Doggonit, don’t look now, Mr. Wilson. Those wild n’ crazy post-pre-proto-punk hunks in Parquet Courts are up to their same crazy antics again!
By which I mean that those whippersnappers have recently gone and all-exuberantly unveiled the music video for “Human Performance,” the title track from the foursome’s third album for Rough Trade. ARRRG. How youthfully irritating!
The “clip,” as the kids are calling them these days, was conceived, directed, and puppeteered (yup, your trick-ear heard me right; I said “puppeteered”!) by acclaimed British visual artist and Turner Prize nominee Phil “not that Phil Collins” Collins. Utilizing the “tools of the storied school of German puppeteering,” I heard from my grandson that Collins “manages to make something that both David Lynch and Jim Hensen would be equally humbled and weirded-out by” — whoever those two gentlemen are!
“I was thinking about the track and how it paints a breakup both elliptically and with such devastating directness,” Collins says, “and I wondered what it would be like if this drama was enacted not through naturalism or authenticity but through its partners in crime, doubling and artificiality. So puppets seemed an obvious choice.”
Speaking of “obvious choices” (not really, I guess, that just sounded like a good segue), the band has also announced an EXTREMELY IRRITATING new 12-inch titled “Performing Human,” which will be released August 19 and will feature “an alternate take of ‘Human Performance’ as well as “remixes” (again, whatever those are) of the song by Eaters and Chris Pickering from Future Punx. AAND, they’re even encouraging folks to pre-order it now from Rough Trade! Why I never!
Finally, to add even more insult to injury, the Courts will be performing LIVE on some foreign-sounding program called The Late Show with Stephen Colbert! And all this before they go tromping across North America and Europe this summer and fall! Can you believe the nerve of those good-for-nuthin’ kids, Mr. Wilson? Why, I’m so angry, I could shake my fist in disapproval at the video and upcoming tour dates below:
Upcomin’ Court dates:
08.13.16 - Brooklyn, NY - Market Hotel
08.15.16 - Austin, TX - The Mohawk
08.18.16 - Santa Ana, CA - The Observatory
08.19.16 - San Diego, CA - Irenic
08.20.16 - Los Angeles, CA - The Regent
08.22.16 - San Francisco, CA - The Regency Ballroom
08.23.16 - Petaluma, CA - Lagunitas Amphitheater
08.26.16 - Seattle, WA - The Showbox
08.27.16 - Vancouver, BC - Vogue Theater
08.28.16 - Portland, OR - MFNW - Project Pabst Festival
10.10.16 - Manchester, UK - Academy 2
10.11.16 - London - The Forum
10.12.16 - Brighton, UK - Old Market
10.15.16 - Groningen, NL - Vera
10.17.16 - Cologne, DK - Gebaude 9
10.18.16 - Berlin, DK - SO 36
10.19.16 - Prague, CR - MeetFactory
10.20.16 - Munich, DK - Storm
10.23.16 - Milan, IT - Bko
10.25.16 - Zurich, CH - Rote Fabrik
10.26.16 - Strasbourg, FR - La Laitiere
10.27.16 - Paris, FR - Pitchfork Festival Paris
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