NYC heroes Parquet Courts have announced their highly anticipated new album: it’s called Sympathy For Life and comes out on October 22 through Rough Trade. According to Austin Brown: “Wide Awake! was a record you could put on at a party. Sympathy For Life is influenced by the party itself.”
Extrapolating more on its genesis, Brown says: “Most of the songs were created by taking long improvisations and moulding them through our own editing. The biggest asset we have as artists is the band. After 10 years together, our greatest instrument is each other. The purest expression of Parquet Courts is when we are improvising.”
The first song to be shared is “Walking at a Downtown Pace”, where the improvisational origins can be detected in the scattered and windblown guitars – but they’re pinned down to a delectable groove by the rattling and rumbling precision in the percussion from Max Savage. As expected with a song of this nature from Parquet Courts, Andrew Savage places us on a curbside, watching the world go by, numbly reflecting back his own dissociation from society. Despite his mood slipping all around, the party atmosphere of the track is as irrepressible as downtown traffic, and it sounds as if the whole neighbourhood – cars, animals, residents – have come to dance a rocking rumba all about the lead man.
Watch the video for “Walking at a Downtown Pace” below, or listen to the song on streaming platforms.
Parquet Courts’ new album Sympathy For Life arrives on October 22 through Rough Trade (pre-order/save).
They’ve got these live dates ahead:
Sat. Sept. 18 – Augustine, FL @ Sing Out Loud Festival
Wed. Sept. 22 – Morrison, CO @ Red Rocks Amphitheatre *
Fri. Sept. 24 – Marfa, TX @ Trans-Pecos Festival
Sun. Sept. 26 – Accord, NY @ Woodsist Festival
Sat. Oct. 2 – Tampa, FL @ Gasparilla Music Festival
Fri. Oct. 29 – Richmond, VA @ The National
Sat. Oct. 30 – Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar
Sun. Oct. 31 – Lancaster, PA @ Tellus360
Wed. Nov. 03 – Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground
Thu. Nov. 04 – Portland, ME @ State Theatre
Fri. Nov. 05 – Holyoke, MA @ Gateway City Arts
Sat. Nov. 06 – Asbury Park, NJ @ The Stone Pony
Wed. Nov. 17 – Houston, TX @ White Oak Music Hall
Fri. Nov. 19 – Austin, TX @ Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheatre
Tue. Mar. 15, 2022 – Millvale, PA @ Mr. Smalls Theatre
Wed. Mar. 16, 2022 – Cleveland, OH @ Agora Theatre
*= supporting Portugal. The Man
