Privilege, pt I: On Death & Endearments is the first of five limited edition 12” only EPs from quirky Portland based troubadours Parenthetical Girls, who are planning to release the remaining 4 EPs on their own label Slender Means Society, over the next 15 months in an ambitious middle finger to the failing album-centric music industry. On release of their final opus in May 2011, together they will form a rather lovely, beautifully artworked complete album boxset. Hats off to their ingenuity and total lack of interest in the conventional and rather hackneyed album release plans that the major labels are so desperately clinging on to. This is a band who are clearly happy to carve their own niche in an industry that is crying out for a creative rocket up their proverbial arse.
Cerebral and enigmatic front man, Zac Pennington, has the waveringly delicate vocals of Devendra Banhart, backed up by the dreamy blissed out prog pop of Mercury Rev or The Flaming Lips. The production is lush and impressive – this band have clearly honed their skills to perfection over the 10 years that they have been in existence (in varying guises) and hold the listener in misty eyed hypnotic wonderment throughout.
Track one Evelyn McHale is a deliciously catchy testament to the eponymous heroine who threw herself off the Empire State building in 1947 and tackles the subject of the price of fame and how to go about accepting it on your own terms: “Sweetheart, remembered for your art…we’ll be stars just the way that we are.’ Adhering to the pressures of fame and fortune is certainly something that Parenthetical Girls have no interest in, which is refreshing to say the least.
Found Drama I is a thoughtful and winsome wander through the inevitable pain of a failed relationship and the battle between fond nostalgia and the reality of heartbreak. ‘You sacrifice, you compromise so why can’t I be satisfied?…Heaven knows that we’re done for.”
On Death & Endearments is a plea for anonymity and forgiveness yet illustrates an inherent need to makes one’s mark: ‘History, she will surely forgive me and History, she will think of me fondly’. They aren’t a straightforward bunch, this lot.
The last track on the EP Someone Else’s Muse is a buoyant and bouncy epic about the slightly less buoyant and bouncy subject of obsession, rejection and loss. Here we are treated to heavy drums, church organs, brass, vocoders, choirs, synths and the kitchen sink, but it somehow works to create a fascinating and compelling piece of music, even if you can’t hum along to any discernable tune.
Replete with echoing bass drum booms, dreamy fairground organs, ethereal strings and electronic twinklings, Parenthetical Girls’ impressive and spacious sound tugs at the aural heartstrings and is enough to send the hardest of hearts off on a trippy flight of fancy around their eclectic musical world, and it’s a truly lovely place to be.
Music aside, what I like most about this band is their refreshingly self effacing attitude and realistic outlook on the industry in which they are endeavouring to be part of, be it on the periphery. They are taking their musical future into their own hands, taking complete control over what they release, what format it takes and when – it is not a foolhardy idea that the bitesize 4 track EP is the way forward over the cumbersome and pricey 12 track album, particularly in a consumer environment populated by download only teenagers who have no concept of a complete album. And for us old fashioned traditionalists, we still get to fondle the splendid curves of their vinyl. Unsigned bands should take note – this band truly are masters of their art, music industry be damned.
Tags:
Devendra Banhart, Mercury Rev, Parenthetical Girls, Slender Means Society, the flaming lips
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