Out now: Parquet Courts - 'Wide Awake'

Wide Awake, the new album from Parquet Courts, is available now. Learning more about the meaning behind the songs of Wide Awake at NPR Music, where guitarist/singer A. Savage and Austin Brown provided some details behind their creations. The album was produced by Brian Burton, better known as Danger Mouse.

“The ethos behind every Parquet Courts record is that there needs to be change for the better, and the best way to tackle that is to step out of one’s comfort zone,” Savage says of the unlikely pairing.

“I personally liked the fact that I was writing a record that indebted to punk and funk, and Brian’s a pop producer who’s made some very polished records. I liked that it didn’t make sense." It was Danger Mouse, an admirer of the Parquet Courts, who originally reached out to them, presenting them with just the opportunity to stretch themselves that they were hoping for.

The songs were written by Savage and Brown and musically by Max Savage (drums) and Sean Yeaton (bass). Savage was determined not to make another ballad heavy record like the band's 2016 Human Performance.

"I needed an outlet for the side of me that feels emotions like joy, rage, silliness and anger," he says. They looked to Youth of Today, Gorilla Biscuits and Black Flag as insiration. "All those bands make me want to dance and that's what I want people to do when they hear our record," adds Savage. 

For Brown, death and love were the biggest influences. Brown has never been so vulnerable on a Parquet Courts record, and the band, for all their ferocity, has never played so movingly; it’s a prime example of Brown “writing songs I’ve been wanting to write but never had the courage.”

The two primary songwriters explored the duality of coping and confrontation. “In such a hateful era of culture, we stand in opposition to that — and to the nihilism used to cope with that — with ideas of passion and love," says Brown. For Savage, it comes back to the deceptively complex goal of making people want to dance, powering the body for resistance through a combination of groove, joy, and indignation, “expressing anger constructively but without trying to accommodate anyone.” 

STREAM/PURCHASE WIDE AWAKE!
https://smarturl.it/wideawakealbum

WATCH/LISTEN TO "MARDI GRAS BEADS"
http://rtrecs.co/MardiGrasBeads

WATCH "WIDE AWAKE"
https://youtu.be/eZXS8Jpkiac

WATCH "ALMOST HAD TO START A FIGHT/IN AND OUT OF PATIENCE"
http://rtrecs.co/fightpatience

Tour dates:

Fri. June 1 - Lawrence, KS @ The Granada w/ Goat Girl
Sat. June 2 - St Louis, MO @ Ready Room w/ Goat Girl
Sun. June 3 - Nashville, TN @ Basement East w/ Goat Girl
Tue. June 5 - Asheville, NC @ Orange Peel w/ Goat Girl
Wed. June 6 - Carborro, NC @ Cat's Cradle w/ Goat Girl
Thu. June 7 - Washington, DC @ 9:30 Club w/ Goat Girl
Fri. June 8 - Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer w/ Goat Girl
Sat. June 9 - New York, NY @ Public Arts w/ Flexi
Sun. June 10 - New York, NY @ Liberty Belle at Pier 36/ Hailu Mergia
Mon. June 11 - Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere (roof) w/ Goat Girl
Fri. June 15 - Richmond, VA @ Friday Cheers at Brown's Island
Wed. July 4 - Berlin, DE @ Festsaal Kreuzberg
Thu. July 5 - Hamburg, DE @ Molotow
Fri. July 6 - Groningen, NL @ Vera
Sun. July 8 - Hérouville saint Clair, FR @ Festival Beauregard Festival
Thu. July 12 - Bilbao, ES @ Bilbao BBK Festival
Sat. July 14 - Beccles, UK @ Latitude Festival
Sun. July 15 - Kortrijk, BE @ De Kreun
Tue. July 17 - Duedingen, CH @ Bad Bonn
Thu. July 19 - St. Tropez, FR @ Plage de Rock
Fri. July 20 - Biarritz, FR @ Biarritz En Ete
Sun. July 22 - Benicassim, ES @ Benicassim Festival
Fri. Aug. 3 - Chicago, IL @ Lollapolooza
Sat. Aug. 4 - Sun. Aug. 5 - Missoula, MT @ Travelers' Rest Festival
Mon. Sept. 17 - Sat. Sept. 22 - Lincoln, NE @ Lincoln Calling Festival
Sun. Sept. 23 - Seattle, WA @ The Showbox
Mon. Sept. 24 - Vancouver, BC @ Imperial
Tue. Sept. 25 - Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom
Thu. Sept. 27 - San Francisco, CA @ The Fillmore
Fri. Sept. 28 - San Jose, CA @ The Ritz
Sat. Nov. 3 - Dublin, IRL @ Academy 2
Sun. Nov. 4 - Manchester, UK @ O2 Ritz
Mon. Nov. 5 - Newcastle, UK @ Boiler Shop
Tue. Nov. 6 - Galsgow, UK @ SWG3
Wed. Nov. 7 - Leeds, UK @ The Church
Sat. Nov. 10 - Bristol, UK @ SWX
Mon. Nov. 12 - London, UK @ Roundhouse
Wed. Nov. 14 - Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso
Fri. Nov. 16 - Paris, FR @ Elysee Montmarte
Sun. Nov. 18 - Cologne, DE @ Gebaude 9
Mon. Nov. 19 - Munich, DE @ Ampere
Tue. Nov. 20 - Frankfurt, DE @ Brotfabrik 

http://wideawake.am/