Parenthetical Girls
A group who have cautiously moved from the bedroom recording studio to the stage, Parenthetical Girls began as an amateur recording project by two longtime friends, rock writer Zac Pennington and part-time musician Jeremy Cooper.
Indulging in a shared fondness for British post-punk, Brian Eno, and Phil Spector, the two began creating eccentric but playful indie rock tunes in 2002 on a lo-fi eight-track recording setup dominated by glockenspiel, a cheap synthesizer, and a guitar that refused to stay in tune. Cooper and Pennington were initially unimpressed with their results and set the tapes aside until Pennington gave some of the material another listen in 2003 and decided to resurrect the project. Pennington handed the original session tapes over to two different musicians he knew and admired -- Jherek Bischoff of the Dead Science and Jamie Stewart of Xiu Xiu -- and asked each to mix the seven selections he'd unearthed. Cooper and Pennington were impressed enough with the results that they decided to release an album of the material; embracing the handle Parenthetical Girls, their self-titled debut featured Bischoff's mixes on the "X" side of a vinyl LP, with Stewart's versions appearing in the same sequence on the other "O" side. A brief tour followed, with Cooper staying home and Pennington joined by Bischoff and Sam Mickens, also of the Dead Science, followed by another road trip featuring Pennington and Mickens. By the time the debut album was reissued on CD in 2006, Cooper had dropped out of active service within the Parenthetical Girls, and the second album from the "group," Safe as Houses, was primarily created by Pennington and Bischoff, and released in mid-2006.
The band's lineup finally solidified around Pennington and multi-instrumentalists Matt Carlson, Eddy Crichton, and Rachael Jensen, with Bischoff continuing as a studio collaborator. This version of the group collaborated with 25 classically trained musicians on Parenthetical Girls' third album, Entanglements, which took their music in an ambitious, orchestral direction. Tomlab released Entanglements in 2008. The mini-album The Scottish Play: Wherein the Group Parenthetical Girls Pay Well-intentioned (If Occasionally Misguided) Tribute to the Works of Ivor Cutler appeared the following year. The band then embarked on an even more ambitious project, releasing a series of limited-edition EPs, each featuring the likeness of one of the group's members on the cover, over the course of 15 months. Selections from each EP became their fourth full-length album, 2013's Privilege (Abridged).
© Mark Deming /TiVo
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Discography
15 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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A Song For Ellie Greenwich
Alternative & Indie - Released by Tomlab on Aug 19, 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Entanglements
Alternative & Indie - Released by Tomlab on Sep 9, 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Privilege
Pop - Released by Slender Means Society on Aug 13, 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
(((GRRRLS)))
Alternative & Indie - Released by Slender Means Society on Apr 27, 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Privilege
Pop - Released by Slender Means Society on Aug 13, 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Entanglements
Pop - Released by Slender Means Society on Sep 9, 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Privilege, Pt. V: Portrait of a Reputation
Alternative & Indie - Released by Slender Means Society on Sep 11, 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Scottish Play: Wherein the Group Parenthetical Girls Pay Well-intentioned (If Occasionally Misguided) Tribute To the Works of Ivor Cutler
Pop - Released by Slender Means Society on Oct 20, 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Christmas Creep - Single
Alternative & Indie - Released by Slender Means Society on Dec 15, 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Privilege Pt. II: The Past, Imperfect
Alternative & Indie - Released by Slender Means Society on Sep 21, 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Privilege, Pt. III: Mend & Make Do
Alternative & Indie - Released by Slender Means Society on Mar 22, 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Privilege, Pt. 1: On Death & Endearments - EP
Alternative & Indie - Released by Slender Means Society on Feb 23, 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Scottish Play: Wherein the Group Parenthetical Girls Pay Well-intentioned (if Occasionally Misguided) Tribute To the Works of Ivor Cutler
Alternative & Indie - Released by Tomlab on Oct 20, 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Song For Ellie Greenwich
Pop - Released by Slender Means Society on Sep 9, 2008
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Privilege, Pt. IV: Sympathy For Spastics
Pop - Released by Slender Means Society on Nov 1, 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo