I’m obsessed with Parenthetical Girls.  I’ve already written about here, but I figured I’d put this video up anyway.

Parenthetical Girls “Evelyn McHale” from judesays on Vimeo.

Here’s a little ditty I likey. It goes out to friend S who is a-travellin’.

Godspeed.

-d.

Eu tinha de estar no Cais do Sodré às 17:25 em ponto, senão perdia o 714 para o Restelo. Para isso, teria de apanhar o metro em Sete Rios exactamente às 17:08, sair na Baixa-Chiado pelas 17:10 e rezar para que o segundo metro para a linha verde não demorasse uma eternidade a chegar. Não foi o caso e tive de correr, pintando a imagem caricata do costume: mala a bater na perna, casaco longo aberto a esvoaçar livremente atrapalhando os movimentos, headphones a saírem dos ouvidos – e mp3 a voar do bolso do casaco, directo à linha do metro! Quis a morte e ela não veio.

Durante o tempo que a bateria terá durado, os restos de embalagens McDonalds e pastilhas tutti-frutti tiveram a companhia da segunda melhor proposta de um ano que já promete. Charlotte Gainsbourg tem novo álbum a que chamou IRM – inspirada pelas sessões de ressonância magnética a que se sujeitou há um par de anos, consequência duma queda. Uniu-se a Beck na escrita, deixou a produção para ele e o resultado foi a obra prima de Charlotte e um dos trabalhos mais interessantes destilados por Bek David Campbell. Uma divertida, por vezes lúgubre mas sempre inspirada colecção de canções, para ouvir vezes e vezes sem conta… alternando ainda e sempre com o Heartland.

Para além de celebrar IRM, esta semana ouvem-se as novas dos Gorillaz, dos BRMC e de Gil Scott-Heron, todas elas prometedoras de grandes regressos para o próximo mês. Atenta-se também no que de bom já por aí anda, como Dear God I Hate Myself dos Xiu Xiu – com a pior edição especial de que me lembro – e o genial Real Life Is No Cool, a parceria de Lindstrom com Christabelle. Uma voz feminina era mesmo do que o homem precisava, agora o mundo é deles.

Menção honrosa ao meu programa de radio de eleição, Mary Anne Hobbs Experimental, para a BBC Radio 1, um deleite de novos sons da electrónica mais leftfield que, na passada semana, teve uma das suas edições de mais fulgor. A conferir, por exemplo aqui.

Lá pelo meio, uma curiosidade ainda envolta em mistério. Já é a segunda vez que escapa uma suposta faixa da banda sonora de TRON Legacy, a cargo dos Daft Punk. A primeira era um engodo mas The Crash parece ser o real deal, pese embora a esta altura não ter maneira de me certificar. Este mastodonte de 12 minutos – que tive de encurtar – é  no entanto acima de tudo uma faixa excepcional. Se criada por alguém que não o duo francês, então a pessoa que se apresente.

**Update! Mais um engodo. Na verdade, a faixa chama-se Body Double e é duns certos Calamity Jane.

Terminamos com um presente de Walter Benjamin. O homem do boné amarelo está de regresso com um novo tema e, não fosse isso suficiente, disponibiliza agora o seu segundo The National Crisis para download gratuito no seu myspace. A sua abertura é o nosso fecho, a belíssima The Person #3.

Importante relatar que no dia seguinte fiz o mesmo trajecto, já sem a mesma pressa. Coloquei os óculos de ver ao longe e procurei o mp3 no meio das linhas. Não estava lá. Anda alguém aí que gosta demasiado de música.

Download Podcast 11

1.Shearwater – Missing Islands

2.Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Beat the Devil’s Tattoo

3.Xiu Xiu – Gray Death

4.Parenthetical Girls – Evelyn McHale

5.Charlotte Gainsbourg – Time Of The Assassins

6.Charlotte Gainsbourg – Greenwich Mean Time

7.Flight – Feels So Good

8.Gorillaz – Stylo (ft. Bobby Womack and Mos Def)

9.Dorian Concept – Trilingual Dance Sexperience

10.Starkey – Moments of Mine

11.Greena – Tenzado

12.Gil Scott-Heron – Me and The Devil

13.David Byrne & Fatboy Slim (feat.Santigold) – Please Don’t

14.Lindstrøm & Christabelle – Looking For What

15.Calamity Jane – Body Double

16.Owen Pallett – The Great Elsewhere

17.The Mynabirds – Numbers Don’t Lie

18.Walter Benjamin – The Person #3

If you’ve been following us on Twitter, you’ve probably got all these already. If not, here’s a recap of all the mp3s we gave away last month.

