Begun as a home recording project amongst former childhood friends in the failed mill town of Everett, Washington (a place considerably less romantic than that manipulative phrasing is meant to suggest), the membership of Parenthetical Girls—in mutual disinterest and indifference—quietly chipped away at itself until only one particularly under-qualified member, singer and relative non-musician Zac Pennington, remained. As long on ambition as he was short on musical aptitude, Pennington willed what was little more than a particularly arduous band name into a recording partnership with some of his especially capable acquaintances—namely The Dead Science’s Jherek Bischoff and Xiu Xiu’s Jamie Stewart. That partnership became a record called (((GRRRLS))) (2004), released on Pennington’s newly-christened vanity label, Slender Means Society.
Soon after Pennington moved to Portland, Parenthetical Girls became something of an actual band—though mostly in the non-committal sense: comprised first of (a much-indebted) Pennington, Bischoff, and Bischoff’s Dead Science-mate Sam Mickens, and eventually just Pennington and Mickens. This core trio would ultimately produce Safe As Houses (2006), a record that would go on to critical acclaim, and countless flattering—if sometimes greatly overstated—Xiu Xiu comparisons.
Following the release of Safe As Houses, the band fatefully settled on a more stable line-up, adding to its ranks several recent Portland imports in Matt Carlson, Rachael Jensen, and Eddy Crichton—multi-instrumentalists each—whose full-time membership would eventually help to shape Parenthetical Girls in their own respective images. After several lengthy tours in the U.S. and Europe in support of Safe As Houses, the four piece convened to begin preparations for what would by leaps and bounds be the group’s most ambitious work to date. Making good use of his fancy degree in composition, Carlson in particular would prove especially pivotal in this pursuit, who—along with Bischoff’s long-essential production and arrangement work—would help to realize the Technicolor potential long implicit in the (((GRRRLS)))’s earlier works.
THE SCOTTISH PLAY: WHEREIN THE GROUP PARENTHETICAL GIRLS PAY WELL INTENTIONED (IF OCCASIONALLY MISGUIDED) TRIBUTE TO THE WORKS OF IVOR CUTLER:
Packaged in a silk-screened sleeve designed by renowned illustrator (and fellow Glaswegian) David Shrigley, this extremely limited release (500 total copies!) features Parenthetical adaptations of four songs and four prose poems from across the dense Cutler discography. These sparse, meditative recordings are a far cry from the chamber pop bombast of Parenthetical Girls' recent output, as the group continues to skirt sonic expectations with yet another creative 180. Which means we're back to where we started. As good a place as any for this to end, I suppose.
Celebrating the first half century of our beloved Bigmouth, acclaimed Moz acolytes XIU XIU completely eviscerate one of Morrissey's most effective paeans to righteous self-loathing - the punishing, Gameboy-composed assault of solo weeper "I Am Hated For Loving".
Likewise, you've got Portland, Oregon's premiere pantywaists PARENTHETICAL GIRLS appearing here perhaps at their ballsiest — embracing the muted violence of early, under-represented Smiths masterpiece "Handsome Devil".
An orchestral song cycle of grand sonic ambition, Entanglements is an eleven-song, linear narrative of ascendancy, adolescent sexuality, quantum mechanics, consent, and other moral ambiguities - all set to an elaborately orchestrated olio of Modern Classical and timeworn, traditional American pop forms.
Borrowing from the string-swept sentimentality of unlikely pop-ulists like Van Dyke Parks, Scott Walker, Jack Nitzsche, and Burt Bacharach, Entanglements draws colorful lines across the expanse between these orchestral pop antiquities and the more formidable strains of Modern Classical composers - its hues distantly reminiscent of names like Krzysztof Penderecki, Philip Glass, and Gavin Bryars. The result - as blended with Parenthetical Girls' already messily dripping palette - is an unsettlingly relentless emotional offensive; a gasping, restless confluence of cerebral and sentimental disparities, bound for their mutual allegiance to the uncannily timeless soundtrack that engulfs them both.
"...one of 2008's great misunderstood albums"--The Onion
ENTANGLEMENTS will be in stores Sept. 9th, 2008 via Tomlab & Slender Means Society
JUNE 27TH, 2006 PARENTHETICAL GIRLS-Safe As Houses:
Recorded with the bands recent three-piece configuration (an ensemble made up of Zac Pennington and Dead Science members Sam Mickens and Jherek Bischoff--who also served as producer for the record), "Safe As Houses" embraces the groups shrewd attention to the awkward confluence of experimental and pop musics--creating a record that is at once more difficult and more intrinsically palatable (not to mention significantly darker) than anything so far bearing the Parenthetical Girls name. Which is to say, its much better.
APRIL 25TH, 2006 PARENTHETICAL GIRLS-(((GRRRLS))): Reissued, Repackaged, Remastered.
In anticipation of the release of Safe As Houses--the sprawling follow-up to (((GRRRLS))) tentatively scheduled for a June release-- Slender Means Society is issuing (((GRRRLS))) on CD for the first time, in remastered, yet equally confusing format.
In an attempt to maintain the distinct duality of the LP release, the CD version of (((GRRRLS))) features both editions of the album--but in two different, enhanced CD formats: version O (as mixed by Jherek Bischoff) plays on any standard CD player like your average CD should, while the X version (as mixed by Jamie Stewart), takes advantage of the near ubiquity of the iPod revolution by offering its tracks as super high quality MP3s, accessible via any computer. (Confused? Me too. Just put it in your computer--you'll figure it out). Additionally, the enhanced materials feature "Inspirational Shortpants (avec paroles)," a newly finished track not available on the original vinyl release.
i finally got entanglements on vinyl. good lord the white is GORGEOUS and it was already my favorite album of 08 but the vinyl master is just so more pleasing than digital.
damn! as im listeting to Entanglements you accept my request kick ass! jaja
Online Now!
