Parquet Courts took the punk scene by storm last year with Light Up Gold, an album that nailed the fundamentals of garage-rock. What separated Parquet Courts from the myriad of other punk bands was the subtle whiff of avant-garde noise that wafted from their headbob-inducing riffs.
Parquet Courts took that sound, massively expanded it and even found a new name for it: Parkay Quarts. The band renamed itself to this, so as to reflect the radical direction their sound is taking. On Content Nausea, Parkay Quarts take their new identity and push it through the walls of classic punk into entirely new territory.
Andrew Savage, the lead singer for Parkay Quarts, swaps out his unrelenting yelling for laid-back, crack-free vocals, which teeter on the edge of spoken word. One can’t help but notice the similarity between Lou Reed and Savage. Both sound like they recorded their voices while strung out on a dirty sofa. Savage’s lyrics have also become much more mystic. In the midst of his purposeful rambling in “Content Nausea,” he spouts such phrases as “Overpopulated by nothing, crowded by sparseness, guided by darkness” in an almost ritualistic chanting tone.
However, the comparison between The Velvet Underground and Parkay Quarts doesn’t stop at the vocals. On the song “Slide Machine,” the slow-tempoed and minimal drums combined with the twangs of a $150 Fender Stratocaster harken back to the heroin-fueled jams that The Velvet Underground produced over forty years ago. A highlight of the album is the opening track, “Everyday It Starts,” where a clunky, back-and-forth rhythm evolves into a distorted guitar solo that begins to bring bands like Stereolab and Can to mind. The best parts of Content Nausea occur when Parkay Quarts strike the perfect balance between their avant-garde influences and the inherited energy of their previous identity.
Parkay Quarts also have a plethora of new instruments that make their debut on this album. They attempt to implement whizzing electronic bleeps and drum machines into a band that has only known the classic instruments of rock for the last two years. It’s not the smoothest of changes on the transformative album. While Parkay Quarts have mastered the sounds coming from their guitars, the avant-garde transitional tracks such as “The Map” sound like the band was just messing around with their new tools, instead of creating a memorable track.
Parkay Quarts have made massive strides in developing their sound. Content Nausea is an accomplishment in how it carried the band into a completely new world of sound. It’s hard to believe that this is the last stop for Parkay Quarts, though. This album demonstrates that they still have room to grow and they’re showing no signs of slowing down.
Rating: B