RIGHT-CLICK/SAVE LINK AS TO DOWNLOAD
Black Tambourine – For Ex-Lovers Only
Fredrik – Locked In the Basement
Radar Brothers – Horses Warriors
Parenthetical Girls – Evelyn McHale
Inlets – Bright Orange Air
Let’s Wrestle – We Are the Men You’ll Grow to Love Soon
Seven Saturdays – Secret Things
Portastatic – Foam Hands (Destroyer Cover)
Josiah Wolf (WHY?) – The Trailer and the Truck
Christmas Island – Bed Island
The Beets – What Did I Do?
Beach Fossils – Time
Eat Skull – Don’t Leave Me on the Speaker

SPECIAL BONUS SAMPLER FROM SUB POP
Cybersex 2.0

Mer om Parenthetical Girls nya projekt i en tidigare post
Via Stereogum

Having grown from a low-key yet provocative Portland band, to a grandiose orchestral pop group; Parenthetical Girls are ready to ignore your expectations once again. Their latest project, Privilege, will take form in five 12″ EPs which will eventually combine to create an undoubtedly beautifully packaged box set. The records will be released quarterly for the next 15 months (as they are completed), and be made available on limited release, hand numbered with the band’s blood. As of now there are no plans for the EPs to be distributed to stores or released on CD.

Got all that? Good. For me, Parenthetical Girls are a truly special band and this project sounds fascinating already. The press release states that they’ve done away with the orchestra, and having taken that style to its conclusion with Entanglements, this seems like a logical return to the bands roots. Having already made an album with grandeur worthy of Arcade Fire, I’m glad the band aren’t stagnating and moving on to a new challenge once again.

The first of the five EPs, entitled Privilege Pt 1: On Death and Endearments, will be released on February 23rd both digitally and on Vinyl (limited to 500 copies). Take a listen to the first track and album opener Evelyn McHale;

Download:  Parenthetical Girls – Evelyn McHale

Det här är inledningspåret på den första av totalt fem 12″ som slutligen kommer att bli Parenthetical Girls nya album, Privilege.

Evelyn McHale

Varje EP är tryckt i 500 exemplar och släpps en och en under de närmaste 15 månaderna via bandets egna label, Slender Means Society.
Samtliga omslag görs av av svenskan Jenny Mörtsell och kommer vara numrerade i, erm, blod från bandmedlemmarna.
Sista EPn kommer i maj 2011 och då tillsammans med de fyra föregånde i en tjusig box, och voila, Privilege ser dagens ljus.

Evelyn McHale
Spotify
Myspace

I would not make a good record executive or band PR guy. Some of the ideas that bands have in order to peak interest is really quite brilliant and original. Take for instance Parenthetical Girls, a band that has never really gotten much attention since their debut release in 2006. How do you categorize a indie pop band that brings with them a chamber orchestra and how do they fit into radio play? I don’t have the answers and I glad that these questions aren’t slowing them down any.

Over the next 15 months Parenthetical Girls will be releasing their fourth full-length album via “a box set of five extremely limited 12″ EPs” every quarter until May 2011. The final EP release will come “in a beautiful , aesthetically cohesive LP box designed to house all four of the preceding releases.” The limited to 500 copies release will feature original artwork from Swedish artist Jenny Mörtsell and apparently will be hand number in blood by the band members, this part I doubt.

Part 1 of Priviledge titled Death & Endearments is set for release February 23rd on Slender Means Society (which has one of the best band reviews I ever read) and will contain 4 tracks with the lead track being “Evelyn McHale” who is the 23 year old woman who on May 1, 1947 jumped to her death from the Empire State Building observation deck and was photographed immediately afterward by Robert Wiles. I’ll let you do the digging for that photo is you’re really that interested, but guaranteed you’ve seen it before.

“Evelyn McHale” is quite a lot lest orchestral than anything you’ll find on 2008’s Entanglements and falls almost dead center into standard indie-pop. Either path they would have taken would have been a winner with me.

Priviledge Pt. 1 Death & Endearments

Side A
01. “Evelyn McHale”
02. “Someone Else’s Muse”

Side B
01. “On Death & Endearments”
02. “Found Drama I”

Parenthetical Girls – “Evelyn McHale”

Parenthetical Girls are always up to something. Now they’re going to release five EPs over the course of the next year, each on 12″ vinyl, and not available in stores.

