Monk Parker: Crown Of Sparrows LP

Monk Parker: Crown Of Sparrows LP

Monk Parker: Crown Of Sparrows LP

Regular price $38.00
/
  • Free returns
  • Carbon neutral
  • Secure payments
  • Low stock - 1 item left
  • Inventory on the way
Shipping calculated at checkout.

The lush, melancholy world of MONK PARKER has a thousand indirect referents, touchstones hidden in the cinema (Lynch, Wong Kar Wei), the library (Transtromer, McCarthy, Bruno Schulz) and the museum (Saul Leiter, George Shiras, Anselm Keifer). It is located diffusely, in the dark, hidden places of America, from the empty midday honky-tonks of Austin to the ghost-crowded highways of the foggy northern forests.

Within his own field—music—his antecedents comprise a half-forgotten, mournful legion. He came to the practice of music late, and after briefly forming and dismantling two bands in the early aughts (THE LOW LOWS, PARKER & LILY), his debut solo album arrived in 2016, coinciding with his 40th birthday. That album was the result of a sudden & debilitating—though ultimately temporary—illness that ended his years in New York City and took him back to the family farm outside Austin, where, over three years of recuperation, hundreds of hours of music was recorded, mostly in an unused welding shed by the banks of the Blanco River. Involving over 30 musicians (including friends from OKKERVIL RIVER, THE POLYPHONIC SPREE, HEAVY TRASH and SWANS), the sessions revolved around a slew of vibraphones & vintage organs, steel guitars, a raft of cinematic strings and an intricately orchestrated brass section that manages to evoke both stax/volt-style balladry and Neutral Milk cacophony.

Drawn mostly from the same huge batch of sickbed recordings, the Crown of Sparrow is both majestic and feral, it’s tension hidden beneath a scratched-surface warmth, a woozy country narcosis, with layers of feedback trembling just at the edge of earshot. It’s a dense, funereal sound evocative of Townes Van Zandt at his least folksy & most heroin-saturated. Stately, off-kilter dreamlike waltzes a la Richard Hawley or M. Ward build to explosive, gospel-tinged climaxes, and a woozy country narcosis kin to early My Morning Jacket or Phosphorescent alternates with feedback drones & buried noise melodies.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

More from Alternative
Matt Sweeney & Bonnie "Prince" Billy: Superwolves LP
$45.00
Bill Mackey & Ryley Walker: Spiderbeetlebee LP
Bill Mackey & Ryley Walker: Spiderbeetlebee LP
$40.00
Bitchin Bajas / Bonny Prince Billy: Epic jammers And Fortunate little Ditties LP +12"
Bitchin Bajas / Bonny Prince Billy: Epic jammers And Fortunate little Ditties LP +12"
$45.00
Sold Out
Butthole Surfers: Hairway To Steven LP
Butthole Surfers: Hairway To Steven LP
$32.00
Cate Von Csoke: Almoon LP
Cate Von Csoke: Almoon LP
$38.00
Cory Hanson: Pale Horse Rider CD
Cory Hanson: Pale Horse Rider CD
$27.00
Recently viewed