“Lost of this lust, exactly what becomes of us?”

I thought it would be nice to close this semester with the Parenthetical Girls, largely because their singer, Zac Pennington, worked as a music journalist before starting his band (& because I have a major crush on him, but don’t tell anyone).

They were originally called the Swastika Girls, after the David Bowie song. Parenthetical Girls is an experimental pop band currently based out of Portland, Oregon. Zac, the bands songwriter, doesn’t really know any chords either, being heavily influenced by the D.I.Y. attitude that came with punk and followed with post punk outfits, such as the Fall (who also didn’t really know any chords). He began the band as a largely electronic solo project, getting much needed help from Jamie Stewart, of Xiu Xiu fame. Here is a Xiu Xiu music video, just because I like them so much:

Their first two releases, (((GRRRLS))) & Safe as Houses, still followed this experimental electronic pattern, but their newest album, Entanglements, was mostly experimental symphonic music, with the likes of Phillip Glass. Really interesting sound though, especially with Zac falsetto vocals & wonderful songwriting capabilities. Here’s their music video for “A Song for Ellie Greenwich.” She’s one of the girls from the Crystals (who are amazing) & he even borrowed some lyrics from the Smiths for this one (who are also amazing). B.T.W. aren’t they cute?:



And there’s not really much news about them as of late, except for the fact that their release a two-song Christmas disc to follow their long tradition of Christmas releases, such as Christmas with Parenthetical Girls & A Parenthetical Girls Family Christmas. This one’s going to be called The Christmas Creep. So… I guess I will leave you with this video that they shot for They Shoot Music. Hope you enjoy!