The entire project, called Privilege, will be sold separately through the bands Slender Mean Society record imprint. The first 12″ of the series, On Death & Endearments will be available February 23.

Side A
♫ Evelyn McHale (via Stereogum)
2. Someone Else’s Muse

Side B
1. On Death & Endearments
2. Found Drama I

———————————————————————————–

re: that cryptic Golden Filter video, they’ve announced their first full-length album Voluspa, out April 26th on Brille Records.

It’s officially december, which for music bloggers can only mean only one thing; it’s time to create an alternative christmas playlist. There’s been some truly terrible christmas songs over the years, but there’s also been some festive classics. Whether it’s full length christmas albums from Low or Bright Eyes, or one-off smashes like Eazy E’s Merry Muthafuckin’ Xmas, there have been all kinds of christmas tributes.

Among alternative christmas heavyweights such as Surfjan Stevens and Flaming Lips, are Parenthetical Girls, who return this year with their third christmas release, The Christmas Creep. Side one sees the band covering Sparks’ Thank God It’s Not Christmas, while side two features what the band describe as “a cheery original about the Christmas blitz of 1940″, entitled Flowers For Albion. This split single is easily my favorite of Parenthetical Girls’ Christmas songs, and fortunately for you is available to download for free from the band’s website and below. There is also a limited pressing of this single, with artwork handprinted by Zac Pennington, but you better get it quick because only 150 copies will be made available.

Download: Parenthetical Girls – Thank God It’s Not Christmas

Download: Parenthetical Girls – Flowers For Albion

I had no idea this was in the pipeline, so imagine my surprise when I see two of my all-time favorite bands are releasing a split 7″ of Smiths / Morrissey covers. Available to pre-order now from Upset The Rhythm, the split single sees Xiu Xiu perform a typically minimalist rendition of Morrissey’s, I Am Hated For Loving, while Parenthetical Girls get surprisingly rocky on their version of The Smiths’, Handomse Devil.

Both bands have been quite vocal in the past about their love for all things Morrissey, so it’s great to see them get together and produce this fantastic split single. Check out the Parenthetical Girls half of the single below, and then be sure to order a copy of the 7″ before they all go. Nice collector’s item to have, this one.

Parenthetical Girls – Handsome Devil

Second Xiu Xiu-related post in a row? Sorry. Anyway, this is worth it. Xiu Xiu and Parenthetical Girls are putting out a new split single covering a Morrissey and a Smiths song, respectively.

♫ Parenthetical Girls – Handsome Devil (The Smiths cover)

On the flipside is Xiu Xiu’s take on “I am Hated for Loving.” You can get the 7″ from Upset the Rhythm.

Jookabox - "Dead Zone Boys" CD - Asthmatic Kitty

DeI used to think Dirty Projectors were bombastic. I used to think Parenthetical Girls were epic. I used to think Battlehooch were chaotic.

I used to think these things, but it turned out I just hadn’t heard Jookabox yet. These guys really Man (Man) up. And those Anticon-esque moments are just-plain confusing. I’m really just using these signposts because I’m lost, though (and where would us reviewers be without our signposts, touchstones, dead ringers and red herrings?).

Dead Zone Boys is a fast-forward futureland where people travel in pods that zoom around town like lazers from the Star Wars movies and remember the past enough to bang on a tom every once in awhile like Panda Bear. It’s hot because of, I dunno, global warming or something. It’s also really, you know, future-y, with robot parts lying around everywhere and people getting zapped by scantron beams.

People in this day and age still sometimes sing like the guy from Coldplay (or at least “Evil Guh” hints at it). They also listen to a wide variety of music, apparently. I always predicted as a child that someday all the genres I enjoyed — hip-hop/rap, metal, rock, punk, oldies — would be molded into one big, brown glob of glow-in-the-dark playdough.

If Dead Zone Boys has anything to say about it, my vision for the future is being lived out right now. Hey, cool beans! I always wanted to live in the future and drink “Zombie Tear Drops.” (Sorry, that just slipped out.)

Now if I could just get my virtual-reality helmet rolling I could really get this party started. So, can I get free porn on this thing?

And here’s A Song For Ellie Greenwich:

Love those light hearted They Shoot Music sessions.

This is a brilliant album.

