Monk Parker Press Assets

Photo by Adrian Whipp

Contact

Press Contact: Daniel Gill at Force Field PR
[Email: daniel@forcefieldpr.com, tel: 818-331-0830]

Bio

On August 28th, 2015, Monk Parker releases his debut solo record on the Bronze Rat label (London/Berlin). “How The Spark Loves The Tinder” was written during the breakup of Parker’s band The Low Lows & his relocation from New York City back home to Texas. There, over the following three years, hundreds of hours of music were recorded with over 30 musicians (including members of Okkervil River and The Polyphonic Spree), largely in the welding shed of the family farm outside Austin.

Here Parker serves up a funereal but majestic alt-Americana, in which stately, dreamlike waltzes build to explosive, gospel-tinged climaxes. Revolving around a slew of steel guitars, vintage organs and brass, the intricately orchestrated songs evoke Stax/Volt balladry and a woozy Phosphorescent-style country narcosis. Alternating with a cacophony of buried noise melodies, this is the bed on which his damning, redemptive stories of carnality & affection lie (“Sadly yes I know just where to go, where to go / Sadly yes we can all three see the bright writing on the marquee”, goes the first line on the record, from a song about a love triangle gone inexplicably right).

“Absolutely beautiful” – BBC4
“Perfect, just perfect” – Rolling Stone France