The year and change since the release of Parquet Courts' monumental Light Up Gold is reflected in ways expected and not with Sunbathing Animal, its sharper, harder follow up, due out June 3rd via What's Your Rupture?/Mom+Pop (out June 2nd onRough Trade outside the US). Following their quietly released 2011 debut American Specialties, Light Up Gold caught the ears of everyone paying even a little bit of attention, garnering glowing reviews across the board for its weird colors and raw energy, saturated punk songs that offered crystal clear lyrical snapshots of city life. It was immediately memorable, a vivid portrait of ragged days, listlessness, aimlessness and urgency, broadcast with the intimacy of hearing a stranger's thoughts as you passed them on the street.
As it goes with these things, the band went on tour for a short eternity, spending most of 2013 on the road, their sound growing more direct in the process and their observations expanding beyond life at home. Constant touring was broken up by three recording sessions that would make up the new album, and the time spent in transit comes through in repeated lyrical themes of displacement, doubt and situational captivity. To be sure, Sunbathing Animal isn't a record about hopelessness, as any sort of incarceration implies an understanding of freedom and peace of mind. Fleeting moments of bliss are also captured in its grooves, and extended at length as if to preserve them. Pointed articulations of these ideas are heard as schizoid blues rants, shrill guitar leads, purposefully lengthy repetition and controlled explosions, reaching their peak on the blistering title track. A propulsive projection of how people might play the blues 300 years from now, "Sunbathing Animal" is a roller coaster you can't get off, moving far too fast and looping into eternity.
Much as Light Up Gold and the subsequent EP Tally All The Things That You Broke offered a uniquely tattered perspective on everyday city life, Sunbathing Animal applies the same layered thoughts and sprawling noise to more cerebral, inward-looking themes. While heightened in its heaviness and mania, the album also represents a huge leap forward in terms of songwriting and vision. Still rooted firmly in the unshackled exploration and bombastic playing of their earlier work, everything here is amplified in its lucidity and intent. The songs wander through threads of blurry brilliance, exhaustion and fury at the hilt of every note. Parquet Courts remain, Austin Brown, A. Savage, Sean Yeaton, and M. Savage.
LISTEN TO "SUNBATHING ANIMAL" HERE: http://youtu.be/igvbkKcRz5o
SUNBATHING ANIMAL TRACKLISTING
1. Bodies
2. Black and White
3. Dear Ramona
4. What Color Is Blood
5. Vienna II
6. Always Back In Town
7. She's Rollin
8. Sunbathing Animal
9. Up All Night
10. Instant Disassembly
11. Duckin And Dodgin
12. Raw Milk
13. Into The Garden
PARQUET COURTS TOUR DATES:
Thu. May 22 - Calgary, AB @ Commonwealth Bar
Fri. May 23 - Portland, OR @ Doug Fir w/ Naomi Punk
Sat. May 24 - Vancouver, BC @ Biltmore Cabaret w/ Naomi Punk
Sun. May 25 - George, WA @ Sasquatch Music Festival
Tue. May 27 - San Francisco, CA @ Independent w/ CCR Headcleaner
Wed. May 28 - Los Angeles, CA @ Roxy
Thu. May 29 - Austin, TX @ Red 7 w/ Radioactivity
Mon. June 2 - Houston, TX @ Fitzgerald's w/ Radioactivity
Tue. June 3 - Dallas, TX @ Club Dada w/ Swearin'
Wed. June 4 - Memphis, TN @ The Hi-Tone w/ Protomartyr, True Sons of Thunder
Fri. June 6 - Columbus, OH @ Double Happiness w/ Protomartyr
Sat. June 7 - Detroit, MI @ PJ's Lager House w/ Protomartyr, Tyvek
Sun. June 8 - Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern w/ Protomartyr, Tyvek
Mon. June 9 - Montreal, QC @ Il Motore w/ Protomartyr, Tyvek
Tue. June 10 - Boston, MA @ TT the Bears w/ Protomartyr
Wed. June 11 - Brooklyn, NY @ Sugarhill Supper Club w/ Protomartyr, Future Punx, Xerox
Fri. June 21 - Glasgow, UK @ SWG3
Sat. June 22 - Liverpool, UK @ Kazimier
Sun. June 23 - Birmingham, UK @ Birmingham Institute
Tue. June 25 - London, UK @ ULU
Wed. June 26 - Oxford, UK @ Oxford Academy 2
Sun. June 29 - Marmande, FR @ Garorock
Sun. July 6 - Rotselaar, BE @ Rock Werchter
Mon. July 7 - Groningen, NE @ Vera Project
Tue. July 8 - Paris, FR @ Le Divan Du Monde
Wed. July 9 - La Rochelle, FR @ La Sirene Club
Thu. July 10 - Bilbao, SP @ Bilbao BBK
Fri. July 11 - Lisbon, PO @ Alive Festival
Sat. July 12 - Russelheim, DE @ Phono Pop
Wed. July 16 - Berlin, DE @ Cassiopaia
Thu. July 17 - Grafenhainichen, DE @ Melt
Fri. July 18 - Dublin, IE @ Longitude Festival
Sun. July 20 - Suffolk, UK @ Latitude Festival
Fri. July 25 - Niigata, JP @ Naeba Ski Resort (Fuji Rock Festival)
Sat. Aug. 2 - Chicago, IL @ Lollapalooza
Sun. Aug. 3 - Happy Valley, OR @ Pickathon
Parquet Courts Online:
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