KUTX scored an exclusive session with Parquet Courts after their show at Levitation Fest was canceled due to bad weather. The Texas expats got their start in New York City back in 2010 with their first album, American Specialties, released on a limited edition cassette. Like songwriter Andrew Savage’s band back in Denton, Teenage Cool Kids, Parquet Courts have one foot in noisy guitar-driven 90’s indie rock. Unlike Teenage Cool Kids, their other foot, or perhaps their head, is dunked in Frank Zappa-like genre-bending eccentrics. Their more experimental side can be heard clearly in their mostly instrumental EP titled Monastic Living, but that strange and exciting undercurrent can be heard throughout their discography. It’s a little like an alternate reality version of the Minutemen where D. Boon and Mike Watt listened to indie rock instead of hardcore punk, and were signed to Rough Trade instead of SST.
Parquet Courts records may be filled with unexpected turns, but they nonetheless have serious songwriting chops, even charting on the Billboard with their 2014 album, Sunbathing Animals. Their new release Human Performance may be their most well crafted album to date, but don’t worry, it still has all idiosyncratic quirkiness of their previous releases. Check out some of it on the bottom of the page!
