Parquet Courts? “It’s referencing a parquet basketball court, so outside of America it’s not a widely understood – even in America, sometimes people don’t get it. What I’m talking about is a parquet basketball court. Unless I’m talking about a court of Parkay margarine, which is sometimes what I’m referring to,” Savage drawls, with the air of having told the story a thousand times. But it’s cool, and it’s obscure, it’s probably what piques most peoples’ interest about the band initially. Started in 2010, the oddly-named quartet produced their first cassette staying true to their oeuvre, “Cassettes are cheap… It makes more sense to make 100 cassettes for a band’s first release rather than 500 LPs.”
The band’s fourth release, Content Nausea, contains a hoedown-worthy cover of These Boots, originally by Nancy Sinatra. “That’s the number one tool in my karaoke arsenal. It’s been in my repertoire for years. I’m pretty fascinated with karaoke and karaoke culture, it’s been an influence… There’s karaoke references in other Parquet Court songs, I felt like it was a good fit and I really like singing the song, I think I do a pretty good job at it.”
Content Nausea, the band’s second release for 2014, was, despite what one would think, not a particularly heavy undertaking, “For the most part, we wrote and recorded it in two weeks in last October, so it was a really quick turnaround. We went in to record a 7-inch and we walked out with an LP. I don’t know if I consider it like a proper LP, it’s a little bit short… It’s about 25 minutes, [but] I wanted to get it out before I got tired of it,” Savage reflects.
With almost peerless reviews from the usually finicky Pitchfork and Rolling Stone, Savage seems less impressed than ever. “A lot of the worst reviews are the ones that are laudatory but in a blind way, where you can tell the only reason they’re writing about us is because we’re a hip band at the moment and it’s cool to be on the Parquet Courts bandwagon. I can see through that bullshit pretty easily. That’s the most annoying thing, where there’s just a lot of blind praise that doesn’t come out of any critical view. I’ve taken to heart some things that people have said about the band, but if there’s some true insight and intelligence behind it, I’m not offended. More, it’s a good lesson to learn,” Savage peters off.
When questioned about the label garage rock that said websites seem to bandy about so well, Savage fires up: “I love a lot of garage bands, and I’ve been influenced by a ton of them over the years, and when I first started getting into punk music, I had a pretty heavy garage phase. I like what people call garage rock, but it’s all rock to me. I try not to focus on labels because once you start to identify yourself with a label, it’s like the tail wagging the dog and you’re writing to conform to this label, whereas if you’re just writing purely out for the sakes of creativity, maybe even new labels come out of that. I hope, as Parquet Courts continues being a band, there’ll be our own term for the kind of music we make, but I can’t really complain about being a garage band. I don’t have a garage, none of my friends have a garage, a lot of people in New York don’t even have cars.”
Despite releasing Sunbathing Animal and Content Nausea, other members having children, school etc, Savage seems calmed by the potential of touring: “I love touring. It’s something I’ve been doing for years, whether it was practical or not. To me, it’s part of being in a band. It’s what bands do. It comes with the territory. It’s been a part of my life for the better part of a decade now, so I look forward to it.”
And finishing their tour by playing Coachella, is that a dream come true? “Not at all, really. Hell, what do I know about Coachella? It’s always been one of those big festivals that happen and I never really look into it. This is the first year that I’ve looked at a Coachella lineup. I’m excited to go to the desert, and I’m looking forward to the interim weekend off where I’m going to be hanging out in the desert, but big festivals like that are something I never really aspired to do. It’s cool, it’s an honour to be asked, I’m sure it’ll be fun, ‘cause those things usually are, but it’s not where Parquet Courts exists in our true form. We exist in a bar really. That’s where rock music ought to be played… I’m sure it’ll be an experience. We’ll have some stories from it.”
BY NAVARONE FARRELL
