Light Up Gold

When Parquet Courts released their debut, Light Up Gold, on their own label last August, it was slept on for the most part. But it appears enough ears perked up for the record to get a re-release this year on New York imprint What’s Your Rupture? This New York City by way of Texas four-piece plays it fast and loose, swishing around molecules of bands like Pavement, Wire and Telephone Free Landslide Victory-era Camper Van Beethoven and spitting them into their own two-minute jams. Tangled guitars bend in and out of tune, and Austin Brown and Andrew Savage’s tongue-twister vocals flail in and out of key, even in unison on the slack-tacular “N. Dakota.” Parquet Courts’ ramshackle approach is countered with razor-sharp lyrics that are often blurted out in wordy, deadpan eruptions (“Socrates died in the fucking gutter!” they tell us on opener “Master of My Craft”). Light Up Gold sounds like the work of a thinking band that doesn’t over think it (which, you know, sucks out all the feeling). And with that I’m going to make this bold proclamation without even thinking twice: Light Up Gold is the most fun rock record you’re gonna hear in 2013. You see? That felt good.