I heard a panpipe version of Windmills of Your Mind in a restaurant a couple of weeks ago and it reminded me of Parenthetical Girls and how great this album is. And then I found a really great song by Ellie Greenwich, which further reminded me of Parenthetical Girls.

Choral vocals, manic violins, circus-esque piano and horns… the album is so rich! It’s beautiful. Their Windmills of Your Mind cover blows my mind, it’s absolutely incredible. It has a dark, sinister feel… and Rachael Jensen has a wonderful voice. I love the line: were you suddenly aware that the autumn leaves were turning to the colour of her hair? Lovely imagery.

Also worth an investigation is this album’s predecessor, the also excellent Safe As Houses. My favourite from that is The Weight She Fell Under. Listen to the lyrics. DARK!

Parenthetical Girls.

Η δεκαετία τελειώνει και η δισκοθήκη μου απαιτεί νέα ταξινόμηση. Από χρονολογική πρέπει να γίνει αλφαβητική. Όπως και οι προηγούμενες δεκαετίες πριν από αυτήν. Όσο τακτοποιώ λοιπόν, ότι θα θυμάμαι θα χαίρομαι. Σε συνέχειες, εκτός απροόπτου.  Στο Α σήμερα…

all that you give-the cinematic orchestra-every day-2002

a drop in time-mercury rev-all is dream-2001

about today-the national-cherry tree-2004

atlas-battles-2007

agoraphobia-deerhunter-microcastle-2008

a song for ellie greenwich-parenthetical girls-entanglements-2008

absolutely cuckoo- magnetic fields-69 love songs-1999-2000

anthems for a seventeen year old girl-broken social scene-you forgot it in people-2003

all my love-american music club-the golden age-2008

a boy like me -patrick wolf-lycanthropy-2003

a nervous tic motion of the head to the left-andrew bird and the mysterious production of eggs-2005

You might have read a few weeks ago about the tragic events that occured to the family of Rachel Jensen of Parenthetical Girls’ family. It would be churlish for me to try and go into it, or to try and comprehend the immeasurable sadness of her family, or to put the situation into my own words, so here’s a link to a memorial fund set up in Kris Jensens name. Details and how you can donate can be found on the website, so we can try make something good come from such a horrible event.

In terms of Parenthetical girls as a band, there are big changes ahead. Matt Carlson, who played many roles within the group, hahs now left, having played his final performance with the band on 6th September at Bumbershoot in Seattle. Whether or not he will be replaced is something that the band haven’t gone into, but given the immense talent already residing within the group, there’s no rush.

In the mean time, the band have two confirmed releases on the way, the most exciting of which is a split record of Morrissey covers with Xiu Xiu. Though the great Mancunians solo work has been a bit patchy is places (mid-to-late ninties, we’re looking at you), two of the most achingly beautiful and sincere bands in the world putting their own spin upon arguably some of the most influential lyrics of all time can only make me joyous in anticipation. No release date, but I’m going to be scouring for this from now until it’s out.

As well as having penned the music a piece of experimental theatre, the band are also releasing a tribute to Peel sessions legend Ivor Cutler, titled The Scottish Play: Wherein the Group Parenthetical Girls Pay Well-Intentioned (If Occasionally Misguided) Tribute to the Works of Ivor Cutler, which Tomlab records will be releasing around October.

The band also hint at a further release, possibly entitled Privilege. If there past albums are anything to go by, it should be brilliant.

Anyway, if you’ve never listened to Parenthetical Girls, Love Connection is probably the best place to start. I honestly think it is the most beautiful, honest and sincere songs ever written about romance. ‘I’ll start watching my weight again’ gets me every single time:

Parenthetical Girls – Love Connection mediafire

And in the interests of fairness, it’s only right that there is also access to the Casiotone for the Painfully Alone cover of it, from his album Etiquette. I’m still unsure of which one is my favourite:

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – Love Connection mediafire

We lost a great voice in 60s pop this past week. Ellie Greenwich passed away on August 26th after suffering a heart attack in a New York hospital.

(Courtesy of elliegreenwich.com)

Though her death is unfortunate, listening to the music she left behind is anything but depressing. Of course, when I hear the word ‘pop’ thrown around today, I immediately conjure up images of Britney Spears or the Backstreet Boys or some other over-produced music put together by a talentless pretty face, but pop music wasn’t always this way. Ellie’s music is fun, fresh, spunky, spirited, and danceable. Take a listen to her song “I Want You To Be My Baby”:

Her music also inspired many artists. The Parenthetical Girls, a band I have intrigued with for a little over a year,  even named a song for her:

You can download “A Song for Ellie Greenwich” here for free.

