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The Parson Red Heads
Location: Los Angeles
Website: http://www.theparsonredheads.com/
Bio: Many bands are composed of individuals who are barely friends, sometimes they are barely acquaintances who treat each other and their music like little more ... (more)
than a business. The Parson Red Heads are not one of those bands. The Los Angeles based group, originally from Oregon, are, by blood or by bond, a family.
The band consists of Evan Way, his sister Erin, wife Brette Marie and longtime friends Charlie Hester, David Swensen, and Sam Fowles. The group has recently been rounded out with the addition of Raymond Richards (pedal steel) and Aaron Ballard (guitar/melodica/etc). Heeding the call of sunshine and success, the group left Oregon in 2005 and has since been building more acclaim and attention in the burgeoning Silver Lake music scene with month long residencies at the Silver Lake Lounge and the Echo as well as sharing the stage with the Cold War Kids, Cursive, Maria Taylor and more.
A typical Parsons show is a celebration of their familial bond where the band can extend from the core six to as many as twelve. The rattling of multiple tambourines, masterfully used feedback and four part harmonies find the smuggest of indie hipsters removing their hands from their pockets and clapping them along with the white-clad clan as disinterested smirks turn into uncontrollable smiles.
Following up the stripped down California inspired folk of last summer's Field Mouse Carnival EP, King Giraffe is the first full length that begins to capture the spirit of the Parson's live show. The opening dissonance on "Sister" sets the tone for the rest of the album and its exploration of 60's flavored psychedelic folk rock. Evan Way 's voice is one of the most unique to come along in years, his Paul Simon like croon is often augmented by the rest of the group's Byrds-ian harmonies. Guitars are the main driving force behind King Giraffe, from the dueling leads breakdown on "Days of My Youth" to the feedback freak out finale of "Full Moon". Rounded out by tight drumming and irresistible bass and keyboard lines, pedal steel and banjo also appear and both are high-lighted on the toned down closer "Ball and Chain". Other stand out songs include the lead single "Punctual As Usual" and the infectiously bouncy "Mossback". King Giraffe promises to be a big step for the Parson Red Heads.
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April 20 2008
LIVE DOWNLOAD The Parson Red Heads: "Mossback" LIVE [in Spaceland]
...from our favorite gingers. Evan's the singer/songwriter. his sis plays keys and sings. his wife plays drums and sings then a rotating cast of friends around them... the are really the nicest people you'll ever meet.
Hey, all. What a year this has been!
In November of last year, we sat around as a band and talked about the goals for the next year – releasing a new EP on our own, trying to get the Spaceland residency at some point, getting out on the road more. These were just a few of the things that we discussed. Well, fast forward to April of 2008: we started out the year by playing the Spaceland residency. We have already made quite a few trips out of town for shows, and have more in store. And next month we are releasing the new EP! That’s a busy 4 months!
The residency at Spaceland was everything we imagined it could be and more. It was a month of getting to play to a great audience of friends/fans, and a month of getting to play WITH and watch some of our personal favorite bands. It was really like a party every Monday night. Can’t beat that, can you? Some of my favorite moments were watching our friends bands – bands like Light FM, The Monolators, Flashing Red Lights, and Everest – play INCREDIBLE sets. Those were moments where you realize exactly who you’re surrounded by, and the sheer talent level that is all around you. That made it even MORE of an honor to play for all these people, and made it feel all the more special when they responded with such enthusiasm.
Spaceland Recordings made a live album out of our last performance of the month – January 28th, 2008. They recorded all the songs, the whole set, in all its glory. There is a moment captured on that recording that you can hear, if you listen close – a really special thing to me. I didn’t even really notice it until listening back to the recordings. Our encore song of the set was a tune called “Mossback”, which is off of our first full length. It’s a fun dance-y number. It ends with a bang, and a chorus of harmonized “ooh-la-la-la”s. When you listen to the closing section of this song, you can make out that a whole bunch of the audience was ooh-la-la-ing right along with us. It sounds great! It is a sound that can’t be achieved with just a band, playing to itself in a practice space, or in a recording studio. That is the sound of a band and an audience not only connecting, but joining together, and having fun TOGETHER. We weren’t just showing them a good time, and they weren’t just showing US a good time. It was a shared thing, it was mutual. And it is easily my favorite thing about listening to that show now – just hearing a mutual exchange between audience and band, and feeling the real energy of that show. It was an amazingly sweet way to end an amazingly sweet month.
As for the EP – we began recording some material for it in December. We recorded two songs right before Christmas, one of which ended up on the EP (“Got It All”). After our residency in January, we pretty much spent all our free time, and all our time that we normally spent playing shows, either at The Boat Studios, or at David Swensen’s apartment (David is our bass player, and also produced the record), recording various things for the record. This was our first time really doing EVERYTHING ourselves – from engineering, to producing, to album art … it is quite a labor of love. We are really really proud of how it has turned out. Because it was all on us, and because we were so invested in it, we really feel it turned out to be something special – something that really sounds like a lot of effort and pride was put into making it. We worked hard to get the sounds we wanted on the record, and David spent hours upon days mixing it, until we really felt it was layered right, and that everything was just as we heard it in our collective (Red) head. “Owl & Timber” is kind of like our new-born baby. We’re VERY excited for you all to meet him (her….it…).
Cheers!
Evan
![LIVE [Mondays (in Spaceland) Vol. 6 - January 28th, 2008]](http://image.iodalliance.com/release/thumbs_60/216240-72.jpg)
The Parson Red Heads
"Mossback" (mp3)
from "LIVE [Mondays (in Spaceland) Vol. 6 - January 28th, 2008]"
(Spaceland Recordings)
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