mixture of folk, rock, and a touch of country.

Stylus
The Parson’s [have] the feel of a bright blue summer day melting into a cotton-candy pink twilight—[songs] of Byrdsian jangle, super ball bouncy bass lines, stone-washed four-piece harmonies, and the occasional drowsy slide guitar lick. It’s the ideal soundtrack to a lazy afternoon cookout, with filets and BBQ-sauce smothered chicken breasts on the grill, a Corona with lime tucked into your palm.
 
More on The Parson Red Heads
The Parson Red Heads have signed to The Arena Rock Recording Company and are set to release their anticipated new album, Yearling, August 16th. The 11-track album was produced by sometimes-band-mate Raymond Richards at Red Rockets Glare (Los Angeles CA) and by Chris Stamey, of legendary Southern jangle-pop band, The dB’s, at Mitch Easter’s Fidelitorium Studios (Kernersville, NC); and Yearling  was mixed by Stamey at Modern Recording (Chapel Hill, NC).
 
‘The title of the new record Yearling has all sorts of meanings’, says singer Evan Way. ‘For us…with this album…the obvious is that the record took between one and two years to make (see: definition of ‘yearling’) but it means much more than that. The collection of songs tell stories about learning as you go, moving on when you finally realize you can’t turn back and loving people when you can. It’s a record about growing up made by a band that’s growing up (and still are!). The songs and messages are very important to us, as are the performances and memories we have of the creation of this album. We consider it a big step for us, although one step of many, but an important one nonetheless.’
 
 

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