Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Drawers - Parlor Noise

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Drawers

Parlor Noise

Contributor: Valentine

I grabbed The Drawers’ Parlor Noise without listening to it first. It had a dark-looking cover, so I thought it might be cool. It wasn’t going to hurt anyone for me to give it a listen, except me. I listened to about 15 CDs on the way home from that meeting, previewing two or three tracks on each one and making two piles: CDs I wanted to review and CDs that went on the floor. Parlor Noise made it into my review pile, though I still didn’t really know what I was in for.

The Drawers think they are doing gothic surf music. They don’t come out and say that, but I like to misquote and paraphrase. Ask my friend Mike. My first reaction is that this stuff has a definite surf influence, as well as having something dark going on. I think their blurb actually says that they take surf to “where warm-weather '60s softies never thought to take it -- into the darkness, under the waves, away from the beaches down to the subaquatic cliffs, leaping down further and further, all while intensifying, schizophrenicizing.” I think that there are some dark '60s surf bands. Not goth-dark, but they’re not “softies” either.

I am digressing, though. This is a good album. If you don’t like surf music -- or instrumentals -- don’t worry. This has some instrumentals, but it has its fair share of vocals too; spacy, effected vocals, but there are lyrics there. I didn’t pay attention to them, but they are there. I don’t really know that this is goth, either. I think I just like to make brash genrefications that get me angry e-mails. No, genrefication isn’t a word.

So basically what you get with Parlor Noise is some instrumentals, some spacy rock songs and an all-around dark vibe. Call it surf if you want; I don’t think The Drawers will mind. That influence is definitely there. I might throw this in with the '80s pre-goth sound, but that might get me in trouble. Either way, I have been listening to this album over and over all day, and it’s not getting old.

You can contact the author at: valentine@agouti.com

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