I am still waiting for the day when I can see The Parenthetical Girls play a show. I think they’d be quite theatrical.

Ellie Greenwich at the piano; image courtesy of urbanhonking.com

Brill Building pioneer songwriter Ellie Greenwich died of a heart attack yesterday after complications with pneumonia. She was 68.

Greenwich was most famous for the songs she wrote for girl groups. She rose to success with her husband Jeff Barry with smash hits like The Ronnettes’ “Be My Baby” and The Crystals’ “Da Doo Ron Ron.”

She also penned or helped write songs like The Exciters’ “He’s Got The Power,” The Dixie Cups’ “Chapel of Love,” and The Shangri-Las’ tragic “Leader of the Pack.”

It should be mentioned that she started making a name for herself in the early 1960s, a time when women’s “proper” full-time job was as wife and mother. Instead, she slogged it out, working with male producers like svengali Phil Spector as well as her male colleagues at the Brill Building, including her husband. As I mentioned in a review of Charlotte Greig’s Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?, Greenwich also had to negotiate the pressures of being a professional woman with being a traditional wife, opting for the former over the latter when she and Barry divorced.

In addition, she wrote so many monster hits, primarily for women and girls, many of whom were girls of color and were also finding access to careers beyond the clerical field and service industry during the time of this nation’s (on-going) integration. And she continued as a writer even after the girl group era, penning her autobiography, a musical, and songs for folks like Cyndi Lauper, who recorded “Right Track Wrong Train” as the b-side to “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” In recognition of their contributions to popular music, she and Barry were inducted into the Songwriter Hall of Fame in 1991.

I’d also add that Greenwich’s songs were tremendously informative on punk and indie rock. Bands like The Velvet Underground and The Ramones took to the Brill Building’s hollow sound and economical, riff-based songwriting, a legacy to which Greenwich contributed (of course, VU singer and guitarist Lou Reed got his start as a hack songwriter for Pickwick Records). Indeed, it doesn’t take much to turn the Brill Building’s assembly line style into a commentary and joyful celebration of consumer culture and America’s odd normality, something Parenthetical Girls seem to be doing here.

And her songs continue to be covered extensively. Every holiday season, you assuredly hear this song if you’re at the mall, which Barry and Greenwich wrote together.

I’ve also heard local or less-established bands who are heavily influenced by girl groups cover Greenwich’s work. Take “Then He Kissed Me.” The Crystals recorded it in 1963. Yet bands still cover it. I remember it being a setlist staple for The Carrots, a local band heavily influenced by the girl group, when they started out.

The Carrots; image courtesy of pukekos.org

So, Greenwich will be missed, but her memory will live on as long as her records keep spinning. I think I’ll go throw one on right now.

I have been a fan of the band Parenthetical Girls and not only that…but my cousin J “Scrappers” Morrison has donated artwork to the auction as well. So please visit the site and if you see any photo/art/music that spikes an interest or just want to support, please bid or donate.

Info:
On the evening of Sunday, August 2, Rachael Jensen—keyboardist and violinist for the Portland-based pop group Parenthetical Girls—suffered a major tragedy: four members of her immediate family were involved in a fatal car accident while traveling home from an annual family reunion. Her father and two brothers were rushed to an intensive care facility, and are now in the early stages of their recovery. Tragically, Rachael’s mother Kris, 51, passed away at the scene. Kris’ extreme kindness and exuberance touched a tremendous number of people, but it was her particular enthusiasm for music and generosity with musicians that broadened her impact to so many people in our community. All proceeds from the show and auction will benefit the Kris Jensen Memorial Fund, a trust organized to assist the surviving members of the Jensen family with the mounting financial strain of their medical care.

http://krisjensenmemorialfund.com/content/about-fund

[CH]



Os Parenthetical Girls estão de volta, com mais um videozinho do bizarro. Nem prestei muita atenção, confesso, pois voltar a ouvir a voz frágil de Zac Pennington já me fez o dia.

Este tema será editado em 12 polegadas, e mais tarde compilado com muitos outros no EP Privilege, previsto lá para 2011.

Em baixo, um dos grandes temas de 2008 e uma das minhas musicas preferidas.

Parenthetical Girls – Song For Ellen Greenwich