1.
Parquet Courts’ Light Up Gold is, unexpectedly, still floating around my best albums of 2013 list. The self-released debut album from the New York post-punk band is ramshackle, scruffy and occasionally venomous, but it’s also tight and memorable, boasting some of the smartest writing in any genre this year. It’s exciting that the band has kept up an output of new music this year, and “You’ve Got Me Wondering Now” is their latest offering and part of an EP out 10/8. They released the track on a cassettes mailed to just 250 people and billed as a song by “Parkay Quarts,” but it’s now made its way online for the rest of us to hear. The music has an improvised, irreverent feel to it, but the lyrics are densely evocative and read like prose—these guys are weird, but worth paying attention to.
The number (917) 471-2855 was on the tapes the band sent out, with the message “PLEASE SHARE WITH THE REST OF HUMANITY.” I called it. The number goes straight to a recorded message—”You’ve got me wondering now”—then voicemail kicks in. So, if anyone wants to leave the band a message, now you know how.
