Parquet CourtsThe music video for the title track from Parquet Courts' latest album Sunbathing Animal features Andrew Savage's black and white feline friend, Frida. “I'm looking at her right now,” Savage informs from his Brooklyn, New York flat, inside which the clip was filmed. The camera is set up to focus on a particular corner in the Parquet Courts co-frontman's home in order to capture afternoon happenings. To coax added antics from his usually napping moggie, Savage invested in some catnip from “the pet shop down the street”. “Apparently it arouses cats as well,” Savage shares on the subject of catnip. “I think it acts like speed for them. Um, but, you know, humans take catnip in tea and, yeah, it actually has the opposite – it's got a kinda calming effect on humans when you drink your tea.”
Another album track fit to soundtrack Frida post-catnip is Duckin And Dodgin and Savage admits that his band have “played it maybe seven times now and each time it's been pretty well-received and a lot of people ask about it”. The listening experience conjures images of ferocious mosh pits. Savage laughs, “I dunno if I've seen a ferocious mosh pit. Sometimes it can be hard to mosh ferociously to most Parquet Court songs, I think.” Has Savage ever witnessed a circle pit from the stage? “No, no I haven't, but also that's maybe Sunbathing Animal – that song – maybe that [track] could cultivate a circle pit.” After remarking that mosh formations can be “kind of a bit corny”, Savage throws it out there: “I'd like to invite the circle pitters down.”
Although the band doesn't solicit walls of death (“That stuff is reserved for, like, New York hardcore bands. I bet Sick Of It All gets a wall of death pretty regularly”), Parquet Courts shows do tend to get raucous, on and off stage. Last year at The Great Escape festival in Brighton, UK, Savage recalls one of their shows: “We got kicked off after I think about ten minutes of playing and, ah, people were mad about that. And I think the band after us didn't even end up playing 'cause, like, in protest even. But I don't remember who that was.” Savage goes on to say that this occurred “because the show was running late and then they did the trim on the sets and, yeah, we got about a ten-minute set and then they told us that we had to finish to make time for the next band. I thought it was kinda silly. I felt good when people started taking our side on the issue… I have a very fuzzy memory of that night, but that is what I do remember.”
Before Parquet Courts dropped their Sunbathing Animal single, they made it available as sheet music. “We wrote a song with pretty much one note in it,” Savage explains, “and I thought it would be a funny idea if we made sheet music for a song as simple as that one. And, you know, when you look at it, it looks pretty ridiculous.” Have any alternate versions of the song been posted on YouTube as a result? “I haven't seen one yet, but I would love to,” he deadpans. “Ah, I'd love to see a cover of a blind sight-reading of it.”
Savage is acutely aware that everything he says during our chat has the potential to be read. When asked if he found it weird to be interviewed by Ratso, a rat hand puppet (aka someone crouching on the ground with their hand up a toy rat), he's not playing: “No, no, no. Yeah, I mean I don't wanna spoil the fun for the kids. Ratso, he's one of the best interviews I ever did.” Savage's favourite interviewer is attached to “an American children's show, based in Chicago, called Chic-a-Go-Go,” he elaborates. “They regularly have bands on there. If you look up Chic-a-Go-Go on YouTube you can find a lot of different performances on there… It's kinda like a Sesame Street for kids with, like, rocker parents, you know?” Similar to Yo Gabba Gabba! then, maybe? “Yeah, not too far off. But it has a bit of a public access kind of vibe to it.”
Irrespective of how finely tuned your bullshit detector is, it's difficult to determine whether Savage is taking the piss. “I'd have to say, the snack rider is the reason I do it,” is how he responds when asked if he prefers the recording or performing side of what he does. So what's on a typical Parquet Courts rider then? “Oh, let's see,” he hesitates. “We ask for a pack of cigarettes, um, you know, a vegetable tray – we leave the dip up to the promoter for the most part. Um, let's see, chips and salsa, maybe some, um, some peanuts. You know, I get pretty thrilled whenever someone throws an avocado in the mix.” What about more unconventional requests? Savage offers, “Um, you know, we've been asking for a puppy from the pound to hang out with us for an evening, but no one's done it yet. So if any of you promoters are listening, you'd really make Parquet Courts' day if you brought a little puppy backstage for us.” Attention: Splendour In The Grass! “I'm trying to get a bigger dog fanbase for the band, but, uh, maybe we're just not playing in the right frequencies. You gotta hit the high frequencies to really get the dogs' attention now. Laurie Anderson did the Concert For Dogs.”
And Devo conducted a cat listening party for Something For Everybody, their 2010 long-player (the band's first studio album in two decades). “You know, ah, Devo's one of my favourite bands so I should know that, but I don't,” Savage admits.
