Parquet Courts

The ever-prolific Parquet Courts delivered another impeccable album this year in Sunbathing Animal (Remote Control), which took a huge leap forward in terms of songwriting and vision whilst heightening the heaviness, mania and punk rock drive that has made the band beloved of music nerds everywhere. 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 sounds more like themselves than ever, a pinpoint accurate reading of the same American punk expansion they all but defined on Light Up Gold. And with impeccable timing, Parquet Courts just announced a new album, Content Nausea, under the name "Parkay Quarts," which drops digitally on November 11, and on vinyl early December, via Remote Control. As well as the country-swaggering first single, "Uncast Shadow of a Southern Myth" (named Best New Track by Pitchfork), the new album contains a "gender-bending" cover of Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots are Made For Walkin'", a karaoke favourite of singer-guitarist Andrew Savage. Parquet Courts truly are the band that keeps on giving. This is an 18+ event.